Mandell, Darcy
(2015)
SOMATIC AWARENESS IN ANXIOUS YOUTH: RELATING TRAIT AND SITUATIONAL SYMPTOMS TO NEURAL MECHANISMS OF THREAT-PROCESSING.
Master's Thesis, University of Pittsburgh.
(Unpublished)
Abstract
The current study examined the relationship between self-reported somatic symptomatology and neural patterns of threat-processing in anxious youth. It attempted to merge discrepant findings regarding somatic awareness in anxiety by differentiating between more chronic somatic anxiety symptoms and an experiential (“situational”) awareness of bodily symptoms in response to an acute stressor. Forty-two adolescents (ages 9-13), meeting DSM-IV criteria for GAD, Social Phobia, and/or Separation Anxiety completed a classic dot-probe task in which they indicated the location of a probe that replaced either threatening or neutral faces. Mean BOLD responses on to threat trials were extracted for anatomically defined regions of interest that have been related to anxiety, and this activity was correlated with self-reported somatic subscale scores. Results indicated that, within a sample of anxious youth, chronic somatic anxiety symptomatology was negatively correlated with sustained bilateral amygdala activity, while situational somatic symptomatology was associated with increased sustained bilateral anterior insula and caudal anterior cingulate activity. Thus, patients who display blunted emotional reactivity to mild threat cues may be more prone to chronic somatic anxiety symptoms. In addition, patients who maintain an awareness of interoceptive cues during low-grade threat-processing may be more likely to notice and report bodily cues under periods of more acute threat.
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Details
| Item Type: |
University of Pittsburgh ETD
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| Status: |
Unpublished |
| Creators/Authors: |
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| ETD Committee: |
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| Date: |
9 January 2015 |
| Date Type: |
Publication |
| Defense Date: |
25 May 2011 |
| Approval Date: |
9 January 2015 |
| Submission Date: |
28 May 2014 |
| Access Restriction: |
No restriction; Release the ETD for access worldwide immediately. |
| Number of Pages: |
61 |
| Institution: |
University of Pittsburgh |
| Schools and Programs: |
Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences > Psychology |
| Degree: |
MS - Master of Science |
| Thesis Type: |
Master's Thesis |
| Refereed: |
Yes |
| Uncontrolled Keywords: |
anxiety, somatic symptoms, fMRI, threat processing, pediatric |
| Date Deposited: |
09 Jan 2015 20:04 |
| Last Modified: |
15 Nov 2016 14:20 |
| URI: |
http://d-scholarship.pitt.edu/id/eprint/21690 |
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