Trait and state anxiety are mapped differently in the human brain

TLDR

Anxiety is a mental state of intense tension and worry, and researchers distinguish it into transient state anxiety and more stable trait anxiety. It remains unclear whether brain structural and functional features can distinguish state from trait anxiety. The study assessed 42 healthy participants with the State‑Trait Anxiety Inventory and used MRI to examine structural grey‑matter covariance and resting‑state functional connectivity. Trait anxiety was linked to structural covariance of the Default Mode Network and its frontal resting‑state connectivity, whereas state anxiety was associated only with resting‑state connectivity of the Salience Network and ventral DMN nodes, indicating distinct neuroanatomical and functional signatures that could serve as markers for diagnosis or treatment.

Abstract

Abstract Anxiety is a mental state characterized by an intense sense of tension, worry or apprehension, relative to something adverse that might happen in the future. Researchers differentiate aspects of anxiety into state and trait, respectively defined as a more transient reaction to an adverse situation, and as a more stable personality attribute in experiencing events. It is yet unclear whether brain structural and functional features may distinguish these aspects of anxiety. To study this, we assessed 42 healthy participants with the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory and then investigated with MRI to characterize structural grey matter covariance and resting-state functional connectivity (rs-FC). We found several differences in the structural–functional patterns across anxiety types: (1) trait anxiety was associated to both structural covariance of Default Mode Network (DMN), with an increase in dorsal nodes and a decrease in its ventral part, and to rs-FC of DMN within frontal regions; (2) state anxiety, instead, was widely related to rs-FC of Salience Network and of DMN, specifically in its ventral nodes, but not associated with any structural pattern. In conclusion, our study provides evidence of a neuroanatomical and functional distinction between state and trait anxiety. These neural features may be additional markers in future studies evaluating early diagnosis or treatment effects.