Citation

Price RB, Allen KB, Silk JS, Ladouceur CD, Ryan ND, Dahl RE, Forbes EE, Siegle GJ. Dev. Cogn. Neurosci. 2016; 19: 128-136.

Affiliation

Department of Psychiatry, University of Pittsburgh, 3811 O'Hara St., Pittsburgh, PA 15213, USA.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2016, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/j.dcn.2016.03.001

PMID

27010577

Abstract

Vigilance and avoidance of threat are observed in anxious adults during laboratory tasks, and are posited to have real-world clinical relevance, but data are mixed in anxious youth. We propose that vigilance-avoidance patterns will become evident in anxious youth through a focus on individual differences and real-world strategic avoidance. Decreased functional connectivity between the amygdala and prefrontal cortex (PFC) could play a mechanistic role in this link. 78 clinically anxious youth completed a dot-probe task to assess vigilance to threat while undergoing fMRI. Real-world avoidance was assessed using Ecological Momentary Assessment (EMA) of self-reported suppression and distraction during negative life events. Vigilance toward threat was positively associated with EMA distraction and suppression. Functional connectivity between a right amygdala seed region and dorsomedial and right dorsolateral PFC regions was inversely related to EMA distraction. Dorsolateral PFC-amygdalar connectivity statistically mediated the relationship between attentional vigilance and real-world distraction.

FINDINGS suggest anxious youth showing attentional vigilance toward threat are more likely to use suppression and distraction to regulate negative emotions. Reduced PFC control over limbic reactivity is a possible neural substrate of this pattern. These findings lend ecological validity to laboratory vigilance assessments and suggest PFC-amygdalar connectivity is a neural mechanism bridging laboratory and naturalistic contexts.

Copyright © 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.

Language: en