Functional Neuroimaging in Anxiety and Fear

描述：（由申请人提供）具有研究焦虑，恐惧和抑郁的电生理和神经心理学测量的背景，候选人现在积极地转向这些情感现象的功能神经成像。因此，培训计划侧重于功能神经解剖学和功能磁共振成像方法。该提案中提出的神经生物学区分焦虑中的预期和反应过程的直接目标是直接服务于他的长期目标，即利用神经科学研究来告知焦虑、恐惧和抑郁病理的概念化，并有助于减轻与此类精神病理学相关的痛苦和社会责任。

DESCRIPTION: (provided by applicant) With a background in electrophysiological and neuropsychological measures for the study of anxiety, fear, and depression, the candidate is now actively moving into functional neuroimaging of these affective phenomena. Thus, the training plan focuses on functional neuroanatomy and fMRI methodology. The immediate objective of neurobiologically distinguishing anticipatory and reactivity processes in anxiety put forward in this proposal is in direct service of his long-term goals of using neuroscience research to inform the conceptualization of anxiety, fear, and depression pathology and to contribute to the mitigation of the suffering and social liability associated with such psychopathology. A continuing dilemma in the field is the ambiguous use of constructs such as anxiety and fear. Anxiety is often employed as a unitary construct encompassing a variety of affective phenomena, including worry, fear, phobias, obsessions, and post-traumatic stress. Rather than to defend a particular definition on logical grounds, this proposal attempts to isolate anticipatory and reactivity processes as constituent subcomponents of anxiety that are firmly rooted in experimental operationalization. The 4 proposed fMRT Experiments are designed to interrogate the neural circuitry governing the anticipation of and reactivity to aversive and phobic pictures, including 4 target structures: ventral anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), orbital frontal cortex (OFC), medial prefrontal cortex (PFC), and insula. The ventral ACC is hypothesized to be relatively specific to anticipation of negative future outcomes, due to its involvement in response conflict. Based on their respective roles in the regulation, evaluation, and autonomic control of emotion, different areas of the medial PFC, OFC, and insula are hypothesized to be activated during anticipation of and reactivity to aversive/phobic stimuli. Replication of amygdala activation to the pictures is also expected, but the focus here is on the 4 less studied structures of this circuitry. In particular, the proposed research will attempt to fill in two gaps in existing knowledge: 1) the circuitry governing anticipation of aversive pictures and 2) the impact of anxiety disorders on brain structures mediating the anticipation of aversive and phobic stimuli. The research facilities available in this laboratory and the stimulation provided by faculty, scientists, postdoctoral fellows, students, and staff are ideally suited for the proposed studies and the candidate?s development.