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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Behav. Neurosci.
Sec. Emotion Regulation and Processing
Volume 18 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fnbeh.2024.1498612
This article is part of the Research Topic Neural Correlates of Environmental Thought, Emotion, and Behavior View all articles

Investigation of Functional Connectivity Differences Based on Anxiety Tendencies

Provisionally accepted
Misuzu Oishi Misuzu Oishi *Noriko Sakurai Noriko Sakurai Yuki Kawasaki Yuki Kawasaki Kei Sasaki Kei Sasaki Satoshi Kasai Satoshi Kasai Naoki Kodama Naoki Kodama *
  • Niigata University of Health and Welfare, Niigata, Japan

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Introduction: Anxiety is an emotion necessary for human survival. However, persistent and excessive anxiety can be clinically challenging. Increased anxiety affects daily life and requires early detection and intervention. Therefore, a better understanding of the neural basis of mild anxiety is needed. However, previous studies have focused primarily on resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rs-fMRI) in patients with psychiatric disorders presenting with anxiety. Notably, only a few studies have been conducted on healthy participants, and the relationship between anxiety and functional brain connectivity in the healthy range remains unclear. Therefore, in this study, we aimed to clarify the differences in functional brain connectivity at different degrees of anxiety among healthy participants.Methods: This study included 48 healthy participants with no history of psychiatric disorders. Participants were administered The General Health Questionnaire (GHQ) 60, a psychological test for assessing anxiety, and the Manifest Anxiety Scale (MAS). The participants then underwent rs-fMRI. Based on the results of each psychological test, the participants were classified into normal and anxiety groups, and the functional connectivity between the two groups was compared using a seedto-voxel analysis.Results: Comparison of functional brain connectivity between the normal and anxiety groups classified based on the GHQ60 and MAS revealed differences between brain regions comprising the salience network (SN) in both psychological tests. For the GHQ60, the anxiety group showed reduced connectivity between the right supramarginal gyrus and insular cortex compared with the normal group. However, for the MAS, the anxiety group showed reduced connectivity between the right supramarginal and anterior cingulate cortical gyri compared with the normal group.Conclusion: Functional connectivity within the SN was reduced in the group with higher anxiety when functional brain connectivity at different anxiety levels was examined in healthy participants. This suggests that anxiety is involved in changes in the functional brain connectivity associated with emotional processing and cognitive control.

    Keywords: resting-state functional MRI, functional connectivity, salience network, anterior cingulate cortex, Anterior Insula, Anxiety

    Received: 23 Sep 2024; Accepted: 22 Nov 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Oishi, Sakurai, Kawasaki, Sasaki, Kasai and Kodama. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence:
    Misuzu Oishi, Niigata University of Health and Welfare, Niigata, Japan
    Naoki Kodama, Niigata University of Health and Welfare, Niigata, Japan

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.