Chapter 15

Neuroanatomy and Neuroimaging

Frauke Nees

Frauke Nees

Central Institute of Mental Health, Heidelberg University, Germany

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Herta Flor

Herta Flor

Central Institute of Mental Health, Heidelberg University, Germany

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First published: 24 March 2014

Summary

Dysfunctional processes related to the cognitive control of emotional processes involve brain regions such as the amygdala, the prefrontal cortex (PFC), specifically dorsolateral, dorsomedial, and ventromedial parts, and the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC), the insular cortex, the periaqueductal gray (PAG), the thalamus, the hypothalamus, and the striatum. This chapter reviews findings on structural and functional neural pathways and their interaction in various anxiety disorders. Following DSM-IV-TR, the chapter focuses on panic disorder, posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), social anxiety disorder (SAD), specific phobias, generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), and and obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). While there are similarities between the anxiety disorders in accordance with the assumed alterations in the “fear network,” for PTSD, the neuroanatomical findings seem to partially differ and involve additional regions such as the hippocampus. Most of the literature on neuroimaging studies in anxiety disorders reported has addressed neural alterations during specific emotion-processing tasks.

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