Generalized Anxiety Disorder and Social Anxiety Disorder

有人认为，焦虑症患者的杏仁核活动阈值低于健康人。然而，尽管它的直接可验证性，有相对较少的测试这一假设。具体来说，很少有关于焦虑症患者在已知涉及杏仁核的措施上的表现的探索。 虽然广泛性焦虑症（GAD）和社交焦虑症（SAD）的高共发病率使问题复杂化，但这些疾病双重分离的事实表明，它们是由于可分离的神经认知系统中的功能障碍活动。我们认为，杏仁核过度反应假说更可能与广泛性焦虑症的解释有关。相比之下，SAD可能是由于系统中对社会威胁做出反应并招募外侧眶额叶皮层的单位的激活阈值降低。因此，目前的项目将确定GAD和SAD患者在杏仁核已知发挥作用的措施以及招募外侧眶额叶皮层和社会反应逆转系统的措施上的表现。此外，两项拟议的神经成像研究将直接评估两个患者人群中这两个系统的神经反应。该项目旨在提供明确的数据，为未来关于这两种疾病所涉及的病理学理论提供信息。

There have been suggestions that the threshold for amygdala activity is lower in individuals with anxiety disorders than in healthy individuals. However, despite its immediate plausibility, there have been relatively few tests of this hypothesis. Specifically, there have been very few explorations of the performance of patients with anxiety disorders on measures known to implicate the amygdala. Although the high co-morbidity of Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD) and Social Anxiety Disorder (SAD) complicates the issue, the fact that the disorders doubly dissociate suggests that they are due to dysfunctional activity in separable neuro-cognitive systems. We would suggest that the hyper-responsive amygdala hypothesis is more likely to be linked to the explanation of GAD. In contrast, SAD may be due to reduced activation thresholds for units in a system that responds to social threat and which recruits lateral orbital frontal cortex. Thus, the current project will determine the performance of patients with GAD and SAD on measures in which the amygdala is known to play a role and also in measures that recruit lateral orbital frontal cortex and the system for social response reversal. In addition, two proposed neuro-imaging studies will directly assess neural responses in these two systems in both patient populations. The project aims to provide clear data that will inform future theorizing on the pathology implicated in these two disorders.