title: Reduced optimism and a heightened neural response to everyday worries are specific to generalized anxiety disorder, and not seen in social anxiety.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) and social anxiety disorder (SAD) are co-morbid and associated with similar neural disruptions during emotion regulation. In contrast, the lack of optimism examined here may be specific to GAD and could prove an important biomarker for that disorder.
  
  
  METHODS
  Unmedicated individuals with GAD (n = 18) and age-, intelligence quotient- and gender-matched SAD (n = 18) and healthy (n = 18) comparison individuals were scanned while contemplating likelihoods of high- and low-impact negative (e.g. heart attack; heartburn) or positive (e.g. winning lottery; hug) events occurring to themselves in the future.
  
  
  RESULTS
  As expected, healthy subjects showed significant optimistic bias (OB); they considered themselves significantly less likely to experience future negative but significantly more likely to experience future positive events relative to others (p < 0.001). This was also seen in SAD, albeit at trend level for positive events (p < 0.001 and p < 0.10, respectively). However, GAD patients showed no OB for positive events (t 17 = 0.82, n.s.) and showed significantly reduced neural modulation relative to the two other groups of regions including the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) and caudate to these events (p < 0.001 for all). The GAD group further differed from the other groups by showing increased neural responses to low-impact events in regions including the rostral mPFC (p < 0.05 for both).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The neural dysfunction identified here may represent a unique feature associated with reduced optimism and increased worry about everyday events in GAD. Consistent with this possibility, patients with SAD did not show such dysfunction. Future studies should consider if this dysfunction represents a biomarker for GAD.
authors.affiliation: Department of Health and Human Services,National Institute of Mental Health, National Institutes of Health,Bethesda, MD,USA.
authors.forename: K S
authors.initials: KS
authors.lastname: Blair
authors.affiliation: Department of Health and Human Services,National Institute of Mental Health, National Institutes of Health,Bethesda, MD,USA.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Otero
authors.affiliation: Department of Health and Human Services,National Institute of Mental Health, National Institutes of Health,Bethesda, MD,USA.
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Teng
authors.affiliation: Department of Health and Human Services,National Institute of Mental Health, National Institutes of Health,Bethesda, MD,USA.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Geraci
authors.affiliation: Department of Health and Human Services,National Institute of Mental Health, National Institutes of Health,Bethesda, MD,USA.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ernst
authors.affiliation: Department of Health and Human Services,National Institute of Mental Health, National Institutes of Health,Bethesda, MD,USA.
authors.forename: R J R
authors.initials: RJR
authors.lastname: Blair
authors.affiliation: Department of Health and Human Services,National Institute of Mental Health, National Institutes of Health,Bethesda, MD,USA.
authors.forename: D S
authors.initials: DS
authors.lastname: Pine
authors.affiliation: Department of Health and Human Services,National Institute of Mental Health, National Institutes of Health,Bethesda, MD,USA.
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Grillon
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001007:Anxiety / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000523:psychology; D001008:Anxiety Disorders / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000523:psychology; D002421:Caudate Nucleus / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000503:physiopathology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D000067656:Optimism / Q000523:psychology; D000072861:Phobia, Social / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000523:psychology; D017397:Prefrontal Cortex / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000503:physiopathology*; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Functional magnetic resonance imaging; generalized anxiety disorder; medial prefrontal cortex; social anxiety disorder; worry