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STATE AND TRAIT ANXIETY MODULATE HEMODYNAMIC AMYGDALA RESPONSES TO INNOCUOUS AUDITORY STIMULATION
Despoina Kartsakiand 5 co-authors
University of Barcelona
FENS Forum 2026 (2026)
Barcelona, Spain
Board PS02-07PM-149
Presentation
Date TBA
Board: PS02-07PM-149
Event Information
Poster Board
PS02-07PM-149
Poster
View posterAbstract
Anxiety strongly influences emotion processing and the perception of threat. Amygdala activity has been consistently linked to the evaluation of affective salience and threatening stimuli. Here, we investigated whether state and trait anxiety modulate amygdala responses to fearful and neutral stimuli, and whether such modulation differs across visual and auditory modalities. Healthy participants (N=36, 50% female) underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging while being presented with fearful and neutral faces and voices. Anxiety was assessed using the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI). Hemodynamic responses were analysed using whole-brain and region of interest analyses, testing for main effects and interactions between emotional content and sensory modality, and anxiety scores were included as covariates. Higher state and trait anxiety scores were associated with stronger amygdala response to neutral compared with fearful voices. This anxiety-related modulation was specific to the auditory modality, and was not observed for visual stimuli. Notably, this effect was not driven by differences in participants’ emotional perception across modalities, as emotion ratings were similar for auditory and visual stimuli. Together, these findings suggest that higher state and trait anxiety is associated with enhanced amygdala sensitivity to emotionally neutral stimulation, particularly in the auditory domain, consistent with heightened vigilance to innocuous signals.
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