The Neurobiology of Anxiety

불안의 생물학적 근원

Anxiety is one of the basic emotions which human experiences across different cultures in the world and it can be observed in mammals. Our understanding of the neurobiology of this emotion has made some advances, even though it has not been completed, with the development and advance in the investigation method including neuroimaging, neurochemical, and genetic approaches. In this article, the neuroanatomical and neurochemical basis of anxiety is reviewed. The amygdaloid complex has been known to playa key role in processing of anxiety or fear. It has extensive afferent and/or efferent connections with cortical and subcortical structures. The mesial temporal structures including hippocampus appear to be involved in acquisition of anxiety and related behaviors. The prefrontal cortical structures appear to play important roles in conscious awareness of anxiety and in modulating anxiety and related behavior. The bed nucleus of the stria terminalis (BNST) is known to playa critical role in unconditioned fear response. The central noradrenergic system and hypothalamo-pituitary-adrenal axis are known to play important roles in modulating and expressing anxiety-related responses. Anxiety has been gathering attentions from many investigators and numerous preclinical and clinical investigations of anxiety and anxiety disorders have been done. In particular, neural plasticity in critical period and the psychobiological factors related to resilience to extreme stress and anxiety are important issues in this field.