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FC between the cingulate cortex and amygdala during an attention to threat task as a predictor of increased self-reported anxiety in teenagers

Poster Session D - Monday, March 31, 2025, 8:00 – 10:00 am EDT, Back Bay Ballroom/Republic Ballroom

David Garnica^1,2 (dga@email.unc.edu), Camila Vallebona^1,2, Ani Bryce¹, Idil Baran¹, Joshua Bizzel¹, Cope Feurer¹, Ty Ridenour^3,4,5, Diana Fishbein⁶, Jessica R. Cohen², Aysenil Belger¹; ¹Department of Psychiatry, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, USA, ²Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, USA, ³RTI International, Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, USA, ⁴Cecil G. Sheps Center for Health Services Research, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, USA, ⁵Center for Education and Drug Abuse Research, University of Pittsburgh, USA, ⁶Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, USA

Introduction: Anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) and amygdala (AMY) activations during attention and affective processing are considered biomarkers of social anxiety in adults. We examined whether functional connectivity (FC) between the ACC or posterior cingulate cortex (PCC) and AMY during attentional control over threatening stimuli associates with self-reported anxiety in teenagers. Methods: 30 participants (age=12.23-15.44) completed an attention-to-threat (ATT) task during 3T MRI scanning. Six ROIs (bilateral AMY, bilateral rostral-ACC, subgenual-ACC, PCC) were selected based on Neurosynth-derived coordinates. After preprocessing with fMRIprep, mean BOLD signal change was calculated with FSL. After pre- and post-processing with CONN, weighted ROI-to-ROI (wRR) FC was analyzed. An FWE-TFCE correction was applied over all possible connections. Multiple regressions assessed the FC predictive value for MASC-2 anxiety scores, including age as covariate. Results: BOLD signal change differed significantly between high- and low-load threat stimuli for the PCC (p=0.027) and subgenual-ACC (p=0.035). The high-load condition showed significantly decreased PCC-right AMY FC compared to the low-load condition, including all stimuli (T=3.59, p-unc=0.0013, pFDR=0.0065, pFWE=0.023) or threat faces only (T=4.77, p-unc=0.0001, pFDR=0.0003, pFWE=0.001). The regression models significantly predicted PCC-right AMY FC under conditions of high attentional load (R2=0.32, adjusted-R2=0.24, p-unc=0.02, pFDR=0.08) and low attentional load (R2=0.29, adjusted-R2=0.21, p-unc=0.03, pFDR=0.08) including all stimuli but not threat stimuli only. Conclusion: The preliminary findings suggest that self-reported anxiety in teenagers may be associated with FC between the PCC and right AMY. This may be a predictor of anxiety disorder diagnosis and drug-use in teenagers. Results changes are expected along the longitudinal study course.

Topic Area: EMOTION & SOCIAL: Emotional responding