ReviewNeuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology2022
The prefrontal cortex, pathological anxiety, and anxiety disorders.
Review in Neuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. An erratum has been issued. Cited by 157 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
157 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Effects of mind-body exercise intervention on anxiety among women: a meta-analysis.Frontiers in psychology · 2025Pooled it
- Testing the effectiveness of combined attention modification training with right dorso-lateral prefrontal cortex theta-burst stimulation on reducing levels of anxiety and attentional bias.Experimental brain research · 2025Trial
- Trial
- The proto-cortical amygdala: a perspective on the functional and evolutionary relationship between the basolateral amygdala complex and neocortex in mammals.Brain structure & function · 2026Review
- Sleep-Related Attentional Bias in Insomnia: A Drift Diffusion Model Approach.Journal of sleep research · 2026Article
- Revisiting 'environmental effects': Directions for multidisciplinary investigations of air quality and psychopathology.Clinical psychological science : a journal of the Association for Psychological Science · 2026Article
- Environmental pressure and sensory uncertainty modulate free-throw performance: psychological, neurophysiological, and kinematic evidence.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- Chitosan-Based Nanoparticles for Nose-to-Brain Drug Delivery: A Real Path toward Effective CNS Therapy?ACS biomaterials science & engineering · 2026Review
- Anxiety disorders alter cognitive-motor integration during visuomotor adaptation and retention.Experimental brain research · 2026Article
- The Impact of Fear of Missing out (FoMO) on Addictive Eating: A Moderated Mediation Model.Nutrients · 2026Article
- EEG-based harmful brain activity classification using deep learning and feature fusion.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- Psychophysiological effects of dance/movement therapy on anxiety reduction in adolescents in juvenile detention centers: dopamine and thermoregulatory responses in a controlled study.Child and adolescent psychiatry and mental health · 2026Article
- Effects of Anodal Left DLPFC tDCS on Panic Severity in Panic Disorder Patients With and Without Comorbid Rhinosinusitis and Nasal Septum Deviation.Brain and behavior · 2026Article
- Cyber-victimized and cognitively fogged? Cyberbullying victimization and executive function.BMC public health · 2026Article
- Comparing the Limbic-Frontal Connectome across the Primate Order: Conservation of Connections and Implications for Translational Neuroscience.The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience · 2026Article
- MRI markers of neuroinflammation in untreated patients with subclinical generalized anxiety disorder.Journal of neural transmission (Vienna, Austria : 1996) · 2026Article
- The Development of Trait Anxiety in Nonhuman Primates During the First Year of Life.Developmental science · 2026Article
- Cholecystokinin upregulation in mPFC leads to social defeat-induced anxiety susceptibility in neuroligin 3 R451C knockin mice.Molecular autism · 2026Article
- Article
- The Cortico-Cortical and Subcortical Circuits of the Human Brain Language Centers Including the Dual Limbic and Language Functioning Fiber Tracts.Brain sciences · 2026Review
97 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
- Erratum issued
Authors and funding
3 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Anxiety is experienced in response to threats that are distal or uncertain, involving changes in one's subjective state, autonomic responses, and behavior. Defensive and physiologic responses to threats that involve the amygdala and brainstem are conserved across species. While anxiety responses typically serve an adaptive purpose, when excessive, unregulated, and generalized, they can become maladaptive, leading to distress and avoidance of potentially threatening situations. In primates, anxiety can be regulated by the prefrontal cortex (PFC), which has expanded in evolution. This prefrontal expansion is thought to underlie primates' increased capacity to engage high-level regulatory strategies aimed at coping with and modifying the experience of anxiety. The specialized primate lateral, medial, and orbital PFC sectors are connected with association and limbic cortices, the latter of which are connected with the amygdala and brainstem autonomic structures that underlie emotional and physiological arousal. PFC pathways that interface with distinct inhibitory systems within the cortex, the amygdala, or the thalamus can regulate responses by modulating neuronal output. Within the PFC, pathways connecting cortical regions are poised to reduce noise and enhance signals for cognitive operations that regulate anxiety processing and autonomic drive. Specialized PFC pathways to the inhibitory thalamic reticular nucleus suggest a mechanism to allow passage of relevant signals from thalamus to cortex, and in the amygdala to modulate the output to autonomic structures. Disruption of specific nodes within the PFC that interface with inhibitory systems can affect the negative bias, failure to regulate autonomic arousal, and avoidance that characterize anxiety disorders.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.