CoChat
Sign Up
Cited by 102Obsessive-Compulsive Spectrum DisordersAnxiety, Depression, Psychometrics, Treatment, Cognitive ProcessesNeural and Behavioral Psychology Studies

Amygdala hyperactivation during symptom provocation in obsessive–compulsive disorder and its modulation by distraction

Open access
Simon, Daniela, Adler, Nele, Kaufmann, Christian, Kathmann, Norbert·2014·NeuroImage: Clinical
DOI 10.1016/j.nicl.2014.03.011PMC PMC3984443
Open this paper in CoChat — free accountOpen PDF

Abstract

Anxiety disorders have been linked to a hyperactivated cortico-amygdalar circuitry. Recent findings highlight the amygdala's role in mediating elevated anxiety in obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). However, modulation of amygdala hyperactivation by attentional distraction - an effective emotion regulation strategy in healthy individuals - has not yet been examined. While undergoing functional magnetic resonance imaging twenty-one unmedicated OCD patients and 21 controls performed an evaluation and a distraction task during symptom provocation with individually tailored OCD-relevant pictures. To test the specificity of responses, additional aversive and neutral stimuli were included. Significant group-by-picture type interactions were observed within fronto-striato-limbic circuits including the amygdala. In these regions patients showed increased BOLD responses during processing of OCD triggers relative to healthy controls. Amygdala hyperactivation was present across OCD symptom dimensions indicating that it represents a common neural correlate. During distraction, we observed dampening of patients' amygdala hyperactivity to OCD-relevant stimuli. Augmented amygdala involvement in patients during symptom provocation, present across OCD symptom dimensions, might constitute a correlate of fear expression in OCD linking it to other anxiety disorders. Attentional distraction seemed to dampen emotional processing of disorder-relevant stimuli via amygdala downregulation. The clinical impact of this strategy to manage anxiety in OCD should be further elucidated.

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1016/j.nicl.2014.03.011

Cites

Statistics

Claims the paper makes

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

  • Attentional distraction techniques dampened the emotional processing of threatening stimuli.

    “In one recent study looking at the brain-mediated regions of elevated anxiety, researchers found that attentional distraction techniques dampened the emotional processing of threatening stimuli (Simon, Adler, Kaufmann, & Kathmann, 2014).”

    From The Psychology of Rituals: An Integrative Review and Process-Based Framework (2018) · cites this paper as Simon, Adler, Kaufmann, & Kathmann, 2014

Self-check

Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.

The self-check needs the paper’s full text.

The citation lists haven’t been fetched yet

References 43 · Cited by 102

Research works printed but not linked: 31

  1. Deckersbach T. Dougherty D.D. Rauch S.L. Functional imaging of mood and anxiety disorders Journal of Neuroimaging: Official Journal of the American Society of Neuroimaging 16 2006 1 10 10.1177/1051228405001474 16483270 16483270 · DOI
  2. Breiter H.C. Rauch S.L. Kwong K.K. Baker J.R. Weisskoff R.M. Kennedy D.N. Kendrick A.D. Davis T.L. Jiang A. Cohen M.S. Stern C.E. Belliveau J.W. Baer L. O'Sullivan R.L. Savage C.R. Jenike M.A. Rosen B.R. Functional magnetic resonance imaging of symptom provocation in obsessive–compulsive disorder Archives of General Psychiatry 53 1996 595 606 10.1001/archpsyc.1996.01830070041008 8660126 8660126 · DOI · Paper page
  3. Simon D. Kaufmann C. Musch K. Kischkel E. Kathmann N. Fronto–striato–limbic hyperactivation in obsessive–compulsive disorder during individually tailored symptom provocation Psychophysiology 47 2010 728 738 20158678 20158678
  4. van den Heuvel O.A. Veltman D.J. Groenewegen H.J. Dolan R.J. Cath D.C. Boellaard R. Mesina C.T. van Balkom A.J. van Oppen P. Witter M.P. Lammertsma A.A. van Dyck R. Amygdala activity in obsessive–compulsive disorder with contamination fear: a study with oxygen-15 water positron emission tomography Psychiatry Research 132 2004 225 237 10.1016/j.pscychresns.2004.06.007 15664794 15664794 · DOI
  5. Najmi S. Riemann B.C. Wegner D.M. Managing unwanted intrusive thoughts in obsessive–compulsive disorder: relative effectiveness of suppression, focused distraction, and acceptance Behaviour Research and Therapy 47 6 2009 494 503 10.1016/j.brat.2009.02.015 19327753 19327753 · DOI
  6. Kanske P. Heissler J. Schonfelder S. Wessa M. Neural correlates of emotion regulation deficits in remitted depression: the influence of regulation strategy, habitual regulation use, and emotional valence Neuroimage 61 2012 686 693 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2012.03.089 22613776 22613776 · DOI
  7. Rauch S.L. Whalen P.J. Shin L.M. McInerney S.C. Macklin M.L. Lasko N.B. Orr S.P. Pitman R.K. Exaggerated amygdala response to masked facial stimuli in posttraumatic stress disorder: a functional MRI study Biological Psychiatry 47 2000 769 776 10.1016/S0006-3223(00)00828-3 10812035 10812035 · DOI · Paper page
  8. Straube T. Lipka J. Sauer A. Mothes-Lasch M. Miltner W.H. Amygdala activation to threat under attentional load in individuals with anxiety disorder Biology of Mood & Anxiety Disorders 1 1 2011 12 22738024 22738024 PMC3384227
  9. Pessoa L. Padmala S. Morland T. Fate of unattended fearful faces in the amygdala is determined by both attentional resources and cognitive modulation NeuroImage 28 2005 249 255 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2005.05.048 15993624 15993624 PMC2427145 · DOI · Paper page
  10. First M.B. Spitzer R.L. Gibbon M. Williams J.B.W. Structured Clinical Interview For DSM-IV Axis I Disorders—Patient Edition New York 1995 Biometrics Research Dept, New York State Psychiatric Institute
  11. Goodman W.K. Price L.H. Rasmussen S.A. Mazure C. Fleischmann R.L. Hill C.L. Heninger G.R. Charney D.S. The Yale–Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale. I. Development, use, and reliability Archives of General Psychiatry 46 1989 1006 1011 10.1001/archpsyc.1989.01810110048007 2684084 2684084 · DOI · Paper page
  12. Goodman W.K. Price L.H. Rasmussen S.A. Mazure C. Delgado P. Heninger G.R. Charney D.S. The Yale–Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale. II. Validity Archives of General Psychiatry 46 1989 1012 1016 10.1001/archpsyc.1989.01810110054008 2510699 2510699 · DOI · Paper page
  13. Foa E.B. Huppert J.D. Leiberg S. Langner R. Kichic R. Hajcak G. Salkovskis P.M. The Obsessive–Compulsive Inventory: development and validation of a short version Psychological Assessment 14 2002 485 496 10.1037/1040-3590.14.4.485 12501574 12501574 · DOI · Paper page
  14. Beck A.T. Ward C.H. Mendelson M. Mock J. Erbaugh J. An inventory for measuring depression Archives of General Psychiatry 4 1961 561 571 10.1001/archpsyc.1961.01710120031004 13688369 13688369 · DOI · Paper page
  15. Montgomery S.A. Asberg M. A new depression scale designed to be sensitive to change British Journal of Psychiatry: the Journal of Mental Science 134 1979 382 389 10.1192/bjp.134.4.382 444788 444788 · DOI · Paper page
  16. Spielberger C.D Manual for the State–Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI) 1983 Consulting Psychologists Press Palo Alto, CA
  17. Simon D. Kischkel E. Spielberg R. Kathmann N. A pilot study on the validity of using pictures and videos for individualized symptom provocation in obsessive–compulsive disorder Psychiatry Research 198 2012 81 88 10.1016/j.psychres.2011.12.022 22414659 22414659 · DOI
  18. Deichmann R. Schwarzbauer C. Turner R. Optimisation of the 3D MDEFT sequence for anatomical brain imaging: Technical implications at 1.5 and 3 T NeuroImage 21 2004 757 767 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2003.09.062 14980579 14980579 · DOI
  19. Talairach J. Tournoux P. Co-Planar Stereotaxic Atlas of the Human Brain 1988 Thieme Medical Publishers New York
  20. Katerberg H. Delucchi K.L. Stewart S.E. Lochner C. Denys D.A. Stack D.E. Andresen J.M. Grant J.E. Kim S.W. Williams K.A. den Boer J.A. van Balkom A.J. Smit J.H. van Oppen P. Polman A. Jenike M.A. Stein D.J. Mathews C.A. Cath D.C. Symptom dimensions in OCD: item-level factor analysis and heritability estimates Behavior Genetics 40 2010 505 517 10.1007/s10519-010-9339-z 20361247 20361247 PMC2886912 · DOI · Paper page
  21. Mataix-Cols D. Rosario-Campos M.C. Leckman J.F. A multidimensional model of obsessive–compulsive disorder American Journal of Psychiatry 162 2005 228 238 10.1176/appi.ajp.162.2.228 15677583 15677583 · DOI · Paper page
  22. Phillips M.L. Drevets W.C. Rauch S.L. Lane R. Neurobiology of emotion perception I: the neural basis of normal emotion perception Biological Psychiatry 54 2003 504 514 10.1016/S0006-3223(03)00168-9 12946879 12946879 · DOI · Paper page
  23. Sheline Y.I. Barch D.M. Donnelly J.M. Ollinger J.M. Snyder A.Z. Mintun M.A. Increased amygdala response to masked emotional faces in depressed subjects resolves with antidepressant treatment: an fMRI study Biological Psychiatry 50 2001 651 658 10.1016/S0006-3223(01)01263-X 11704071 11704071 · DOI · Paper page
  24. Phelps E.A. O'Connor K.J. Gatenby J.C. Gore J.C. Grillon C. Davis M. Activation of the left amygdala to a cognitive representation of fear Nature Neuroscience 4 2001 437 441 10.1038/86110 11276236 11276236 · DOI · Paper page
  25. Kanske P. Heissler J. Schonfelder S. Bongers A. Wessa M. How to regulate emotion? Neural networks for reappraisal and distraction Cerebral Cortex (New York, N.Y.: 1991) 21 2011 1379 1388 10.1093/cercor/bhq216 21041200 21041200 · DOI · Paper page
  26. Schnitzler A., Seitz R., Freund H., The somatosensory system. in: A.W. T., J.C. M., (Eds.) Brain Mapping: The Systems (2000). San Diego, Calif, Academic Press, pp. 291-329
  27. Moritz S. Fischer B.K. Hottenrott B. Kellner M. Fricke S. Randjbar S. Jelinek L. Words may not be enough! No increased emotional Stroop effect in obsessive–compulsive disorder Behaviour Research and Therapy 46 2008 1101 1104 10.1016/j.brat.2008.05.005 18675953 18675953 · DOI
  28. van den Heuvel O.A. Veltman D.J. Groenewegen H.J. Cath D.C. van Balkom A.J. van Hartskamp J. Barkhof F. van Dyck R. Frontal–striatal dysfunction during planning in obsessive–compulsive disorder Archives of General Psychiatry 62 2005 301 309 10.1001/archpsyc.62.3.301 15753243 15753243 · DOI · Paper page
  29. Amir N. Cashman L. Foa E.B. Strategies of thought control in obsessive–compulsive disorder Behaviour Research and Therapy 35 8 1997 775 777 9256520 9256520
  30. Stoodley C.J. Schmahmann J.D. Functional topography in the human cerebellum: a meta-analysis of neuroimaging studies Neuroimage 44 2009 489 501 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2008.08.039 18835452 18835452 · DOI · Paper page
  31. Pessoa L On the relationship between emotion and cognition. Nat Reviews in the Neurosciences 9 2 2008 148 158 10.1038/nrn2317 226176662193977320948583208774291820973214650848 18209732 · DOI · Paper page

Authors
Simon, D., Adler, N., Kaufmann, C., & Kathmann, N.
Affiliations
Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin (DE)
ORCID
Venue
NeuroImage: Clinical
Publisher
Elsevier BV
Published
2014
Volume
4
Pages
549-557
ISSN
2213-1582 (ISSN-L)
DOI
10.1016/j.nicl.2014.03.011
PMC
PMC3984443
OpenAlex
W2075938465
Cited by
102
References
43
Citations by year
2026: 6 · 2025: 6 · 2024: 3 · 2023: 8 · 2022: 8 · 2021: 9 · 2020: 10 · 2019: 10 · 2018: 9 · 2017: 6 · 2016: 13 · 2015: 11 · 2014: 3
FWCI
13.02
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
Locations
  • NeuroImage Clinical (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
  • Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
Funders
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) (SI 1131/2-3)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Obsessive-Compulsive Spectrum Disorders
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Anxiety, Depression, Psychometrics, Treatment, Cognitive Processes
  • Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Neural and Behavioral Psychology Studies
Keywords
obsessive-compulsive disorder, amygdala hyperactivation, attentional distraction, emotion regulation, symptom provocation, fear expression, anxiety, neural correlates
MeSH terms
Adult, Amygdala, Attention, Brain Mapping, Cues, Female, Humans, Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Male, Neural Inhibition, Neuronal Plasticity, Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, Sensitivity and Specificity, Reproducibility of Results, Mindfulness

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review