Lecture 5 - BIS and sensitivity to punishment

Question 1

What are typical inputs to the BIS system?

Answer 1

Signals of punishments
Signals of non-reward
Novel stimuli

Question 2

What are typical outputs of the BIS system?

Answer 2

Behavioural inhibition
Increment in arousal
Increased attention

Question 3

What type of drug impairs the BIS system?

Answer 3

Anti-anxiety drugs

Question 4

What does BIS arousal give rise to?

Answer 4

Anxiety

Question 5

Which brain region does the medial septum have lots of connections to?

Answer 5

Hippocampus

Question 6

What is the main brain system that BIS mainly comprises?

Answer 6

The septo-hippocampal system & its inputs/outputs

Question 7

What evidence links the BIS system to the hippocampus?

Answer 7

a) Anxiolytic drugs & Hippocampal lesions have very similar effects.
b) Anxiolytic drugs impair hippocampal theta oscillation.
Given both a & b, the hippocampus probably at least partly mediates anxiety.
Anxiolytic drugs impair behavioural inhibition & increases in arousal/attention

Question 8

What are key neurotransmitters in BIS?

Answer 8

Gray emphasised serotonin, noradrenaline, & acetylcholine

Question 9

Other than the septo-hippocampal system, what two brain areas are also involved in BIS?

Answer 9

• medial prefrontal cortex
• amygdala (esp. in later versions of theory)

Question 10

What two aspects of BIS were re-conceptualised in 2000?

Answer 10

a) They had to incorporate amygdala into anxiety systems

b) In original theory, BIS mediates avoidance.
Later, they reconceptualise the BIS in terms of conflict.

The classic exemplar of BIS operation is the
‘approach/avoid’ conflict:
I want to eat that food, But maybe there is a predator about
I want to go to the party, But I am worried I will look foolish

Question 11

Does the amygdala play a role in generating a state of anxiety?

Answer 11

Yes

Question 12

The hippocampus encourages the subject to further consider the potential negative outcome associated with a behaviour. What does hippocampal activity promote?

Answer 12

1) Behavioural inhibition
Stop ongoing activity like eating, running, making noise (predators might be near!).
Stay near an escape route.

2) Risk assessment and exploration (resolve the conflict!) - later theory
Gathering info:
What is the risk? Has the risk subsided?
Is that a predator about or is it just leaves falling?
Burglar or false alarm?

Question 13

What is the core of anxiety?

Answer 13

Worry, rumination, being ‘nervous’

Question 14

Are men generally more anxious than women?

Answer 14

No
Women appear to be generally more anxious than men
However, men do not report anxiety as much (go to doctors)

Question 15

Does Gray conceptualise anxiety as a continuous dimension?

Answer 15

Yes - high end is clinical

Question 16

Why did we evolve to have anxiety? Sex differences?

Answer 16

Anxiety has evolved because some caution is adaptive.
Perhaps more for women than men?
Sex-specific strategic success emphasises caution for women, risk-taking for men?
(Think of who causes deaths by dangerous driving among young people - men)

Question 16

What are the three components of anxiety?

Answer 16

Somatic – e.g. heart rate increases, dry mouth
Cognitive – e.g. mindset biased towards caution, loss-aversive
Behavioural – e.g. risk assessment, explore before act, BI

Question 16

What anxiety disorder is most relevant to BIS?

Answer 16

GAD - generalised anxiety disorder

Gray & McNaughton (2000) tend to consider GAD the clinical ‘high-end’ of the BIS dimension
(Extreme of normal variation between individuals)

Question 17

What is the distinction between anxiety and fear?

Answer 17

Danger is present -> ‘fear’. (FFF)
Danger may be present -> ‘anxiety’. (BIS)

Question 18

How many of the BIS questions were found by Heym et al (2008) to map onto FFF as well?

Answer 18

2 out of 7

Question 19

Which aspects of anxiety do SP and BIS questionnaires capture?

Answer 19

Cognitive and behavioural aspects of anxiety

Both SPSRQ & BIS have questions on:
Worrying (3/7 Qs in BIS), Social punishment, Social anxiety
SP has questions on:
Embarassment/shyness, Approach/avoid Conflict, Neophobia
Both similar to Cloninger’s ‘harm avoidance’

Question 20

What aspect of anxiety is not captured by SP and BIS?

Answer 20

Somatic aspects of anxiety
heart racing, legs/arms trembling, numbness, tingling and so on.

Question 21

Does BIS score predict clinical type diagnosis in adolescents?

Answer 21

Yes

e.g. Johnson et al. (2003)
>1800 adolescents aged 19-21yrs
BIS scores predicted clinical diagnoses of depression and anxiety

e.g. Vervoort et al (2010)
175 children aged 8-18yrs
Used a child version of Carver & White’s BIS/BAS scales.
BIS predicted various clinical anxiety diagnoses & depression.

Question 22

Does BIS score predict clinical-type diagnosis in adults?

Answer 22

Yes

For instance, Maack et al 2012 took 91 participants and gave them various emotion-related questionnaires.

BIS score and ‘Emotional dysregulation’
BIS scores strongly predicted the diagnosis of GAD
These questionnaires have some relation to clinical diagnosis

Question 23

What does a higher BIS/SP score correlate to in terms of hippocampus and amygdala size?

Answer 23

Larger hippocampus and amygdala

Question 24

What does a higher 'anxiety' type score correlate with in terms of hippocampal size?

Answer 24

Larger hippocampus

Question 25

Which side of the hippocampus seems to be more involved in BIS/anxiety?

Answer 25

Right

Question 26

What did Barros-Loscertales et al (2008) find out about hippocampal and amygdala volume using voxel and structural MRI?

Answer 26

Hippocampal formation volume & Amygdala volume Are Positively Correlated with Sensitivity to Punishment scores

Question 27

What did Levita et al (2014) find out about SP scores and right hippocampal volume?

Answer 27

Using MRI: Sensitivity to Punishment scores correlate positively with Right hippocampal volume: STP b = 0.33, p = 0.04, Age was a small predictor Sex was not a predictor

Question 28

What did Levita et al (2014) find out about SP scores and right/left hippocampal laterality?

Answer 28

Higher anxiety = higher right/left volume ratio STP b = 0.38, p = 0.03 Age and sex were small predictors

Question 29

Is the hippocampus smaller with increased Spielberger's trait anxiety?

Answer 29

No - larger Early small sample study by Speilberger et al. (1970) Supported by Rusch et al. (2001) Supported by Chan et al. (2016) - tested depressives and controls using Eyesenck's personality questionnaire, and more neurotic ppts had a larger right hippocampus

Question 30

Is this true - the more anxious you are, the larger your right hippocampus?

Answer 30

Yes

Question 31

What did Baksh et al. (2021) find out about the hippocampus in people with GAD?

Answer 31

Hippocampi on both left and right added together. Multiple regression accounting for many factors such as Age, Sex, education, overall brain volume. GAD showed a positive correlation with hippocampal volume (beta value = +0.089) The GAD group had a larger hippocampus.

Question 32

What does it mean when a brain region expands?

Answer 32

Often, there is high activity in that region

Question 33

Is brain volume purely determined by genetics?

Answer 33

No, experience plays a role

Question 34

What happens to the sizes of amygdala and hippocampus in rats who have been bred to be more or less anxious?

Answer 34

More anxious = larger HPC and AMYG and vice versa

Question 35

Do rats who have been environmentally manipulated to be less anxious have smaller AMYG and HPC?

Answer 35

Yes

Question 36

What environmental manipulation of rats can cause them to have increased anxiety?

Answer 36

Either handled by researchers or not handled Not having previous experience of handling means they get more anxious when researchers are around

Question 37

What does a larger hippocampus prepare someone for?

Answer 37

More efficient worrying: These mechanisms evolved such that a larger hippocampus prepares its subject for more adverse circumstances in later life that need to be thought-through More stressed you are - greater need for a hippocampus - greater drive so greater need for activity

Question 38

Neurogenesis is what? Where in the brain does this happen?

Answer 38

Neurogenesis (new cells being born) occurs in the hippocampus, unlike most areas of the brain

Question 38

How does neurogenesis relate to higher hippocampal volume in anxiety?

Answer 38

Higher hippocampal activity may increase hippocampal volume not just by growing new connections between existing neurons, but via new neurons

Question 41

What two things are reliably associated with smaller hippocampi?

Answer 41

Stress and depression Traumatic or repeated stress can shrink the hippocampus. Kills neurons, retracts dendrites

Question 42

Why is it not contradictory that anxiety predicts large hippocampus and depression predicts a small hippocampus, yet both anxiety and depression are frequently comorbid in people? (link to PTSD)

Answer 42

Both Depression-related and BIS-related factors independently control volume. Depression/stress towards shrinking; BIS towards increasing. If your ‘anxiety’ is like PTSD then that strong influence ‘wins’ -> small hippocampus. Intriguingly, a small hippocampus may predispose to PTSD (Gilbertson et al, 2002, Nature Neuroscience) PTSD-prone subjects are less ‘prepared for efficient worrying’? Reliving stress response instead of ruminating and worrying

Question 43

If someone has a small hippocampus, do they have low anxiety?

Answer 43

Possibly, however they could also have anxiety in combination with depression or PTSD

Question 44

In Loh et al. (2017), what was the approach/avoid task used?

Answer 44

People gained or lost money If there was no bomb behind the dots, they gained money If there was a bomb behind the dots, they lost money Ppts could accept, reject or explore There was a control study in which there was no loss, they either gained or did not gain

Question 45

In Loh et al. (2017), what area of the brain was activated when trying to avoid potential loss? What other measure was this positively correlated with?

Answer 45

Anterior hippocampus Anterior HPC activity during gamble rejection was positively correlated with trait anxiety

Question 46

What role might the anterior HPC play during gambling?

Answer 46

The Anterior Hpc keeps signalling the potential negative outcome of choosing to gamble (‘Yikes! a bomb could go off!’ ). The higher this activity, the more the subject chooses ‘Reject!’. More anxious people = higher Hpc activity, & more ‘Reject!’s. Anterior hippocampal activity anticipates aversive outcomes, making you anxious.

Question 47

What is the monetary incentive delay task? (used by Hahn et al., 2010)

Answer 47

A cue before each trial signals whether failure will engender: no loss, a small loss (5 eurocents) or a large loss (1 Euro), and is followed by a delay prior to the presentation of the stimulus

Question 48

Which brain areas were activated during the monetary incentive delay task? (Hahn et al., 2010)

Answer 48

Both the small and large loss conditions elicited hippocampal and amygdalar activation during the delay period, compared to the no loss condition.

Question 49

Was the degree of activation in AMYG and HPC in the monetary incentive delay task correlated with Gray's SPQ trait anxiety measure?

Answer 49

No

Question 50

Was there a correlation between functional connectivity between the amygdala and hippocampus and SP score?

Answer 50

Yes 0.66

Question 51

The more you say you are sensitive to social losses, the more or less your hippocampus and amygdala activity are correlated during anticipation of monetary losses?

Answer 51

More How you react to social punishments predicts brain activity during monetary punishments Both the hippocampus and amygdala are jointly involved in the BIS, and the strength of their co-modulation contributes to people’s BIS-related personality.

Question 52

Is anxious temperament in young monkeys positively or negatively correlated with HPC and AMYG activity?

Answer 52

Positively

Question 53

Is the heritability of anxious temperament in young monkeys predicted by hippocampal or amygdalar activity?

Answer 53

Hippocampal

Question 54

What is the hippocampal subregion predicting anxious temperament in primates and rats?

Answer 54

Primates = anterior hippocampus Rats = ventral hippocampus Same region - just varies in name depending on where head is in relation to body

Question 55

What are characteristics of a child with an anxious temperament?

Answer 55

Kids with AT are abnormally shy in front of strangers, inhibit their locomotion and vocalisations. They worry excessively.

Question 56

How did Kalin design a threat situation to model anxious temperament in monkeys?

Answer 56

Kalin’s group present a human in profile (not direct eye contact) 2.5 metres away from cage

Question 57

How do monkeys exhibit anxious temperament?

Answer 57

Monkeys typically: inhibit locomotion, and inhibit cooing

Question 58

In Oler et al. (2010), measured brain activity in monkeys who were related to one another, using glucose and a PET scan. How did this work?

Answer 58

Inject FDG (like glucose) before exposure to human ‘intruder’. Glucose metabolism during the Intruder Threat period reflects activity during that threat period. The FDG levels are then measured with PET after the threat. (Note: i.e. this uptake will reflect not only threat-induced activity but also some baseline activity).

Question 59

How did Oler et al. (2010) measure anxious temperament? (behavioural and biological)

Answer 59

2 measures of behavioural inhibition: i.e. freezing and cooing (during the threat period) AND Cortisol level (after the threat period) AT in this study is a composite measure, comprising: A) Freezing B) (Reduced) cooing C) Cortisol release

Question 60

Is there a positive correlation between AT and dorsal amygdala activity? (Oler et al., 2010)

Answer 60

Yes 0.44 for right amygdala

Question 61

Is there a positive correlation between AT and anterior hippocampus activity? (Oler et al., 2010)

Answer 61

Yes 0.45 for left hippocampus

Question 62

Is anxious temperament heritable?

Answer 62

Yes - 0.36 for monkey AT behaviour Also shown for human anxiety

Question 63

Is anxious temperament-related brain activity heritable?

Answer 63

Yes, in hippocampus but not amygdala Region of overlap in the hippocampus between: a) heritability of glucose metabolism area b) Area that most predicts AT The heritability of the activity in the HPC area that most predicted AT was h2 = 0.52 Quite high for a measurement of heritability

Question 64

Is the right or left hippocampus more active in Speilberger's trait anxiety?

Answer 64

Right

Question 65

Corr et al. (2022) looked at brain activity during a stress test in peri-adolescents (fMRI imaging during stress test, Trait Anxiety Q). What activity did stressors in early life strongly predict?

Answer 65

Higher right Hippocampal activation Higher trait anxiety scores This relationship between polyvictimisation and trait anxiety is partly mediated by right hippocampal activity

Question 66

What part of the hippocampus mediates anxiety?

Answer 66

Anterior - role in anxiety Posterior - spatial cognition memory