The Overlap Between Fear and Anxiety Brain Circuits (IMAGE)
Caption
Both certain and uncertain anticipation recruited a common network of core brain regions, including the Amygdala and BNST (depicted in red in the left column and bottom row). Magenta rings provide magnified views of the core BNST and Amygdala regions. Across a variety of head-to-head tests, the BNST and Amygdala showed statistically indistinguishable responses, as illustrated in the central panel. Each of the black dots represents an index of threat reactivity for 1 of the 99 research participants. Mean threat reactivity is indicated by the thick horizontal bars. Inset ring plot (top-right) indicates the percentage of individuals showing greater reactivity in the BNST compared to the Amygdala. A value of 50% indicates that participants were just as likely to show greater reactivity in one region compared to the other (i.e. a 50/50 toss-up). Taken together, these new observations underscore the need to reconsider widely accepted neuroscientific models of fear and anxiety.
Credit
Hur et al., JNeurosci 2020
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