Functional neuroanatomy associated with the interaction between emotion and cognition in explicit memory tasks in patients with generalized anxiety disorder

Background The functional neuroanatomy for explicit memory in conjunction with the major anxiety symptoms in patients with generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) has not yet been clearly identified. Purpose To investigate the brain activation patterns on the interaction between emotional and cognitive function during the explicit memory tasks, as well as its correlation with clinical characteristics in GAD. Material and Methods The participants comprised GAD patients and age-matched healthy controls. The fMR images were obtained while the participants performed an explicit memory task with neutral and anxiety-inducing words. Results Patients showed significantly decreased functional activities in the putamen, head of the caudate nucleus, hippocampus, and middle cingulate gyrus during the memory tasks with the neutral and anxiety-inducing words, whereas the precentral gyrus and ventrolateral prefrontal cortex were significantly increased only in the memory tasks with the anxiety-inducing words. Also, the blood oxygenation level-dependent (BOLD) signal changes in the hippocampus were positively correlated with the recognition accuracy for both neutral and anxiety-inducing words. Conclusion This study identified the brain areas associated with the interaction between emotional regulation and cognitive function in the explicit memory tasks in patients with GAD. These findings would be helpful to understand the neural mechanism on the explicit memory-related cognitive deficits and emotional dysfunction with GAD symptoms.