Altered anterior insula activation during anticipation and experience of painful stimuli in expert meditators.

Experientially opening oneself to pain rather than avoiding it is said to reduce the mind's tendency toward avoidance or anxiety which can further exacerbate the experience of pain. This is a central feature of mindfulness-based therapies. Little is known about the neural mechanisms of mindfulness on pain. During a meditation practice similar to mindfulness, functional magnetic resonance imaging was used in expert meditators (>10,000 h of practice) to dissociate neural activation patterns associated with pain, its anticipation, and habituation. Compared to novices, expert meditators reported equal pain intensity, but less unpleasantness. This difference was associated with enhanced activity in the dorsal anterior insula (aI), and the anterior mid-cingulate (aMCC) the so-called 'salience network', for experts during pain. This enhanced activity during pain was associated with reduced baseline activity before pain in these regions and the amygdala for experts only. The reduced baseline activation in left aI correlated with lifetime meditation experience. This pattern of low baseline activity coupled with high response in aIns and aMCC was associated with enhanced neural habituation in amygdala and pain-related regions before painful stimulation and in the pain-related regions during painful stimulation. These findings suggest that cultivating experiential openness down-regulates anticipatory representation of aversive events, and increases the recruitment of attentional resources during pain, which is associated with faster neural habituation.

Neural responding during uncertain threat anticipation in pediatric anxiety.

Excessive fear responses to uncertain threat are a key feature of anxiety disorders (ADs), though most mechanistic work considers adults. As ADs onset in childhood and confer risk for later psychopathology, we sought to identify conditions of uncertain threat that distinguish 8-17-year-old youth with AD (n = 19) from those without AD (n = 33), and assess test-retest reliability of such responses in a companion sample of healthy adults across three sites (n = 19). In an adapted uncertainty of threat paradigm, visual cues parametrically signaled threat of aversive stimuli (fear faces) in 25 % increments (0 %, 25 %, 50 %, 100 %), while participants underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). We compared neural response elicited by cues signaling different degrees of probability regarding the subsequent delivery of fear faces. Overall, youth displayed greater engagement of bilateral inferior parietal cortex, fusiform gyrus, and lingual gyrus during uncertain threat anticipation in general. Relative to healthy youth, AD youth exhibited greater activation in ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (vlPFC)/BA47 during uncertain threat anticipation in general. Further, AD differed from healthy youth in scaling of ventral striatum/sgACC activation with threat probability and attenuated flexibility of responding during parametric uncertain threat. Complementing these results, significant, albeit modest, cross-site test-retest reliability in these regions was observed in an independent sample of healthy adults. While preliminary due to a small sample size, these findings suggest that during uncertainty of threat, AD youth engage vlPFC regions known to be involved in fear regulation, response inhibition, and cognitive control. Findings highlight the potential of isolating neural correlates of threat anticipation to guide treatment development and translational work in youth.

Connectivity between the central nucleus of the amygdala and the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis in the non-human primate: neuronal tract tracing and developmental neuroimaging studies.

The lateral division of the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis (BSTL) and central nucleus of the amygdala (Ce) form the two poles of the 'central extended amygdala', a theorized subcortical macrostructure important in threat-related processing. Our previous work in nonhuman primates, and humans, demonstrating strong resting fMRI connectivity between the Ce and BSTL regions, provides evidence for the integrated activity of these structures. To further understand the anatomical substrates that underlie this coordinated function, and to investigate the integrity of the central extended amygdala early in life, we examined the intrinsic connectivity between the Ce and BSTL in non-human primates using ex vivo neuronal tract tracing, and in vivo diffusion-weighted imaging and resting fMRI techniques. The tracing studies revealed that BSTL receives strong input from Ce; however, the reciprocal pathway is less robust, implying that the primate Ce is a major modulator of BSTL function. The sublenticular extended amygdala (SLEAc) is strongly and reciprocally connected to both Ce and BSTL, potentially allowing the SLEAc to modulate information flow between the two structures. Longitudinal early-life structural imaging in a separate cohort of monkeys revealed that extended amygdala white matter pathways are in place as early as 3 weeks of age. Interestingly, resting functional connectivity between Ce and BSTL regions increases in coherence from 3 to 7 weeks of age. Taken together, these findings demonstrate a time period during which information flow between Ce and BSTL undergoes postnatal developmental changes likely via direct Ce â†’ BSTL and/or Ce â†” SLEAc â†” BSTL projections.

Overexpressing Corticotropin-Releasing Factor in the Primate Amygdala Increases Anxious Temperament and Alters Its Neural Circuit.

BACKGROUND: Nonhuman primate models are critical for understanding mechanisms underlying human psychopathology. We established a nonhuman primate model of anxious temperament (AT) for studying the early-life risk to develop anxiety and depression. Studies have identified the central nucleus of the amygdala (Ce) as an essential component of AT's neural substrates. Corticotropin-releasing factor (CRF) is expressed in the Ce, has a role in stress, and is linked to psychopathology. Here, in young rhesus monkeys, we combined viral vector technology with assessments of anxiety and multimodal neuroimaging to understand the consequences of chronically increased CRF in the Ce region. METHODS: Using real-time intraoperative magnetic resonance imaging-guided convection-enhanced delivery, five monkeys received bilateral dorsal amygdala Ce-region infusions of adeno-associated virus serotype 2 containing the CRF construct. Their cagemates served as unoperated control subjects. AT, regional brain metabolism, resting functional magnetic resonance imaging, and diffusion tensor imaging were assessed before and 2 months after viral infusions. RESULTS: Dorsal amygdala CRF overexpression significantly increased AT and metabolism within the dorsal amygdala. Additionally, we observed changes in metabolism in other AT-related regions, as well as in measures of functional and structural connectivity. CONCLUSIONS: This study provides a translational roadmap that is important for understanding human psychopathology by combining molecular manipulations used in rodents with behavioral phenotyping and multimodal neuroimaging measures used in humans. The results indicate that chronic CRF overexpression in primates not only increases AT but also affects metabolism and connectivity within components of AT's neural circuitry.

Fear of the unknown: uncertain anticipation reveals amygdala alterations in childhood anxiety disorders.

Children with anxiety disorders (ADs) experience persistent fear and worries that are highly debilitating, conferring risk for lifelong psychopathology. Anticipatory anxiety is a core clinical feature of childhood ADs, often leading to avoidance of uncertain and novel situations. Extensive studies in non-human animals implicate amygdala dysfunction as a critical substrate for early life anxiety. To test specific amygdala-focused hypotheses in preadolescent children with ADs, we used fMRI to characterize amygdala activation during uncertain anticipation and in response to unexpected stimuli. Forty preadolescent (age 8-12 years) children, 20 unmedicated AD patients and 20 matched controls completed an anticipation task during an fMRI scan. In the task, symbolic cues preceded fear or neutral faces, such that 'certain' cues always predicted the presentation of fear or neutral faces, whereas 'uncertain' cues were equally likely to be followed by fear or neutral faces. Both AD children and controls showed robust amygdala response to faces. In response to the uncertain cues, AD children had increased amygdala activation relative to controls. Moreover, in the AD children, faces preceded by an 'uncertain' cue elicited increased amygdala activation, as compared with the same faces following a 'certain' cue. Children with ADs experience distress both in anticipation of and during novel and surprising events. Our findings suggest that increased amygdala activation may have an important role in the generation of uncertainty-related anxiety. These findings may guide the development of neuroscientifically informed treatments aimed at relieving the suffering and preventing the lifelong disability associated with pediatric ADs.

Upsampling to 400-ms resolution for assessing effective connectivity in functional magnetic resonance imaging data with Granger causality.

Granger causality analysis of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) blood-oxygen-level-dependent signal data allows one to infer the direction and magnitude of influence that brain regions exert on one another. We employed a method for upsampling the time resolution of fMRI data that does not require additional interpolation beyond the interpolation that is regularly used for slice-timing correction. The mathematics for this new method are provided, and simulations demonstrate its viability. Using fMRI, 17 snake phobics and 19 healthy controls viewed snake, disgust, and neutral fish video clips preceded by anticipatory cues. Multivariate Granger causality models at the native 2-sec resolution and at the upsampled 400-ms resolution assessed directional associations of fMRI data among 13 anatomical regions of interest identified in prior research on anxiety and emotion. Superior sensitivity was observed for the 400-ms model, both for connectivity within each group and for group differences in connectivity. Context-dependent analyses for the 400-ms multivariate Granger causality model revealed the specific trial types showing group differences in connectivity. This is the first demonstration of effective connectivity of fMRI data using a method for achieving 400-ms resolution without sacrificing accuracy available at 2-sec resolution.

Reduced structural connectivity of a major frontolimbic pathway in generalized anxiety disorder.

CONTEXT: Emotion regulation deficits figure prominently in generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) and in other anxiety and mood disorders. Research examining emotion regulation and top-down modulation has implicated reduced coupling of the amygdala with prefrontal cortex and anterior cingulate cortex, suggesting altered frontolimbic white matter connectivity in GAD. OBJECTIVES: To investigate structural connectivity between ventral prefrontal cortex or anterior cingulate cortex areas and the amygdala in GAD and to assess associations with functional connectivity between those areas. DESIGN: Participants underwent diffusion-tensor imaging and functional magnetic resonance imaging. SETTING: University magnetic resonance imaging facility. PARTICIPANTS: Forty-nine patients with GAD and 39 healthy volunteer control subjects, including a matched subset of 21 patients having GAD without comorbid Axis I diagnoses and 21 healthy volunteers matched for age, sex, and education. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: The mean fractional anisotropy values in the left and right uncinate fasciculus, as measured by tract-based analysis for diffusion-tensor imaging data. RESULTS: Lower mean fractional anisotropy values in the bilateral uncinate fasciculus indicated reduced frontolimbic structural connectivity in patients with GAD. This reduction in uncinate fasciculus integrity was most pronounced for patients without comorbidity and was not observed in other white matter tracts. Across all participants, higher fractional anisotropy values were associated with more negative functional coupling between the pregenual anterior cingulate cortex and the amygdala during the anticipation of aversion. CONCLUSIONS: Reduced structural connectivity of a major frontolimbic pathway suggests a neural basis for emotion regulation deficits in GAD. The functional significance of these structural differences is underscored by decreased functional connectivity between the anterior cingulate cortex and the amygdala in individuals with reduced structural integrity of the uncinate fasciculus.

Rat mammary carcinogenesis induced by in situ expression of constitutive Raf kinase activity is prevented by tethering Raf to the plasma membrane.

Mammary carcinogenesis induced through expression of activated Raf was investigated using a model in which retroviral vectors were infused into the central ducts of rat mammary glands. This model allows efficient expression of experimental proteins in a small fraction of endogenous mammary epithelial cells in situ. We previously reported that Raf is the dominant oncogenic signaling pathway from activated Ras in rat mammary glands. We show here that mammary gland carcinogenesis is rapidly induced by the expression of c-Raf-1 kinase that is activated by N-terminal truncation (Delta-Raf). Interestingly, targeting Raf to the plasma membrane via C-terminal fusion with Ras membrane localization signals (Raf-Caax) induces Raf kinase activity that transforms 3T3 cells more frequently than Delta-Raf, yet in situ expression of Raf-Caax does not induce mammary carcinomas. To investigate these contrasting results and begin elucidating the mechanisms of Raf-induced mammary carcinogenesis, we combined both activating mutations (N-terminal truncation and C-terminal membrane localization motifs) in one Raf construct (Delta-Raf-Caax). While Delta-Raf-Caax transforms 3T3 cells more efficiently than Delta-Raf or Raf-Caax, in situ expression of Delta-Raf-Caax does not induce carcinomas in vivo, demonstrating that lipid modification on the C-terminus of Delta-Raf negates its oncogenic potential in rat mammary gland.

Affinity with Raf is sufficient for Ras to efficiently induce rat mammary carcinomas.

The role of three major Ras downstream effector pathways in the induction of mammary cancer was studied using an in situ mammary ductal gene delivery model. Replication-defective retroviral vectors were used to infect endogenous rat mammary epithelial cells with three individual Ras effector loop mutants, each of which transduces its signal through a different Ras effector pathway (Raf, PI3K or RalGDS). Several groups have used Ras effector loop mutants in cultured cells, clearly characterizing the signaling specificity of each over a wide range of cell lines and conditions. Each of the three Ras effector loop mutations impairs Ras for neoplastic transformation of immortal cell lines in culture. In contrast, when evaluated in vivo by infecting endogenous rat mammary epithelial cells in situ with retroviral vectors, we find that codon 12 mutant activated V12-Ras and all three V12-Ras effector loop mutants individually induce mammary carcinomas. Most notably, a Ras effector loop mutant that lacks affinity with PI3K and RalGDS but retains affinity with Raf (E38-V12-Ras) is relatively similar in potency to V12-Ras for mammary carcinoma induction. Two other Ras effector loop mutants, each lacking affinity with Raf, one retaining affinity with PI3K (C40-V12-Ras), the other with RalGDS (G37-V12-Ras), resulted in much longer tumor latency than E38-V12-Ras and V12-Ras and a reduced carcinoma frequency. Tumor latencies for V12-Ras, E38-V12-Ras, C40-V12-Ras and G37-V12-Ras were 4, 4, 11 and 12 weeks, respectively. We conclude that the Ras-Raf pathway can function independently of the Ras-PI3K and Ras-RalGDS pathways for rapid induction of rat mammary carcinomas, while Ras-PI3K and Ras-RalGDS pathways may also individually induce mammary carcinomas following a long latency.