The Brain Network Underlying Adapt To Uncertainty Environments In Anxious Individuals

Anxiety and anxiety disorders are associated with specific alterations to functional brain networks,includingintra-networks and inter-networks.Given the heterogeneity within anxiety disorders and inconsistencies infunctional network differences across studies,identifying common patterns of altered brain networks in anxietyis imperative.Here,we conducted an activation likelihood estimation meta-analysis of resting-state functionalconnectivity studies in anxiety and anxiety disorders(including 835 individuals with different levels of anxietyor anxiety disorders and 508 controls).Results show that anxiety can be characterized by hypo-connectivity ofthe affective network with executive control network(ECN)and default mode network(DMN),as well as decoupling of the ECN with the DMN.The connectivity within the salience network and its connectivity withsensorimotor network are also attenuated.These results reveal consistent dysregulations of affective and cognitive control related networks over networks related to emotion processing in anxiety and anxiety disorders.The current findings provide an empirical foundation for an integrated model of brain network alterations thatare common across anxiety and anxiety disorders.According to the‘uncertainty and anticipation model of anxiety’,anxious individuals will overestimate the probability and cost of future threats,remain vigilant against threats,be deficient in safety learning,tend to adopt the behavioral and cognitive avoidance,and overreact uncertainty threats.Previous studies have shown that estimates of option-outcome contingency should depend on the environmental volatility.High anxious individual has trouble in updating outcome predictions maybe due to poorly estimating this information.Hence,we used a probabilistic reversal reward learning task to test whether anxious individuals can adjust their learning rate according to environmental volatility,while using functional magnetic resonance imaging to investigate the underlying neural mechanism.The results show that individuals successfully adjusted their learning strategies on the basis of whether option-outcome associations are volatile or stable.However,this adaptation only be limited from volatile to stable environment.Unfortunately,we did not find the correlation between the adaptation and trait anxiety.The fMRI results indicate that bilateral caudate nucleus could track the estimation of environmental volatility.In addition,the degree to which individuals’ caudate tracking volatility predicted the variance of subjects’ learning rates across different volatile states.Finally,we also did not find the correlation between trait anxiety and activity of caudate.