Extending the neurocircuitry of behavioural inhibition: a role for the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis in risk for anxiety disorders.

Content Provider	Europe PMC
Author	Clauss, Jacqueline
Copyright Year	2019
Abstract	Behavioural inhibition is a biologically based risk factor for anxiety disorders. Children with behavioural inhibition are shy, cautious and avoidant of new situations. Much research on behavioural inhibition has focused on the amygdala as an underlying neural substrate and has identified differences in amygdala function and volume; however, amygdala findings have yet to lead to meaningful interventions for prevention or treatment of anxiety disorders. The bed nucleus of the stria terminalis (BNST) is a prime candidate to be a neural substrate of behavioural inhibition, given current evidence of BNST function and development in human research and animal models. Children with behavioural inhibition have an increased startle response to safety cues and an increased cortisol response to social evaluative situations, both of which are mediated by the BNST. In rodents, activation of the BNST underlies contextual fear responses and responses to uncertain and sustained threat. Non-human primates with anxious temperament (the macaque equivalent of behavioural inhibition) have increased BNST activity to ambiguous social situations, and activity of the BNST in anxious temperament is significantly heritable. Importantly, the BNST is sexually dimorphic and continues to develop into adulthood, paralleling the development of anxiety disorders in humans. Together, these findings suggest that further investigation of the BNST in behavioural inhibition is necessary and may lead to new avenues for the prevention and treatment of anxiety disorders.
Related Links	https://europepmc.org/backend/ptpmcrender.fcgi?accid=PMC6937153&blobtype=pdf
Journal	General Psychiatry [Gen Psychiatr]
Volume Number	32
DOI	10.1136/gpsych-2019-100137
PubMed Central reference number	PMC6937153
Issue Number	6
PubMed reference number	31922088
e-ISSN	2517729X
Language	English
Publisher	BMJ Publishing Group
Publisher Date	2019-12-18
Publisher Place	BMA House, Tavistock Square, London, WC1H 9JR
Access Restriction	Open
Rights License	This is an open access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited, appropriate credit is given, any changes made indicated, and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/. © Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2019. Re-use permitted under CC BY-NC. No commercial re-use. See rights and permissions. Published by BMJ.
Subject Keyword	anxiety disorders fear response behavioural inhibition bed nucleus of the stria terminalis (BNST) amygdala
Content Type	Text
Resource Type	Article
Subject	Psychiatry and Mental Health Neurology Neurology (clinical)