Graduate Program in Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Hospital de Clínicas de Porto Alegre (HCPA), Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS), Brazil.
2 papers in the library · 50 citations · publishing 2013-2025
Mind-wandering, which occupies much of daily life, often involves autobiographical recall and self-reflection. Brain imaging shows that a set of regions called the default mode network (DMN) is active during such spontaneous thought, but the roles of different cognitive components within the DMN were unclear. Using fMRI, researchers compared brain activity during emotional autobiographical memory recall, neutral memory recall, and resting wakefulness, with a subtraction task as a control. Both emotional recall and resting state activated shared DMN regions compared to the control.
Symptom improvement in generalized anxiety disorder may involve enhanced functional coupling between brain regions critical for emotional regulation, self-referential processing, and stimulus selection, particularly between the left amygdala and right orbitofrontal cortex. In a randomized trial with 20 patients, those receiving mindfulness training showed improvement linked to amygdala connectivity with the default mode and salience networks, while those on fluoxetine showed improvement linked to amygdala-orbitofrontal cortex coupling. However, no significant differences between the two treatment groups were found. Larger studies are needed to clarify treatment-specific neural mechanisms.