Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jan 31, 2026

Reducing State Anxiety Using Working Memory Maintenance
Published on: July 19, 2017
Spatial complexity of brain signal is altered in patients with generalized anxiety disorder
Yifeng Wang1, Xinqi Wang1, Liangkai Ye1
1The Clinical Hospital of Chengdu Brain Science Institute, MOE Key Lab for Neuroinformation, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu 611731, China; School of Life Science and Technology, Center for Information in Medicine, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, China.
Background:
Is it healthy to be chaotic? Recent studies have argued that mental disorders are associated with more orderly neural activities, corresponding to a less flexible functional system. These conclusions were derived from altered temporal complexity. However, the relationship between spatial complexity and health is unknown, although spatial configuration is of importance for normal brain function.
Methods:
Based on resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging data, we used Sample entropy (SampEn) to evaluate the altered spatial complexity in patients with generalized anxiety disorder (GAD; n = 47) compared to healthy controls (HCs; n = 38) and the relationship between spatial complexity and anxiety level.
Results:
Converging results showed increased spatial complexity in patients with GAD, indicating more chaotic spatial configuration. Interestingly, inverted-U relationship was revealed between spatial complexity and anxiety level, suggesting complex relationship between health and the chaos of human brain.
Limitations:
Anxiety-related alteration of spatial complexity should be verified at voxel level in a larger sample and compared with results of other indices to clarify the mechanism of spatial chaotic of anxiety.
Conclusions:
Altered spatial complexity in the brain of GAD patients mirrors inverted-U relationship between anxiety and behavioral performance, which may reflect an important characteristic of anxiety. These results indicate that SampEn is a good reflection of human health or trait mental characteristic.
Related Concept Videos
Generalized Anxiety Disorder
Social Anxiety Disorder
Assembly of Signaling Complexes
Interaction domains in cell signaling
Interaction domains recognize exposed features of their binding partners containing post-translationally modified sequences,...
Generalized Hooke's Law
Anxiety: Overview
Individuals with anxiety often experience a range of physical and emotional symptoms, including sweating, trembling, tachycardia, and disturbances in sleep patterns. These symptoms vary in intensity and frequency but are generally disruptive and distressing.
Social Foundations of Self II: The Generalized Other

