BRAIN STRUCTURES INTERACTION IN ANXIETY DISORDER

Normally, the brain manages our fear and anxiety without allowing them to interfere with our daily functioning. If there’s a nearby threat, different areas of the brain help us make sense of the threat by amplifying or quelling our anxiety and fear.
The various anxiety disorders involve many different areas of the brain. These areas reflect both the uniqueness of each of these disorders and the features that they have in common. Anxiety is the result of interaction between a number of different brain regions — a fear network. No one brain region drives anxiety on its own. Instead, interactions among many brain areas are all important for how we experience anxiety. Contemporary models of anxiety disorders have primarily focused on amygdala-cortical interactions. We only feel anxiety when signals from the amygdala overpower the cognitive brain, and into our consciousness. If you can rationalize that, then the cognitive brain network overtakes and suppresses the emotional fear network.

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