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Gepubliceerd in: Cognitive Therapy and Research 4/2021

23-01-2021 | Original Article

What’s in a Face? Amygdalar Sensitivity to an Emotional Threatening Faces Task and Transdiagnostic Internalizing Disorder Symptoms in Participants Receiving Attention Bias Modification Training

Auteurs: Manivel Rengasamy, Mary Woody, Tessa Kovats, Greg Siegle, Rebecca B. Price

Gepubliceerd in: Cognitive Therapy and Research | Uitgave 4/2021

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Abstract

Background

Altered amygdala activation in response to the emotional matching faces (EMF) task, a task thought to reflect implicit emotion detection and reactivity, has been found in some patients with internalizing disorders; mixed findings from the EMF suggest individual differences (within and/or across diagnoses) that may be important to consider. Attention Bias Modification (ABM), a mechanistic attention-targeting intervention, has demonstrated efficacy in treatment of internalizing disorders. Individual differences in neural activation to a relatively attention-independent task, such as the EMF, could reveal novel neural substrates relevant in ABM’s transdiagnostic effects, such as the brain’s generalized threat reactivity capacity.

Methods

In a sample of clinically anxious patients randomized to ABM (n = 43) or sham training (n = 18), we measured fMRI activation patterns during the EMF and related them to measures of transdiagnostic internalizing symptoms (i.e., anxious arousal, general distress, anhedonic depression, and general depressive symptoms).

Results

Lower baseline right amygdala activation to negative (fearful/angry) faces, relative to shapes, predicted greater pre-to-post reduction in general depression symptoms in ABM-randomized patients. Greater increases in bilateral amygdalae activation from pre-to-post ABM were associated with greater reductions in general distress, anhedonic depression, and general depression symptoms.

Conclusions

ABM may lead to greater improvement in depressive symptoms in individuals exhibiting blunted baseline amygdalar responses to the EMF task, potentially by enhancing neural-level discrimination between negative and unambiguously neutral stimuli. Convergently, longitudinal increases in amygdala reactivity from pre-to-post-ABM may be associated with greater improvement in depression, possibly secondary to improved neural discrimination of threat and/or decreased neurophysiological threat avoidance in these specific patients.
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Metagegevens
Titel
What’s in a Face? Amygdalar Sensitivity to an Emotional Threatening Faces Task and Transdiagnostic Internalizing Disorder Symptoms in Participants Receiving Attention Bias Modification Training
Auteurs
Manivel Rengasamy
Mary Woody
Tessa Kovats
Greg Siegle
Rebecca B. Price
Publicatiedatum
23-01-2021
Uitgeverij
Springer US
Gepubliceerd in
Cognitive Therapy and Research / Uitgave 4/2021
Print ISSN: 0147-5916
Elektronisch ISSN: 1573-2819
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10608-021-10205-9

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