The effect of trait anxiety on risk-taking: Functional coupling between right hippocampus and left insula

Behavioral research has found that trait anxiety is associated with a lower propensity for risk-taking. However, the neural mechanisms underlying this relation are still unknown. To address this question, we employed voxel-based morphometry (VBM) analysis and resting-state functional connectivity (rs-FC) to examine the influence of trait anxiety on risk-taking. We theorized that trait anxiety may affect risk-taking via negative prospection during episodic future thinking, which is known to be mediated by episodic memory systems including the hippocampus. We measured risk-taking using the Balloon Analogue Risk Task (BART) and found that risk-taking in this task was negatively correlated with trait anxiety. The VBM results suggested a positive correlation between trait anxiety and grey matter volumes in the hippocampus, consistent with previous results. Functional connectivity results indicated that functional connectivity between a right hippocampus cortex (RHPC) seed region and left insula (LInsula) was positively correlated with trait anxiety scores but negatively correlated with risk-taking. Critically, mediation analysis showed that trait anxiety played a completely mediating role in the relation between the functional connectivity of RHPC-LInsula and risk-taking. These results suggested that trait anxiety can affect risk-taking via episodic future thinking mechanisms subserved by the hippocampal cortex acting in concert with emotional and motivational control mechanisms subserved by the insular cortex.