The different model of whole brain response to emotional pictures between patients with generalized anxiety disorder and panic disorder

Abstract

Objective To explore the different behavioral and related whole brain response to emotional pictures in individuals with generalized anxiety disorder or panic disorder(PD). Methods Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was adopted to examine the neural substrates of emotional pictures processing in 12 first-episode unmedicated GAD subjects, 13 first-episode unmedicated PD subjects (PD) and 13 healthy controls (HC). Analyses focused on the blood-oxygen level dependant (BOLD) signal intensity change in the whole brain across blocks of positive, neutral and negative emotional pictures in PD versus GAD. Results (1) For positive pictures task, individuals with GAD showed stronger response in right postcental gyrus and left superior parietal lobule than ones with PD（activation difference in 0.2361 and 0.1289 respectively， both P<0.01）, and weaker response in left cingular gyrus, right precentral gyrus and right insular gyrus（difference in 0.1623,0.1557 and 0.3491，all P<0.01）.（2）For negative pictures task, individuals with PD presented stronger response in the right superior frontal gyrus，left inferior parietal lobule，right fusiform gyrus，right inferior Lobulus semilunaris and right insular gyrus（difference in 0.6301, 0.1896, 0.4047, 0.2788, 0.6713 and 0.3569，all P<0.01）than ones with GAD. （3） For neutral picture task， GAD individuals showed stronger response in left inferior temporal gyrus，left inferior parietal lobule and right insular gyrus than PD ones（difference in 0.2725，0.1459 and 0.4398，all P<0.01），and weaker response in right insular lobular and right amygdale（difference in 0.5967 and 0.3600，all P<0.01）. Conclusions The two kind of anxiety disorder present different response model to emotional pictures， with panic disorder majoring in classical circus of emotion while generalized anxiety disorder in high central neural system such as frontal lobe. Key words: Magnetic resonance imaging; Brain; International affective picture system; Generalized anxiety disorder; Panic disorder