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  4. Nucleus accumbens neurochemistry in human anxiety: A 7 T 1H-MRS study
 
research article

Nucleus accumbens neurochemistry in human anxiety: A 7 T 1H-MRS study

Strasser, Alina  
•
Xin, Lijing
•
Gruetter, Rolf
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2019
Eur Neuropsychopharmacol

Individual differences in anxiety provide a differential predisposition to develop neuropsychiatric disorders. The neurochemical underpinnings of anxiety remain elusive, particularly in deep structures, such as the nucleus accumbens (NAc) whose involvement in anxiety is being increasingly recognized. We examined the associations between the neurochemical profile of human NAc metabolites involved in neural excitation and inhibition and inter-individual variation in temperamental and situational anxiety. Twenty-seven healthy 20-30 years-old human males were phenotyped with questionnaires for state and trait anxiety (State-Trait Anxiety Inventory, STAI), social anxiety (Liebowitz Social Anxiety Scale), negative mood (Beck Depression Inventory, BDI) and fatigue (Mental and Physical State Energy and Fatigue Scales, SEF). Using proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy ((1)H-MRS) at 7 Tesla (7T), we measured metabolite levels for glutamate, glutamine, GABA and taurine in the NAc. Salivary cortisol was also measured. Strikingly, trait anxiety was negatively associated with NAc taurine content. Perceived situational stress was negatively associated with NAc GABA, while positively with the Glu/GABA ratio. No correlation was observed between NAc taurine or GABA and other phenotypic variables examined (i.e., state anxiety, social anxiety, negative mood, or cortisol), except for a negative correlation between taurine and state physical fatigue. This first 7T study of NAc neurochemistry shows relevant metabolite associations with individual variation in anxiety traits and situational stress and state anxiety measurements. The novel identified association between NAc taurine levels and trait anxiety may pave the way for clinical studies aimed at identifying new treatments for anxiety and related disorders.

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Type
research article
DOI
10.1016/j.euroneuro.2018.12.015
PubMed ID

30600114

Author(s)
Strasser, Alina  
Xin, Lijing
Gruetter, Rolf
Sandi, Carmen
Date Issued

2019

Published in
Eur Neuropsychopharmacol
Volume

29

Issue

3

Start page

365

End page

75

Subjects

CIBM-AIT

Note

513343

Editorial or Peer reviewed

REVIEWED

Written at

EPFL

EPFL units
CIBM  
LIFMET  
LGC  
FunderGrant Number

FNS

146431

FNS-NCCR

158776

Available on Infoscience
December 20, 2020
Use this identifier to reference this record
https://infoscience.epfl.ch/handle/20.500.14299/153386
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