title: Who gets afraid in the MRI-scanner? Neurogenetics of state-anxiety changes during an fMRI experiment.
abstract: Experiments using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) play a fundamental role in affective neuroscience. When placed in an MR scanner, some volunteers feel safe and relaxed in this situation, while others experience uneasiness and fear. Little is known about the basis and consequences of such inter-individually different responses to the general experimental fMRI setting. In this study emotional stimuli were presented during fMRI and subjects' state-anxiety was assessed at the onset and end of the experiment while they were within the scanner. We show that Val/Val but neither Met/Met nor Val/Met carriers of the catechol-O-methyltransferase (COMT) Val(158)Met polymorphism-a prime candidate for anxiety vulnerability-became significantly more anxious during the fMRI experiment (N=97 females: 24 Val/Val, 51 Val/Met, and 22 Met/Met). Met carriers demonstrated brain responses with increased stability over time in the right parietal cortex and significantly better cognitive performances likely mediated by lower levels of anxiety. Val/Val, Val/Met and Met/Met did not significantly differ in state-anxiety at the beginning of the experiment. The exposure of a control group (N=56 females) to the same experiment outside the scanner did not cause a significant increase in state-anxiety, suggesting that the increase we observe in the fMRI experiment may be specific to the fMRI setting. Our findings reveal that genetics may play an important role in shaping inter-individual different emotional, cognitive and neuronal responses during fMRI experiments.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Division of Clinical Psychology and Epidemiology, University of Basel, Switzerland. Electronic address: isabella.mutschler@unibas.ch.
authors.forename: Isabella
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Mutschler
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Division of Clinical Psychology and Epidemiology, University of Basel, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Birgit
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Wieckhorst
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Division of Clinical Psychology and Epidemiology, University of Basel, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Andrea H
authors.initials: AH
authors.lastname: Meyer
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Division of Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, University of Freiburg, Germany.
authors.forename: Tina
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Schweizer
authors.affiliation: MR-Physics, University Hospital Basel, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Markus
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Klarhöfer
authors.affiliation: Division of Clinical Psychology, Psychotherapy, and Health Psychology, Department of Psychology, University of Salzburg, Austria.
authors.forename: Frank H
authors.initials: FH
authors.lastname: Wilhelm
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics Psychiatric Hospital, University of Zurich, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Erich
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Seifritz
authors.affiliation: Intracranial EEG and Functional Imaging Lab, Epilepsy Center, University Medical Center Freiburg, Germany.
authors.forename: Tonio
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Ball
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001007:Anxiety / Q000235:genetics* / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000523:psychology; D001921:Brain / Q000503:physiopathology; D001931:Brain Mapping; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D002394:Catechol O-Methyltransferase / Q000235:genetics*; D005260:Female; D056726:Genetic Association Studies; D005838:Genotype; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000523:psychology*; D011110:Polymorphism, Genetic; D055815:Young Adult
chemical_list: C588010:COMT protein, human; D002394:Catechol O-Methyltransferase
keywords: Anxiety; COMT polymorphism; Functional MRI; Habituation; Imaging genetics