Trait Anxiety and Defensive Networks

Trait Anxiety Modulates Resting State Functional Connectivity of Defensive Networks

to examine the association between trait and defensive network connectivity and the modulatory effect of oxytocin on it

Individuals with high trait anxiety show stable anxiety proneness even in the absence of real threat, which could be a result of intrinsic hyper-connectivity in the defensive systems. In the present study, healthy subjects' trait anxiety levels will be assessed by the sub-trait inventory of the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory. Then two experiments using resting-state fMRI technique will be conducted to first map how hubs in the defensive systems organized in high anxious individuals in a stimuli-free situation (Experiment 1) and then we will examine the modulatory effect of the intranasal administration of oxytocin on functional connectivity in these independently defined defensive networks (Experiment 2).

Inclusion Criteria:

• Healthy subjects without past or current psychiatric or neurological disorders

Exclusion Criteria:

• females should not be pregnant or during menstruation.