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Trait anxiety and neural efficiency of abstract reasoning: An fMRI investigation

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Abstract

Worries preoccupy the working memory capacity in anxious individuals, thereby affecting their performance during tasks that require efficient attention regulation. According to the attentional control theory (ACT), trait anxiety affects the processing efficiency, i.e. the effort required for task performance, more than the accuracy of task performance. We investigated the relation between trait anxiety and neural response for a reasoning task in healthy subjects. Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was carried out on 22 healthy participants and blood oxygenation level dependent (BOLD) contrast estimates were extracted from a priori regions of interest (ROIs) that were earlier implicated in reasoning (i.e., bilaterally caudate head, globus pallidus, thalamus, prefrontal cortex [rostral, dorsal and ventral regions], inferior parietal lobule and middle occipital gyrus). Controlling for the effects of age, gender, state anxiety and depressive symptoms, for equivalent levels of task performance, trait anxiety of the participants was found to be associated with an increase in task related BOLD activation in right globus pallidus, left thalamus and left middle occipital gyrus. Our results suggest a reduced processing efficiency for reasoning in high trait anxiety subjects and provides important brain–behaviour relationships with respect to sub-clinical anxiety.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by DRDO R&D Project No. INM 311 (4.1). The authors declare no competing financial interests. The authors thank Mr. Pawan Kumar for his assistance in data collection.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Nuclear Medicine and Allied Sciences (INMAS), Lucknow Road, Timarpur, Delhi, 110 054, India

    Shilpi Modi, Mukesh Kumar, Sanjeev Nara, Pawan Kumar & Subash Khushu

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  1. Shilpi Modi
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  2. Mukesh Kumar
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  3. Sanjeev Nara
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  4. Pawan Kumar
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  5. Subash Khushu
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Correspondence to Subash Khushu.

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Communicated by ANANT BAHADUR PATEL.

Corresponding editor: Anant Bahadur Patel

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Modi, S., Kumar, M., Nara, S. et al. Trait anxiety and neural efficiency of abstract reasoning: An fMRI investigation. J Biosci 43, 877–886 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12038-018-9800-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12038-018-9800-3

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