How stable is activation in the amygdala and prefrontal cortex in adolescence? A study of emotional face processing across three measurements

Bulk, Bianca G. van den; Koolschijn, P. Cédric M. P.; Meens, Paul H.F.; Lang, Natasja D.J. van; Wee, Nic J.A. van der; Rombouts, Serge A.R.B.; Vermeiren, Robert; Crone, Eveline A.

doi:10.1016/j.dcn.2012.09.005

Cited by 71 publications

(82 citation statements)

References 41 publications

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“…The dot-probe may be a poor task for eliciting reliable amygdala activation; stronger amygdala activation reliability has been detected on different emotion tasks (e.g., Gee et al, 2015; Plichta et al, 2012). However, poor reliability in the current study and elsewhere (e.g., Sauder, et al, 2013; Van Den Bulk et al, 2013) suggests amygdala activation, outside the context of functional connectivity analyses, may represent a problematic biomarker.…”

Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 54%

“…Moreover, across various other task-based indices of activation, divergent reliability estimates emerge in youth (e.g., Koolschijn, Schel, Rooij, Rombouts, & Crone, 2011) and adults (e.g Sauder et al, 2013). For example, intraclass correlation coefficients (ICCs) for PFC activation vary widely across children and adolescents (e.g., ICCs: 0.07 – 0.62, Koolschijn et al, 2011; ICCs: 0.15 – 0.43, Ordaz, Foran, Velanova, & Luna, 2013; ICCs: 0.17 – 0.56, van den Bulk et al, 2013) and adults (e.g., ICCs: 0.37 – 0.66, Koolschijn et al, 2011; ICCs: 0.15 – 0.55, Plichta et al, 2012) with few estimates falling in the “good” (ICCs of 0.6 – 0.74) or “excellent” (ICCs > 0.75) range (Cicchetti, 2001). Estimates of amygdala stability are also quite variable.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Estimates of amygdala stability are also quite variable. Some studies report poor reliability (ICCs < .4) in samples of adults (Sauder, et al, 2013) and youth (van den Bulk et al, 2013), while other studies have reported good amygdala reliability (ICCs > 0.6) in adults (Plichta et al, 2012 ). Of note, the one stability study for the dot-probe task generated reasonable amygdala and PFC reliability in children and adolescents (ICCs: 0.73 – 0.83), but the study is limited by a small sample size (n = 12; Britton et al, 2013).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Behavioral and neural stability of attention bias to threat in healthy adolescents

et al. 2016

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Considerable translational research on anxiety examines attention bias to threat and the efficacy of attention training in reducing symptoms. Imaging research on the stability of brain functions engaged by attention bias tasks could inform such research. Perturbed fronto-amygdala function consistently arises in attention bias research on adolescent anxiety. The current report examines the stability of the activation and functional connectivity of these regions on the dot-probe task. Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) activation and connectivity data were acquired with the dot-probe task in 39 healthy youth (f =18, Mean Age = 13.71 years, SD = 2.31) at two time points, separated by approximately nine weeks. Intraclass-correlations demonstrate good reliability in both neural activation for the ventrolateral PFC and task-specific connectivity for fronto-amygdala circuitry. Behavioral measures showed generally poor test-retest reliability. These findings suggest potential avenues for future brain imaging work by highlighting brain circuitry manifesting stable functioning on the dot-probe attention bias task.

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Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 54%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Behavioral and neural stability of attention bias to threat in healthy adolescents

et al. 2016

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“…We described the adaptations we made in detail previously (van den Bulk et al, 2013). In short, the task consisted of three constrained (questions: “how afraid are you?,” “how happy are you?,” and “how wide is the nose?”) and one unconstrained (passive viewing) attention condition.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Amygdala activation during emotional face processing in adolescents with affective disorders: the role of underlying depression and anxiety symptoms

Bulk

Meens

Lang

et al. 2014

Front. Hum. Neurosci.

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Depressive and anxiety disorders are often first diagnosed during adolescence and it is known that they persist into adulthood. Previous studies often tried to dissociate depressive and anxiety disorders, but high comorbidity makes this difficult and maybe even impossible. The goal of this study was to use neuroimaging to test what the unique contribution is of depression and anxiety symptomatology on emotional processing and amygdala activation, and to compare the results with a healthy control group. We included 25 adolescents with depressive and/or anxiety disorders and 26 healthy adolescents. Participants performed an emotional face processing task while in the MRI scanner. We were particularly interested in the relation between depression/anxiety symptomatology and patterns of amygdala activation. There were no significant differences in activation patterns between the control group and the clinical group on whole brain level and ROI level. However, we found that dimensional scores on an anxiety but not a depression subscale significantly predicted brain activation in the right amygdala when processing fearful, happy and neutral faces. These results suggest that anxiety symptoms are a better predictor for differentiating activation patterns in the amygdala than depression symptoms. Although the current study includes a relatively large sample of treatment naïve adolescents with depression/anxiety disorders, results might be influenced by differences between studies in recruitment strategies or methodology. Future research should include larger samples with a more equal distribution of adolescents with a clinical diagnosis of depression and/or anxiety. To conclude, this study shows that abnormal amygdala responses to emotional faces in depression and anxiety seems to be more dependent on anxiety symptoms than on depression symptoms, and thereby highlights the need for more research to better characterize clinical groups in future studies.

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“…Yet adolescence is a period of protracted neurocognitive maturation of key brain circuits involved in fear regulation, and so anxiety-associated differences are likely to emerge gradually as a perturbation of these age-typical changes. Age-related changes have been observed in emotional processing in general through normal adolescence (Cohen Kadosh et al, 2012;Deeley et al, 2008;Glenn et al, 2012;Moore et al, 2012;Somerville et al, 2011;Van Den Bulk et al, 2013;Vink et al, 2014;Yurgelun-Todd, 2007). With regard to fear learning specifically, studies of rodents suggest greater sensitivity in the acquisition of fear associations during adolescence compared to other developmental stages (Den and Richardson, 2013).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Fear responses to safety cues in anxious adolescents: Preliminary evidence for atypical age-associated trajectories of functional neural circuits

Haddad¹,

Bilderbeck²,

James³

et al. 2015

Journal of Psychiatric Research

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Adolescent anxiety is common and impairing and often persists into adulthood. There is growing evidence that adult anxiety is characterized by abnormal fear responses to threat and safety cues, along with perturbations in fear-related neural circuits. Although some of this work has been extended to adolescents, with promising results, it is not yet clear whether changes in these circuits across developmental age varies between anxious and non-anxious adolescents. Here we used fMRI to examine how age modulates neural responses as adolescents are exposed to threat and safety cues. Participants were 15 anxious and 11 non-anxious adolescents (age 12-17) who completed a fear conditioning paradigm. The paradigm incorporated a threat cue comprising a neutral face which was paired with a fearful, screaming face, a safety cue comprising a different neutral face, and a control stimulus. Across the whole sample, neural activation to the threat cue (relative to the control cue) correlated positively with age in a number of regions, including the dorsal anterior cingulate and bilateral dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (PFC). However, neural activation to the safety cue (relative to the control cue) was modulated differently by age in the two groups: a more positive association between activation and age was observed in the control group compared to the anxious group in various regions including medial and dorsolateral PFC, anterior insula, and amygdala. These findings suggest that maturation of the neural substrates of fear responses to safety cues may be perturbed in anxious adolescents, potentially contributing to the emergence and maintenance of anxiety disorders in adulthood.

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How stable is activation in the amygdala and prefrontal cortex in adolescence? A study of emotional face processing across three measurements

Cited by 71 publications

References 41 publications

Behavioral and neural stability of attention bias to threat in healthy adolescents

Behavioral and neural stability of attention bias to threat in healthy adolescents

Amygdala activation during emotional face processing in adolescents with affective disorders: the role of underlying depression and anxiety symptoms

Fear responses to safety cues in anxious adolescents: Preliminary evidence for atypical age-associated trajectories of functional neural circuits

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