ISRSA Uncovers the Impact of State Anxiety on Brain Activity in the Human Extrastriate Cortex
Poster No:
1966
Submission Type:
Abstract Submission
Authors:
Po-yuan Hsiao1, Minue Kim2,3, Feng-Chun Chou1, Pin-Hao Chen1,4,5
Institutions:
1Department of Psychology, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan, 2Department of Psychology, Sungkyunkwan University, Seoul, Republic of Korea, 3Center for Neuroscience Imaging Research, Institute for Basic Science, Suwon, Republic of Korea, 4Neurobiology and Cognitive Science Center, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan, 5Graduate Institute of Brain and Mind Sciences, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan
First Author:
Co-Author(s):
Minue Kim
Department of Psychology, Sungkyunkwan University|Center for Neuroscience Imaging Research, Institute for Basic Science
Seoul, Republic of Korea|Suwon, Republic of Korea
Department of Psychology, Sungkyunkwan University|Center for Neuroscience Imaging Research, Institute for Basic Science
Seoul, Republic of Korea|Suwon, Republic of Korea
Pin-Hao Chen
Department of Psychology, National Taiwan University|Neurobiology and Cognitive Science Center, National Taiwan University|Graduate Institute of Brain and Mind Sciences, National Taiwan University
Taipei, Taiwan|Taipei, Taiwan|Taipei, Taiwan
Department of Psychology, National Taiwan University|Neurobiology and Cognitive Science Center, National Taiwan University|Graduate Institute of Brain and Mind Sciences, National Taiwan University
Taipei, Taiwan|Taipei, Taiwan|Taipei, Taiwan
Introduction:
Emotions constitute an inherent aspect of human nature, profoundly shaping how we view the world. Among the various emotions we experience on a daily basis, anxiety holds particular significance for our survival (Bishop 2007; Fox and Shackman 2019; Grupe and Nitschke 2013; Hartley and Phelps 2010). The current study used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to examine whether state anxiety modulated brain activity in response to emotionally-charged visual images.
Methods:
Our study recruited 53 participants, and participants were instructed to complete an emotional reactivity task in the MRI scanner. Within this task, participants underwent a block design paradigm consisting of three emotional conditions (i.e., positive, negative, or neutral). After scanning, participants completed the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI; Spielberger and Gonzalez-Reigosa 1971). We then used the intersubject representational similarity analysis (ISRSA) to analyze which brain regions might reveal significant associations between individual variations in state anxiety and neural representations of the three valence conditions.
Results:
Our results showed that the extrastriate cortex, in particular the fusiform gyrus and area MT, was the sole regions whose activity patterns across all three emotional conditions covaried with state anxiety (Figure 1). Importantly, we show that this brain-behavior association is revealed when treating state anxiety data as a multidimensional response pattern, rather than as a single composite score. Our findings suggest that ISRSA using multivariate distances may be more sensitive in identifying the shared geometries between self-report questionnaires and brain imaging data.
Conclusions:
Overall, these findings suggest a possible influence of state anxiety on extrastriate cortical activity, which in turn may shape how we perceive and interpret the world around us. Our data provide a useful starting point for future studies that might aim to experimentally induce anxious states and document the link between extrastriate cortical activity and the perception of emotional scenes.
Disorders of the Nervous System:
Psychiatric (eg. Depression, Anxiety, Schizophrenia) 2
Emotion, Motivation and Social Neuroscience:
Emotional Perception
Modeling and Analysis Methods:
Activation (eg. BOLD task-fMRI)
Multivariate Approaches 1
Keywords:
Anxiety
Data analysis
Emotions
FUNCTIONAL MRI
Multivariate
Other - ISRSA;extrastriate cortex;neural representation
1|2Indicates the priority used for review
Provide references using author date format
Fox, A. S. (2019). The central extended amygdala in fear and anxiety: Closing the gap between mechanistic and neuroimaging research. Neuroscience letters, 693, 58–67.
Grupe, D. W. (2013). Uncertainty and anticipation in anxiety: an integrated neurobiological and psychological perspective. Nature reviews. Neuroscience, 14(7), 488–501.
Hartley, C. A. (2010). Changing fear: the neurocircuitry of emotion regulation. Neuropsychopharmacology: official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology, 35(1), 136–146.
Spielberger, C. D. (1971). The state-trait anxiety inventory. Revista . http://journal.sipsych.org/index.php/IJP/article/view/620