THE ROLE OF THE BED NUCLEUS OF THE STRIA TERMINALIS IN GENERALIZED ANXIETY

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This subproject is one of many research subprojects utilizing the resources provided by a Center grant funded by NIH/NCRR. The subproject and investigator (PI) may have received primary funding from another NIH source, and thus could be represented in other CRISP entries. The institution listed is for the Center, which is not necessarily the institution for the investigator. Anxiety is complex set of reactions that include heightened arousal, muscular and autonomic responses, and shifts in attention, learning, and cognitive processing to cues indicating potential danger. Anxiety responses differ depending on the severity of the threat, its duration, and complexity. The aim of the study is to examine the neurobiology of anxiety induced by uncertainty in normal individuals without anxiety disorders and in patients with generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) using fMRI. Although fMRI studies have been conducted using classical conditioning paradigms, there is limited data on anxiety during tasks that involve uncertainty about the consequences for behavior. This pilot investigation will examine the effects of contingency uncertainty using behavioral performance measures, self-reported anxiety, and fMRI. In particular, uncertainty will be manipulated by altering both the probability of punishment relative to reinforcement, as well as the use of discriminative stimuli to signal changes in contingencies. Differences between anxious and non-anxious subjects as well as differences between conditions with low versus high uncertainty will be examined.