Fig. 3.

Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD)-specific effects in psychophysiological interaction analyses (PPI). One-way region of interest analyses of variances (ROI ANOVAs) per seed region revealed significant functional connectivity (FC) effects for the main effect group in which generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) patients showed disorder-specific responding to threat vs. neutral pictures relative to each group (vs. panic disorder patients [PD], vs. social anxiety disorder patients [SAD], vs. healthy controls [HC]; all p < 0.05) (Table 2). A: Seeding left posterior mid cingulate cortex (pMCC) revealed significantly increased FC with right amygdala for GAD patients relative to healthy controls (HC), social anxiety disorder (SAD) patients or panic disorder (PD) patients. B: Seeding left dorsal anterior insula/frontal operculum (daI/FO) revealed significantly decreased FC with right mid-dlPFC for GAD patients relative to HC, SAD or PD patients. C: Seeding left posterior dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC) revealed significantly increased FC with right ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (vlPFC) for GAD patients relative to HC, SAD or PD patients. D: Seeding left posterior mid cingulate cortex (pMCC) revealed significantly increased FC with right ventral anterior insula (aI) for GAD patients relative to HC, SAD or PD patients. Statistical parametric maps are overlaid on an averaged T1 scan (radiological convention: left = right). Graphs display contrasts of parameter estimates threat > neutral pictures [(mean ± standard error for activation cluster)] per group.