Survival circuits in affective disorders

Young, Katherine S.; Craske, Michelle G.

doi:10.1016/j.cobeha.2018.03.001

Cited by 4 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 45 publications

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“…One possible explanation for the limited effectiveness of current treatments is that mechanisms underlying anxiety disorders are not well understood. Indeed, although the last decades have brought immense new insights into the neurobiological underpinnings of threat-related behaviors 11 and (pathological) anxiety 12 , 13 , this has not yet led to new treatments or an improvement of current treatments for anxiety disorders 14 , 15 . In the case of psychiatric drug development research, animal models are used in preclinical studies to screen for possible new compounds that affect a desired target, e.g., anxiety.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Thigmotaxis in a virtual human open field test

Gromer

Kiser

Pauli

2021

Sci Rep

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Animal models are used to study neurobiological mechanisms in mental disorders. Although there has been significant progress in the understanding of neurobiological underpinnings of threat-related behaviors and anxiety, little progress was made with regard to new or improved treatments for mental disorders. A possible reason for this lack of success is the unknown predictive and cross-species translational validity of animal models used in preclinical studies. Re-translational approaches, therefore, seek to establish cross-species translational validity by identifying behavioral operations shared across species. To this end, we implemented a human open field test in virtual reality and measured behavioral indices derived from animal studies in three experiments ($$\textit{N}=31$$ N = 31 , $$\textit{N}=30$$ N = 30 , and $$\textit{N}=80$$ N = 80 ). In addition, we investigated the associations between anxious traits and such behaviors. Results indicated a strong similarity in behavior across species, i.e., participants in our study—like rodents in animal studies—preferred to stay in the outer region of the open field, as indexed by multiple behavioral parameters. However, correlational analyses did not clearly indicate that these behaviors were a function of anxious traits of participants. We conclude that the realized virtual open field test is able to elicit thigmotaxis and thus demonstrates cross-species validity of this aspect of the test. Modulatory effects of anxiety on human open field behavior should be examined further by incorporating possible threats in the virtual scenario and/or by examining participants with higher anxiety levels or anxiety disorder patients.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Thigmotaxis in a virtual human open field test

Gromer

Kiser

Pauli

2021

Sci Rep

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“…From a mechanistic perspective, anxiety pathologies have been discussed to be associated with dysfunctions in brain systems responsible for defensive responding to threat [1][2][3] . As such, the central characteristic of anxiety disorders is the initiation of exaggerated defensive mobilization at lower intensity and greater distance of threat 4,5 .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Decreased defensive reactivity to interoceptive threat after successful exposure-based psychotherapy in patients with panic disorder

et al. 2021

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Panic disorder (PD) is characterized by a dysfunctional defensive responding to panic-related body symptoms that is assumed to contribute to the persistence of panic symptomatology. The present study aimed at examining whether this dysfunctional defensive reactivity to panic-related body symptoms would no longer be present following successful cognitive behavior therapy (CBT) but would persist when patients show insufficient symptom improvement. Therefore, in the present study, effects of CBT on reported symptoms and defensive response mobilization during interoceptive challenge were investigated using hyperventilation as a respiratory symptom provocation procedure. Changes in defensive mobilization to body symptoms in the course of CBT were investigated in patients with a primary diagnosis of PD with or without agoraphobia by applying a highly standardized hyperventilation task prior to and after a manual-based CBT (n = 38) or a waiting period (wait-list controls: n = 20). Defensive activation was indexed by the potentiation of the amygdala-dependent startle eyeblink response. All patients showed a pronounced defensive response mobilization to body symptoms at baseline. After treatment, no startle reflex potentiation was found in those patients who showed a clinically significant improvement. However, wait-list controls and treatment non-responders continued to show increased defensive responses to actually innocuous body symptoms after the treatment/waiting period. The present results indicate that the elimination of defensive reactivity to actually innocuous body symptoms might be a neurobiological correlate and indicator of successful CBT in patients with PD, which may help to monitor and optimize CBT outcomes.

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