Functional Neuroimaging in Anxiety and Fear

产品说明：（由申请人提供）具有焦虑，恐惧和抑郁研究的电生理学和神经心理学测量的背景，候选人现在正在积极进入这些情感现象的功能神经成像。因此，培训计划的重点是功能神经解剖学和功能磁共振成像方法。在这个提议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，恐惧和抑郁病理学的概念化，并有助于减轻与这种精神病理学相关的痛苦和社会责任。 该领域持续存在的一个困境是对焦虑和恐惧等结构的模糊使用。焦虑通常被用作一个单一的结构，包括各种情感现象，包括担心，恐惧，恐惧症，强迫症和创伤后应激。这个建议不是为了在逻辑上捍卫一个特定的定义，而是试图将预期过程和反应过程分离出来，作为焦虑的组成子成分，这些子成分牢固地植根于 实验操作化4个fMRT实验被设计来询问控制对厌恶和恐惧图片的预期和反应的神经回路，包括4个目标结构：腹侧前扣带皮层（ACC）、眶额皮层（OFC）、内侧前额叶皮层（PFC）和前额叶皮层。腹侧ACC被假设为 相对具体的预期负面的未来结果，由于其参与反应冲突。基于它们各自在情绪调节、评价和自主控制中的作用，内侧PFC、OFC和EFL的不同区域被假设在对厌恶/恐惧刺激的预期和反应期间被激活。杏仁核激活的复制图片也是可以预期的，但这里的重点是对这个电路的4个较少研究的结构。特别是，拟议的研究将试图填补现有知识中的两个空白：1）控制厌恶图片预期的电路和2） 焦虑症对大脑结构的影响，调节对厌恶和恐惧刺激的预期。 该实验室的研究设施和教师，科学家，博士后研究员，学生和工作人员提供的刺激非常适合拟议的研究和候选人？的发展。

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.