Project Summary

Nathan Fox, Ph.D. (Distinguished Investigator 2007) of the University of Maryland, will attempt to integrate research on behavioral inhibition (the temperamental tendency to be quiet and restrained in unfamiliar situations), anxiety disorders, and attention bias to threat, as no research or treatments to date have done this. Research has indicated that behaviorally inhibited children display asymmetry in an EEG of the brain, as well as a fast and variable heart rate and high morning levels of the stress hormone, cortisol. Adolescents who are behaviorally inhibited exhibit heightened attention bias to threat (they attend to a perceived threat faster than controls and are less able to disengage their attention from threatening stimuli). Difficulties in processing threat-related information is believed to play a prominent role in the development and maintenance of anxiety disorders and also affects perceived response to stress in adults. Additionally, the same area of the brain (the amygdala-ventral prefrontal cortex or vPFC) is dysfunctional in both threat-processing and behavioral inhibition. Using unique populations, Dr. Fox will examine neural functioning in behaviorally inhibited children performing an attention bias task to confirm the neural bases of attention bias to threat and he will test the efficacy of attention training as a possible treatment for symptoms in pediatric anxiety disorders. As early intervention in childhood anxiety disorders is extremely beneficial, Dr. Fox hopes to identify the neural mechanisms of risk for anxiety and develop new treatment interventions based on this information.

Program Area: ANXIETY DISORDERS

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