Regional brain function, emotion and disorders of emotion

Significant progress has been made in our understanding of the neural substrates of emotion and its disorders. Neuroimaging methods have been used to characterize the circuitry underlying disorders of emotions. Particular emphasis has been placed on the prefrontal cortex, anterior cingulate, parietal cortex, and the amygdala as critical components of the circuitry that may be dysfunctional in both depression and anxiety.

In this review, we focus on recent research on the brain mechanisms underlying emotion-related aspects of mood and anxiety disorders. In addition to hemodynamic neuroimaging (i.e. positron emission tomography [PET] and functional magnetic resonance imaging [fMRI], we also discuss research using quantitative electrophysiology. Other methods for making inferences about brain-behavior relations, including pharmacological challenge studies and transcranial magnetic stimulation will be reviewed.