Specificity of regional brain activity in anxiety types during emotion processing.
The present study tested the hypothesis that anxious apprehension involves more left- than right-hemisphere activity and that anxious arousal is associated with the opposite pattern. Behavioral and fMRI responses to threat stimuli in an emotional Stroop task were examined in nonpatient groups reporting anxious apprehension, anxious arousal, or neither. Reaction times were longer for negative than for neutral words. As predicted, brain activation distinguished anxious groups in a left inferior frontal region associated with speech production and in a right-hemisphere inferior temporal area. Addressing a second hypothesis about left-frontal involvement in emotion, distinct left frontal regions were associated with anxious apprehension versus processing of positive information. Results support the proposed distinction between the two types of anxiety and resolve an inconsistency about the role of left-frontal activation in emotion and psychopathology.
Engels
Anna S
AS
Department of Psychology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 603 E. Daniel Street, Champaign, IL 61820, USA.
Heller
Wendy
W
Mohanty
Aprajita
A
Herrington
John D
JD
Banich
Marie T
MT
Webb
Andrew G
AG
Miller
Gregory A
GA
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001007:Anxiety / Q000503:physiopathology*; D001143:Arousal / Q000502:physiology*; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology; D001931:Brain Mapping; D002540:Cerebral Cortex / Q000503:physiopathology*; D003118:Color Perception / Q000502:physiology; D004193:Discrimination Learning; D004292:Dominance, Cerebral / Q000502:physiology*; D004644:Emotions / Q000502:physiology; D005260:Female; D005625:Frontal Lobe / Q000503:physiopathology; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D010296:Parietal Lobe / Q000503:physiopathology; D010555:Personality Inventory; D011932:Reading; D012660:Semantics; D013702:Temporal Lobe / Q000503:physiopathology