Abnormal Self-Reference Brain Networks Research In Patients With Generalized Anxiety Disorder

Generalized anxiety disorder is a common psychological disease,the core symptom of GAD is constant worry.Patients with GAD prefer negative emotion and exists cognitive dysfunction,and it may be associated with rumination and worry.However,ruminant thinking and worry are negative self-referential process,and this process influence course and severity of patients with GAD,but the neuromechanism of selfreference still unclear.We explored the self-referential neural network using superiority illusion task and resting state data.At the same time,we assessed interaction between structural covariance network and self-esteem,explored the structural network of selfreference.In order to explore the neural mechanism of negative self-reference thinking in patients with GAD,we use SI task and resting state data to explore abnormal selfreference network.We using regions of self-referenc and theory of mind to analize the functional connectivity within these networks,as well as analysis subjects’ behavioral performance.Behavioral results show that patients with GAD has significantly lower SI scores under the negative words than HC.Task images functional connectivity analysis result show that,under the condition of negative words and positive words,the functional connection in the self-reference networks and theory of mind network show the opposite trend.Resting state results of functional connectivity within the self-reference network and mentalization network are decreased in GAD when compared with HC.In conclusion,task results indicate that GAD patients are sensitive to negative stimuli in the process of self-reference,and they consider it to be more related to themselves,our result make neural basis for negative self-reference processing,resting stat results indicated that selfreference and theory of mind are abnormal.Finally,we explored the abnormal self-reference structural network from perspective of self-esteem in patients with GAD.We compute structural covariance network of vACC Behaviral result shows that,compared with HC,the self-esteem score was significantly lower in patients with GAD.Compared with HC,patients with GAD are decreased network connectivity.Interaction between structural covariance network and the selfesteem scores show that,GAD patients with lower self-esteem had stronger connectivity between vACC with thalamus.Our result suggest that GAD patients is negative for individual value judgement with long term,that’s is low self-esteem.There is a relationship between the negative self-reference thinking and the covariant network of vACC.The abnormal structure provides a new idea for study the brain neural mechanism of self-evaluation in patients with GAD.From what has been discussed above,we use three modes to study the neural basis of self-reference of GAD.We found that negative self-reference process and neural mechanisms,that provided potential information for negative emotional preference of patients with GAD,and it also provides information for future studies on the selfreference process and it help us understanding the neuropathological mechanism of GAD.