CEREBELLUM-SEEDED FUNCTIONAL CONNECTIVITY CHANGES IN TRAIT-ANXIOUS INDIVIDUALS UNDERGOING ATTENTION BIAS MODIFICATION TRAINING

<p>Anxiety and anxiety related disorders are increasing at a drastic rate in the past decade, with the NIMH reporting that 31.1% of U.S. adults will experience an anxiety disorder at some point in their lives. Anxiety is commonly characterized by increased attention bias to threat. Attention Bias Modification (ABM) is a new treatment used to reduce individual’s attention bias towards threat. The extent to which ABM leads to underlying neural changes is still unknown. The cerebellum is a neglected brain structure, with new research provides evidence that cerebellum’s functional connectivity and shared networks with threat processing regions has a direct impact on anxiety etiology and symptomology. Therefore, the current study assessed functional connectivity changes seeded in cerebellum as an outcome of ABM training. The experiment consists of a 6-week ABM or control training period bookended by pre and post resting state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rsfMRI) sessions. Heightened trait anxiety was correlated with heightened connectivity from the cerebellum to threat processing regions. (i.e., the amygdala, ACC, and the thalamus). Decreased cerebellar connectivity to threat processing regions (i.e., the amygdala, ACC, and the thalamus) was observed following ABM training. This suggests that ABM may underly neural changes within the cerebellum—resulting in decreased attention bias. This also suggests the cerebellum may contribute to the etiology and maintenance of anxiety and attention bias. Limitations and future directions concerned with both ABM and the functional role of the cerebellum are discussed.</p>

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Science

Level thesis:degree_level

Thesis

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Psychological Science

Year dc:date.available

2021

Author dc:creator

• Elwell, Katherine

Contributors dc:contributor

• Joshua M. Carlson

• Cerebellum
• Anxiety
• Neuroimaging
• Attention Bias
• fMRI
• Clinical Trial
• Attention
• Neuropsychology
• Threat Processing
• Psychopathology
• Behavioral Neurobiology
• Biological Psychology
• Clinical Psychology
• Cognitive Neuroscience
• Cognitive Psychology
• Mental Disorders
• Psychiatric and Mental Health
• Psychological Phenomena and Processes

Repository record dc:identifier

https://commons.nmu.edu/theses/676

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:commons.nmu.edu:theses-1716