The Neurobiology of Dispositional Negativity and Attentional Biases to Threat: Implications for Understanding Anxiety Disorders in Adults and Youth

Alexander J. Shackman, Melissa D. Stockbridge, Rachael M. Tillman, Claire M. Kaplan, Do P. M. Tromp, Andrew S. Fox, Matthias Gamer
2016 Journal of Experimental Psychopathology  
When extreme, anxiety can become debilitating. Anxiety disorders, which often first emerge early in development, are common and challenging to treat, yet the neurocognitive mechanisms that confer increased risk have only recently begun to come into focus. Here we review recent work highlighting the importance of neural circuits centered on the amygdala. We begin by describing dispositional negativity, a core dimension of childhood temperament and adult personality and an important risk factor
more » ... r the development of anxiety disorders and other kinds of stress-sensitive psychopathology. Converging lines of epidemiological, neurophysiological, and mechanistic evidence indicate that the amygdala supports stable individual differences in dispositional negativity across the lifespan and contributes to the etiology of anxiety disorders in adults and
doi:10.5127/jep.054015 pmid:27917284 pmcid:PMC5130287 fatcat:ryy7kzfhazagzjhwhgln4t6uaa