Kimberly Kundert-Obando; Terra Lee; Caroline G. Martin; Kamalpreet Kaur; Juan Gomez Lagandara; Yamin Li; Jeffrey M. Harding; Shiyu Wang; Richard Song; Ruoqi Yang; Rithwik Guntaka; Sarah E. Goodale; Roza G. Bayrak; Lucina Q. Uddin; Martin Walter; Jeremy Hogeveen; Catie Chang (2026).听.听Cerebral Cortex, 36(2), bhag008.听
This study explores how brain activity measured with functional MRI (fMRI) can help better understand and personalize the diagnosis and treatment of anxiety. Anxiety is not just a psychological experience鈥攊t also involves physical responses in the body, such as changes in heart rate and alertness (called聽arousal). These bodily and brain-wide states can influence fMRI signals across the entire brain, often referred to as 鈥済lobal鈥� signals. Traditionally, these global signals have been treated as noise or interference, but the researchers investigated whether they might actually contain meaningful information about anxiety.
To do this, the team analyzed fMRI data to identify patterns related to both聽autonomic physiological activity聽(automatic body functions like heart rate) and聽cortical arousal聽(how alert or activated the brain is). They then examined how these patterns relate to two types of anxiety:聽state anxiety聽(temporary, situation-based anxiety) and聽trait anxiety聽(a person鈥檚 general tendency to feel anxious). The results showed clear links between these global brain signals and both forms of anxiety, with certain brain regions showing stronger associations. These patterns overlapped with well-known brain networks, including the聽default mode network, which is involved in self-reflection and internal thoughts.
Overall, the findings suggest that these global fMRI signals carry useful information about how anxiety is represented in the brain. This insight could help improve how anxiety is measured and understood, potentially leading to more personalized approaches to diagnosis and treatment.
Fig 1. Spatial association between global components and anxiety. a and b) Areas in which the FAI was significantly associated with state and trait
anxiety. c and d) Areas in which the GS was significantly associated with state and trait anxiety (GS was analyzed using a negative contrast). Maps show
the t-statistics thresholded at P <0.05 corrected.