White matter integrity in brain networks relevant to anxiety and depression: evidence from the human connectome project dataset

Abstract

Anxiety and depression are associated with altered communication within global brain networks and between these networks and the amygdala. Functional connectivity studies demonstrate an effect of anxiety and depression on four critical brain networks involved in top-down attentional control (fronto-parietal network; FPN), salience detection and error monitoring (cingulo-opercular network; CON), bottom-up stimulus-driven attention (ventral attention network; VAN), and default mode (default mode network; DMN). However, structural evidence on the white matter (WM) connections within these networks and between these networks and the amygdala is lacking. The current study in a large healthy sample (n = 483) observed that higher trait anxiety-depression predicted lower WM integrity in the connections between amygdala and specific regions of the FPN, CON, VAN, and DMN. We discuss the possible consequences of these anatomical alterations for cognitive-affective functioning and underscore the need for further theory-driven research on individual differences in anxiety and depression on brain structure.

Connectome-harmonic decomposition of human brain activity reveals dynamical repertoire re-organization under LSD

“…5g, : p < 10 −15 , k ∈ [1, · · · , 200], after Bonferroni correction). In line with previous studies, highlighting the important role of abnormal DMN connectivity in psychiatric disorders such as depression (53,54), anxiety (53), bipolar disorder (54) and schizophrenia (51,55), as well as in the psychedelic state (10,56). This result suggests that the link between abnormal DMN connectivity and abnormal mental states may involve or even be mediated by altered emotional processing, also supporting previous studies linking DMN to emotional dis-regulation (57).…”

Focal application of accelerated iTBS results in global changes in graph measures

“…The network also clears noisy information, suppresses distraction, and keeps cognitive faculties available for current processing demands (Sadaghiani & D'Esposito, 2015). Abnormalities in this network have been reported for obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) (de Vries et al, 2017), psychosis (Sheffield et al, 2017), and mood and anxiety disorders (de Witte & Mueller, 2016). Of interest, Wu et al (Wu et al, 2016) showed that depression symptom severity was significantly correlated with the connectivity values of this network.…”

“…This network integrates visceral, autonomic, and sensory data to assess the homeostatic relevance or "salience" of internal and external stimuli, and the maintenance of tonic alertness or sustained attention (Sadaghiani & D'Esposito, 2015). Abnormalities in this network have been reported for obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) (de Vries et al, 2017), psychosis (Sheffield et al, 2017), and mood and anxiety disorders (de Witte & Mueller, 2016). Abnormalities in this network have been reported for obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) (de Vries et al, 2017), psychosis (Sheffield et al, 2017), and mood and anxiety disorders (de Witte & Mueller, 2016).…”

Developmental differences in the effect of trait anxiety on neural network structure: A DTI study in adolescents and adults

“…Two other complementary indices of white matter connectivity were calculated: FA and tract volume. To this end, the calculated path was averaged over both directions to optimize tract reliability (Clewett, Bachman, & Mather, 2014) and a relative threshold of 15% of the maximum value was applied to account for individual differences as well as be stringent enough to optimize tract quality (De Witte & Mueller, 2016). Tract FA and tract size were calculated based on these tracts and averaged over the two hemispheres (except for the tracts of the VAN).…”

“…In adults, anxiety is hypothesized to impact the functional connectivity of four core brain networks essential for cognitive-affective processing including 1) bottomup (ventral attention network; VAN) and 2) top-down attention processes (frontoparietal network; FPN), 3) salience detection (cingulo-opercular network; CON), and 4) default mode (default mode network; DMN) (Liao et al, 2010;Sylvester et al, 2012). Structurally, trait anxiety and depression in adulthood are associated with reduced white matter connectivity between the amygdala and all four of these networks, which could have important consequences for cognitive-affective functioning (De Witte & Mueller, 2016). Although many problems related to anxiety arise in adolescence, constituting risk for normative development, the current evidence for anxiety-related changes in structural connectivity is less clear in children and adolescents (e.g., Guyer et al, 2008;Monk et al, 2008).…”