Ventrolateral Prefrontal Cortex Activation and Attentional Bias in Response to Angry Faces in Adolescents With Generalized Anxiety Disorder

• DOI: 10.1176/ajp.2006.163.6.1091
• Publication Date: 2014-12-17T21:35:14Z
• Authors: Christopher S. Monk; Eric E. Nelson; Erin B. McClure; Karin Mogg; Brendan P. Bradley; Ellen Leibenluft; R. James R. Blair; Gang Chen; Dennis S. Charney; Monique Ernst; Daniel S. Pine
• Keywords: Ventrolateral prefrontal cortex; Attentional Bias

Objective: While adolescent anxiety disorders represent prevalent, debilitating conditions, few studies have explored their brain physiology. Using event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and a behavioral measure of attention to angry faces, the authors evaluated differences in response between healthy adolescents with generalized disorder. Method: In primary trials interest, 18 disorder 15 comparison subjects equivalent age/gender/IQ viewed angry/neutral face pairs during fMRI acquisition. Following presentation each pair, pressed button indicate whether subsequent asterisk appeared on same (congruent) or opposite (incongruent) side as face. Reaction time congruent incongruent provided bias faces. Results: Relative subjects, patients manifested greater right ventrolateral prefrontal cortex activation containing Patients also showed away from Ventrolateral remained evident when were covaried. Finally, an examination among association degree activation, found that increased, severity symptoms diminished. Conclusions: Adolescents show attentional faces than adolescents. Among patients, increased is associated less severe anxiety, suggesting this may serve compensatory response.