Researchers discovered that anxious individuals utilize a less optimal region of the forebrain when navigating socially challenging situations compared to their non-anxious counterparts. This was determined through brain scans that mapped regions active during simulated social scenarios.
Anxiety and the Brain: The Forebrain’s Role in Social Decisions Unveiled Read More »
Background
Gray matter morphometry studies have lent seminal insights into the etiology of mental illness. Existing research has primarily focused on adults and then, typically on a single disorder. Examining brain characteristics in late childhood, when the brain is preparing to undergo significant adolescent reorganization and various forms of serious psychopathology are just first emerging, may allow for a unique and highly important perspective of overlapping and unique pathogenesis.
Methods
A total of 8645 youth were recruited as part of the Adolescent Brain and Cognitive Development study. Magnetic resonance imaging scans were collected, and psychotic-like experiences (PLEs), depressive, and anxiety symptoms were assessed three times over a 2-year period. Cortical thickness, surface area, and subcortical volume were used to predict baseline symptomatology and symptom progression over time.
Results
Some features could possibly signal common vulnerability, predicting progression across forms of psychopathology (e.g. superior frontal and middle temporal regions). However, there was a specific predictive value for emerging PLEs (lateral occipital and precentral thickness), anxiety (parietal thickness/area and cingulate), and depression (e.g. parahippocampal and inferior temporal).
Conclusion
Findings indicate common and distinct patterns of vulnerability for varying forms of psychopathology are present during late childhood, before the adolescent reorganization, and have direct relevance for informing novel conceptual models along with early prevention and intervention efforts.
Neurotransmitters play an important role in transmitting information between neurons across the synaptic cleft. Various regions and pathways in the brain use different patterns of neurotransmitters and different receptor subclasses, which helps to identify the role specific neurotransmitters play in various psychiatric conditions in neuroimaging studies and can also make medication more specific. Neurotransmitters are
