Frontiers in Psychiatry (Sep 2019)

Altered Interoceptive Processing in Generalized Anxiety Disorder—A Heartbeat-Evoked Potential Research

  • Jiaoyan Pang,
  • Jiaoyan Pang,
  • Xiaochen Tang,
  • Hui Li,
  • Qiang Hu,
  • Huiru Cui,
  • Lanlan Zhang,
  • Wei Li,
  • Zhuoying Zhu,
  • Jijun Wang,
  • Jijun Wang,
  • Jijun Wang,
  • Jijun Wang,
  • Chunbo Li,
  • Chunbo Li,
  • Chunbo Li,
  • Chunbo Li

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2019.00616
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 10

Abstract

Read online

Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) is one of the most common anxiety disorders. The brain’s dysfunctional processing of interoceptive information is increasingly recognized as an important component of anxiety disorders. However, the neural mechanisms remain insufficiently understood. In the present study, patients with GAD and healthy control participants underwent an eyes-closed (EC) resting state (interoception) and eyes-open (EO) resting state (exteroception) without paying conscious attention to heartbeat. Electrocardiography (ECG) and electroencephalography (EEG) signals were recorded at the same time. The results show that in healthy controls, the heartbeat-evoked brain potential (HEP) was modulated by the conditions, with a significantly higher amplitude under EC than EO, while this was not the case in GAD patients. Further analysis revealed that the dysfunction of HEP modulation in GAD patients may be attributed to excessive interoceptive processing under EO, with a marginally higher HEP in GAD than in the healthy controls. Finally, the right prefrontal HEP amplitude during EC condition was significantly correlated with the severity of the patients’ anxiety symptoms. Our results suggest that altered cortical processing of interoceptive signals may play an important role in the pathophysiology of generalized anxiety disorder.

Keywords