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- Bas-Hoogendam, Janna Marie, et al.
(author)
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Voxel-based morphometry multi-center mega-analysis of brain structure in social anxiety disorder
- 2017
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In: NeuroImage. - : Elsevier BV. - 2213-1582. ; 16, s. 678-688
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Social anxiety disorder (SAD) is a prevalent and disabling mental disorder, associated with significant psychiatric co-morbidity. Previous research on structural brain alterations associated with SAD has yielded inconsistent results concerning the direction of the changes in gray matter (GM) in various brain regions, as well as on the relationship between brain structure and SAD-symptomatology. These heterogeneous findings are possibly due to limited sample sizes. Multi-site imaging offers new opportunities to investigate SAD-related alterations in brain structure in larger samples.An international multi-center mega-analysis on the largest database of SAD structural T1-weighted 3T MRI scans to date was performed to compare GM volume of SAD-patients (n = 174) and healthy control (HC)-participants (n = 213) using voxel-based morphometry. A hypothesis-driven region of interest (ROI) approach was used, focusing on the basal ganglia, the amygdala-hippocampal complex, the prefrontal cortex, and the parietal cortex. SAD-patients had larger GM volume in the dorsal striatum when compared to HC-participants. This increase correlated positively with the severity of self-reported social anxiety symptoms. No SAD-related differences in GM volume were present in the other ROIs. Thereby, the results of this mega-analysis suggest a role for the dorsal striatum in SAD, but previously reported SAD-related changes in GM in the amygdala, hippocampus, precuneus, prefrontal cortex and parietal regions were not replicated. Our findings emphasize the importance of large sample imaging studies and the need for meta-analyses like those performed by the Enhancing NeuroImaging Genetics through Meta-Analysis (ENIGMA) Consortium.
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- Björkstrand, Johannes, et al.
(author)
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Decrease in amygdala activity during repeated exposure to spider images predicts avoidance behavior in spider fearful individuals.
- 2020
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In: Translational Psychiatry. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 2158-3188. ; 10:1
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Spider phobia is characterized by exaggerated fear of situations where spiders could be present, resulting in avoidance of such situations and compromised quality of life. An important component in psychological treatment of spider phobia is exposure to phobic situations that reduces avoidance behaviors. At the neural level, amygdala responses to phobic material are elevated, but normalizes following exposure treatment. To what extent amygdala activity decreases during a session of repeated phobic stimulation, and whether activity decrease is related to subsequent avoidance is not well studied. We hypothesized reduced amygdala activity during the course of repeated exposure to spider pictures, and that the degree of reduction would predict subsequent avoidance of spider pictures. To test our hypothesis, functional magnetic resonance imaging was performed in 45 individuals with spider fear during repeated exposure to spider pictures. Results showed that repeated exposure to spider stimuli attenuated amygdala reactivity and individual differences in activity reductions predicted subsequent avoidance behavior to spider pictures in an incentive-conflict task, with larger attenuations predicting less avoidance. At 6-month follow up, initial reductions in amygdala activation still predicted avoidance. This result demonstrates that reduction in amygdala responses is related to clinically meaningful outcomes in human anxiety, and suggests that within-session reductions in amygdala responses could be an important mechanism explaining the clinical effects of exposure therapy.
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- Björkstrand, Johannes, et al.
(author)
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Disrupting Reconsolidation Attenuates Long-Term Fear Memory in the Human Amygdala and Facilitates Approach Behavior
- 2016
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In: Current Biology. - : Elsevier BV. - 0960-9822 .- 1879-0445. ; 26:19, s. 2690-95
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Memories become labile and malleable to modification when recalled [1]. Fear-conditioning experiments in both rodents and humans indicate that amygdala-localized short-term fear memories can be attenuated by disruption of their reconsolidation with extinction training soon after memory activation [2-7]. However, this may not be true for natural long-term fears. Studies in rodents indicate that although it is possible to disrupt the reconsolidation of older memories [8-11], they appear to be more resistant [1, 3, 9, 12, 13]. In humans, 1-week-old conditioned fear memories have been attenuated by behaviorally induced disruption of reconsolidation [14], but it remains to be seen whether this is possible for naturally occurring long-term fears and whether the underlying neural mechanisms are similar to those found in experimental fear-conditioning paradigms. Using functional brain imaging in individuals with a lifelong fear of spiders, we show that fear memory activation followed by repeated exposure to feared cues after 10 min, which disrupts reconsolidation, attenuates activity in the basolateral amygdala at re-exposure 24 hr later. In contrast, repeated exposure 6 hr after fear memory activation, which allows for reconsolidation, did not attenuate amygdala activity. Disrupted, but not undisrupted, reconsolidation facilitated approach behavior to feared cues, and approach behavior was inversely related to amygdala activity during re-exposure. We conclude that memory activation immediately preceding exposure attenuates the neural and behavioral expression of decades-old fear memories and that, similar to experimentally induced fear memories, the basolateral amygdala is crucially involved in this process.
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- Björkstrand, Johannes, et al.
(author)
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Disruption of Memory Reconsolidation Erases a Fear Memory Trace in the Human Amygdala : An 18-Month Follow-Up.
- 2015
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In: PLOS ONE. - : Public Library of Science (PLoS). - 1932-6203. ; 10:7, s. e0129393-
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Fear memories can be attenuated by reactivation followed by disrupted reconsolidation. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging we recently showed that reactivation and reconsolidation of a conditioned fear memory trace in the basolateral amygdala predicts subsequent fear expression over two days, while reactivation followed by disrupted reconsolidation abolishes the memory trace and suppresses fear. In this follow-up study we demonstrate that the behavioral effect persists over 18 months reflected in superior reacquisition after undisrupted, as compared to disrupted reconsolidation, and that neural activity in the basolateral amygdala representing the initial fear memory predicts return of fear. We conclude that disrupting reconsolidation have long lasting behavioral effects and may permanently erase the fear component of an amygdala-dependent memory.
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| 8. |
- Björkstrand, Johannes, et al.
(author)
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Think twice, it's all right : Long lasting effects of disrupted reconsolidation on brain and behavior in human long-term fear
- 2017
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In: Behavioural Brain Research. - : Elsevier BV. - 0166-4328 .- 1872-7549. ; 324, s. 125-129
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Memories can be modified when recalled. Experimental fear conditioning studies support that amygdala-localized fear memories are attenuated when reconsolidation is disrupted through extinction training immediately following memory activation. Recently, using functional brain imaging in individuals with lifelong spider fears, we demonstrated that fear memory activation followed by repeated exposure to feared cues after 10 min, thereby disrupting reconsolidation, attenuated activity in the amygdala during later re-exposure, and also facilitated approach behavior to feared cues. In contrast, repeated exposure 6 h after fear memory activation, allowing for reconsolidation, did not attenuate amygdala activity and resulted in less approach behavior as compared to the group that received disrupted reconsolidation. We here evaluated if these effects are stable after 6 months and found that amygdala activity was further reduced in both groups, with a tendency towards greater reductions in the 10 min than the 6 h group. Hence, disrupted reconsolidation results in long lasting attenuation of amygdala activity. The behavioral effect, with more approach towards previously feared cues, in the 10 min than the 6 h group also persisted. Thus, the brain effect of disrupted reconsolidation is stable over 6 months and the behavioral effect also remained. We therefore conclude that disrupted reconsolidation result in a long-lasting diminished fear memory representation in the amygdala which may have clinical importance.
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