Table 1.
Human studies of N/NE and distress-eliciting neuroimaging paradigms.
| Study | N (% Male) | Neuroticism/Negative Emotionality (N/NE) | MRI Field Strength (T) | EPI Voxel Size (mm3) | Normalizationa | Trait-Relevant Challenge(s) | Analysis Type | Summary of EAc Results |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Present Study | 220 (49.5%), stratified sampling to capture a broad spectrum of N/NE; screened to exclude current internalizing illness | Multi-Scale, Multi-Occasion Composite | 3 | 10.5 | BBR and Diffeomorphic | Anticipation of U ncertain/Certain Aversive Shock, Auditory Clips, and Photographs; Negative Emotional Faces vs. Place Scenes |
ROIs, Voxelwise | See the main report |
| Brinkmann et al., 2018 (Brinkmann et al., 2018) | 93 (35.5%), screened to exclude any internalizing illness in the past five years | STAI | 3 | 15.3 | Affine and Manual TT | Aversive Photographs | NR | NS |
| Indovina et al., 2011 (Indovina et al., 2011) | 23 (43.5%), screened to exclude lifetime internalizing illness | STAI | 3 | 18.0 | “SPM5” | Pavlovian Threat Cue (Auditory UCS; Uninstructed) | Amygdala ROI | Positive relations between the magnitude of amygdala reactivity and N/NE |
| Kirlic et al., 2019 (Kirlic et al., 2019) | 83 (42.2%), 43 of whom had depression or anxiety disorder diagnoses | Multi-Scale Composite | 3 | 18.1 | “AFNI” and Diffeomorphic | Anticipation of Uncertain Shock | Voxelwise | NS |
| Klumpers et al., 2017 (Klumpers et al., 2017) | 108 (100%), screened to exclude lifetime internalizing illness | STAI | 1.5 | 38.1 | “SPM8” | Anticipation of Uncertain Shock | Amygdala and BST ROIs | NS |
| Schuyler et al., 2012 (Schuyler et al., 2012) | 127 (36.2%), screened to exclude past-year internalizing illness | BFI-N | 3 | 56.25 | Affine | Aversive Photographs | Amygdala fROI | Positive relations between the persistence of amygdala reactivity and N/NE |
| Sjouwerman et al., 2020 (Sjouwerman et al., 2020) | 113 (61.1%), screened to exclude lifetime internalizing illness | STAI | 3 | 8.0 | “SPM8” | Pavlovian Threat Cue (Shock UCS; Uninstructed) | Amygdala SVC | Positive relations between amygdala reactivity and N/NE |
| Somerville et al., 2010 (Somerville et al., 2010) | 50 (44%), screened to exclude lifetime internalizing illness | Multi-Scale Composite | 3 | 31.5 | “SPM2” | Anticipation of Uncertain Shock | Amygdala and BST fROIs, Voxelwise |
Positive relations
between the magnitude of BST reactivity and N/NE
NS Amygdala |
| Visser et al., 2021 (Visser et al., 2021) | 98 (30.6%), screened to exclude lifetime internalizing illness | STAI | 3 | 8.0 | BBR and Diffeomorphic | Pavlovian Threat Cue (Shock UCS; Uninstructed) | Amygdala SVC | NS Amygdala |
Older normalization techniques (e.g., affine) can introduce substantial spatial smoothing and registration error, which is a concern for work focused on small subcortical structures, such as the Ce and BST.
Abbreviations—AFNI, Analysis of Functional Neuroimages software package; BBR, boundary-based registration of the T1- and T2-weighted images; BFI-N, Big Five Inventory-Neuroticism; EAc, central extended amygdala; fROI, functionally defined region-of-interest (all others are anatomically defined); NEO-FFI, Neuroticism/Extraversion/Openness Five-Factor Inventory-3; NR, not reported or indeterminate; NS, not significant; SPM#, Statistical Parametric Mapping software package (# indicates version); STAI, Spielberger State-Trait Anxiety Inventory; SVC, Small-Volume Corrected; TT, piecewise linear Talairach-Tournoux transformation; UCS, Unconditioned Stimulus.