NEUROBEHAVIORAL CORRELATES OF ANXIETY DISORDERS: A CROSS-DISCIPLINARY INVESTIGATION

Abstract

One of the most popular mental health disorders is anxiety disorders. They have a huge impact on how individuals live and the level at which they perform their activities in day to day life.  The proposed project aims to explore the neurobehavioural basis of the anxiety disorders through a multidisciplinary method, i.e. neuroimaging, behavioural assessments and genetic examination.  We used a sample of people with generalised anxiety disorder (GAD), social anxiety disorder (SAD) and panic disorder (PD) to conduct a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to determine the brain activity patterns associated with anxiety stimuli.  In addition, the assessments of behavioural reactions were performed based on the Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI) and the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI), with genetic effects being examined through DNA sequencing, with a focus on the genes related to the control of neurotransmitters.  These findings showed the continuation of changes in the amygdala, prefrontal cortex, and insular regions, which were characterised by heightened activity to threat-related stimuli.  In addition, behavioural evidence portrayed a massive connection between neural pertinence and the severity of anxiety symptoms, specifying that there was a hereditary inclination to altered neurobehavioural responses in anxiety disorders.  This paper contributes to a better understanding of the brain-behavior relationship during the anxiety condition, which allows developing specific therapy approaches to use neurobiological and genetic knowledge.