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Anxious individuals shift emotion control from lateral frontal pole to dorsolateral prefrontal cortex
Bob Bramson1,2, Sjoerd Meijer3, Annelies van Nuland3
1Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behavior, Centre for Cognitive Neuroimaging, Radboud University Nijmegen, 6525 EN, Nijmegen, The Netherlands. bob.bramson@donders.ru.nl.
Nature Communications
|August 12, 2023
Summary
Highly anxious individuals struggle with emotional control due to an overexcitable lateral frontopolar cortex (FPl). This neural bottleneck impairs emotional action regulation, hindering learning and increasing avoidance behaviors.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Psychiatry
- Cognitive Science
Background:
- Anxiety is characterized by impaired emotional behavior control and avoidance.
- The lateral frontopolar cortex (FPl) is implicated in coordinating emotional actions via amygdala and sensorimotor pathways.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the neural mechanisms underlying emotional action control deficits in highly anxious individuals.
- To examine the role of the lateral frontopolar cortex (FPl) in anxiety-related behavioral dysregulation.
Main Methods:
- Utilized structural, functional, and neurochemical imaging techniques.
- Assessed GABA/glutamate ratios and amygdalofugal projections in participants.
- Analyzed functional brain recruitment patterns during emotional action control tasks.
Main Results:
- Highly anxious individuals exhibit overexcitable FPl, indicated by altered GABA/glutamate ratios.
- Stronger amygdalofugal projections were observed in anxious participants.
- Anxious individuals failed to recruit FPl, instead utilizing alternative prefrontal areas, proportional to FPl excitability.
Conclusions:
- Anxiety is associated with circuit-level vulnerabilities in FPl-mediated emotional action control.
- FPl neural range saturation under mild emotional challenge creates a bottleneck, impairing action control and promoting avoidance.
- Findings offer insights into the neural basis of anxiety and potential therapeutic targets.
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