Surface Morphology of Amygdala Is Associated with Trait Anxiety

Abstract

Previous neuroimaging studies have suggested a role of amygdala in trait anxiety level, in which amygdala was typically treated as a whole. To date, it remains unknown whether the morphology of specific subregions of amygdala are associated with trait anxiety. Here, we employed a shape analysis approach to locate the association between its morphology and trait anxiety on the surface of amygdala. 24 healthy young participants were included. The boundary of amygdala for each subject was first manually outlined using high-resolution magnetic resonance (MR) image, followed by 3D surface reconstruction and parameterization using spherical harmonic description. Two point-wise metrics, direct displacement between the individual surface and atlas surface and its normal projection, were used to quantify the surface morphology of amygdala. Statistical analysis revealed significant correlations between the two surface metrics and trait anxiety levels, which were located around the lateral and central nucleus of right amygdala. Our results provided localized information for the association between amygdala and trait anxiety, and suggested a central role of the lateral and central nucleus of right amygdala on trait anxiety.

Threat Assessment and Locomotion: Clinical Applications of an Integrated Model of Anxiety and Postural Control

“…64 Posteriorly, output from the vestibuloparabrachial network 34 and amygdala-locus coeruleus pathways converge on brainstem autonomic centers. 62 Trait anxiety has been linked to the size and shape of the amygdala, 65,66 but its full expression of behavioral, psychophysiologic, and autonomic responses depend on connections with prefrontal cortex and autonomic nuclei. 36 Serotonergic and nonserotonergic projections from the dorsal raphe nucleus (not shown) to the vestibuloparabrachial network facilitate a tradeoff between instinctive motor activation and responsiveness to sensory inputs (i.e., movement versus information gathering).…”

5-HTTLPR, anxiety and gender interaction moderates right amygdala volume in healthy subjects

“…This hemispheric lateralization is novel and therefore it has to be interpreted with caution since no studies so far investigated the structural lateralization of the amygdala in relation to gender effects in anxiety and serotonin functions. A recent study by Li 5-HTTLPR, anxiety and gender impact on brain anatomy SCAN (2014) and colleagues (Li et al, 2012) found that the significant association between surface metrics of the amygdala and trait anxiety levels was confined to the right lateral and central nuclei, thus supporting the notion that right amygdala is in charge of reacting to negative emotion inputs. There are also studies that, investigating the biological abnormalities concomitant with impulsivity/self-aggression, described the presence of increased right amygdala volume (Spoletini et al, 2011) more evident in females (Monkul et al, 2007).…”

“…In fact, anxiety-related behaviours are forms of risk assessment behaviours that are associated with a level of uncertainty or unpredictability regarding the outcome of emotionally salient events, often when both rewarding and aversive outcomes are possible. It has been proposed that these behaviours are fundamentally regulated by activity of the amygdala (Jennings et al, 2013), especially in the right side (Li et al, 2012).…”

190. Social Cognition in Early Schizophrenia: Exploratory Factor Analysis and Subcortical Biomarkers

“…Shape provides a significant advantage to other measures, such as volume, in that shape provides a greater acuity to detect discrete difference, thus allowing for greater discrimination (S. Li et al, 2012). This is due to the fact that while most volumetric analyses of subcortical structures look at the entire structure, shape provides an advantage in its vertex-wise approach (Voineskos et al, 2015).…”