Altered Interoceptive Processing in Generalized Anxiety Disorder-A Heartbeat-Evoked Potential Research.
Author: Pang J1,2, Tang X1, Li H1, Hu Q1, Cui H1, Zhang L3, Li W1, Zhu Z4, Wang J1,5,6,7, Li C1,5,6,7
Affiliation:
1Shanghai Key Laboratory of Psychotic Disorders, Shanghai Mental Health Center, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, China.
2School of Government, Shanghai University of Political Science and Law, Shanghai, China.
3Department of Psychiatry, Suzhou Guangji Hospital, Suzhou, China.
4Department of Psychology, Shanghai Mental Health Center, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, China.
5Institute of Psychology and Behavioral Science, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, China.
6Center for Excellence in Brain Science and Intelligence Technology (CEBSIT), Chinese Academy of Science, Shanghai, China.
7Brain Science and Technology Research Center, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, China.
Conference/Journal: Front Psychiatry.
Date published: 2019 Sep 5
Other:
Volume ID: 10 , Pages: 616 , Special Notes: doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2019.00616. eCollection 2019. , Word Count: 210
Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) is one of the most common anxiety disorders. The brain's dysfunctional processing of interoceptive information is increasingly recognized as an important component of anxiety disorders. However, the neural mechanisms remain insufficiently understood. In the present study, patients with GAD and healthy control participants underwent an eyes-closed (EC) resting state (interoception) and eyes-open (EO) resting state (exteroception) without paying conscious attention to heartbeat. Electrocardiography (ECG) and electroencephalography (EEG) signals were recorded at the same time. The results show that in healthy controls, the heartbeat-evoked brain potential (HEP) was modulated by the conditions, with a significantly higher amplitude under EC than EO, while this was not the case in GAD patients. Further analysis revealed that the dysfunction of HEP modulation in GAD patients may be attributed to excessive interoceptive processing under EO, with a marginally higher HEP in GAD than in the healthy controls. Finally, the right prefrontal HEP amplitude during EC condition was significantly correlated with the severity of the patients' anxiety symptoms. Our results suggest that altered cortical processing of interoceptive signals may play an important role in the pathophysiology of generalized anxiety disorder.
KEYWORDS: attentional bias; eyes-closed (interoception)/eyes-open (exteroception) resting states; generalized anxiety disorder; heartbeat-evoked brain potential; neural mechanisms
PMID: 31543837 PMCID: PMC6739601 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyt.2019.00616
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