American neuroscientists from the University of California, San Francisco have discovered a universal biomarker of anxiety in the brains of mice and humans. The study was published in the scientific journal magazine Neuron.
Because anxiety disorder remains one of the most common mental illnesses in the world, experts have focused on studying brain activity in emotional disorders.
To study these processes, the team conducted a series of observations on 13 patients with epilepsy, implanting the participants with intracranial electrodes to monitor brain activity. Neuroscientists then conducted a series of tests using mice to gain a deeper understanding of intracerebral responses.
Analysis of the collected data revealed characteristic bursts of beta coherence, that is, short, intense periods of synchronization between the amygdala and hippocampus. Both of these structures are associated with memory and are also responsible for emotion regulation, stress response, spatial orientation, and visual-spatial representation. Consistency predicted change in emotional state in approximately two out of three subjects. Increased anxiety was seen in both humans and animals when beta waves were synchronized, while desynchronization reduced anxiety levels.
The study highlights the utility of cross-species research in uncovering universal mechanisms of emotional processing. In the future, scientists expect to find the neural circuits in the brain responsible for activating negative emotions and, if necessary, discover a way to turn off these processes.
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