Intrinsic Network Brain Dysfunction Correlates With Temporal Complexity in Generalized Anxiety Disorder and Panic...

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Psychiatry
• Medical Imaging

Background:

• Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) and panic disorder (PD) are severe anxiety disorders (ADs) with overlapping clinical features, pathogenesis, and treatments.
• Previous research assumed static brain connectivity, but dynamic functional connectivity (DFC) may offer insights into cognitive and behavioral patterns and serve as disease biomarkers.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate dynamic functional connectivity (DFC) differences in patients with GAD and PD compared to healthy controls (HCs).
• To explore the potential of DFC as a biomarker for anxiety disorders.

Main Methods:

• Resting-state functional MRI (fMRI) data were acquired from 26 GAD patients, 22 PD patients, and 26 HCs.
• Group spatial independent component analysis, a sliding window approach, and k-means clustering were used to analyze DFC.
• Statistical analysis of temporal properties and connection strengths of DFC states was performed.

Main Results:

• Two distinct connectivity states were identified: a segregated State I and an integrated State II.
• GAD and PD patients, compared to HCs, spent more time in the segregated State I and less time in the integrated State II.
• Alterations in DFC were observed in default mode (DM), executive control (EC), and salience (SA) networks, particularly between SA and DM networks, with no significant differences between GAD and PD groups.

Conclusions:

• GAD and PD share common, less specific neurophysiological alterations in DFC.
• These findings suggest similar state-dependent neural mechanisms underlying GAD and PD.
• Understanding these DFC patterns may improve insights into abnormal affective and cognitive functions in anxiety disorders.