2008). Therefore, it is possible that participants high in anxious apprehension are initially concerned about performing tasks adequately and that they engage dACC in order to appropriately select actions. The fact that this happens only when the stimuli are not negatively valenced may reflect the fact that worry evoked by negative words supersedes the desire to perform the task adequately. Overall, the anxious apprehension findings provide further support for Borkovec’s theory that worry

functions as a form of cognitive Selleckchem VX809 avoidance (Borkovec et al. 2004), because initial engagement of Broca’s area in individuals high in anxious apprehension was associated Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical with a suppressed Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical initial response in right SFG. If engagement with negative

stimuli is suppressed by worry, the aversive experience of fully processing negatively valenced stimuli may be avoided, which may reinforce engagement in worry. Present findings also support the hypothesis that engaging in cognitive avoidance can disrupt Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical habituation, because activation in right SFG increased over time rather than habituated. Thus, although engaging in worry may be an adaptive response to negatively valenced stimuli in the short term, the associated disruption in habituation may lead to the maintenance of anxiety over time. Consequently, engagement in worry may disrupt exposure-based interventions, and worry reduction before engaging in exposure may increase the effectiveness of such interventions. In addition, findings may provide

insight into Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical the mechanisms of effectiveness of mindfulness-based treatments for anxiety (Orsillo et al. 2005). To the degree that the practice of mindfulness disrupts worry via a focus on attention to breathing and Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical not on thoughts, natural or therapeutic exposure to feared stimuli will produce habituation more successfully. Thus, mindfulness-based interventions may have a greater therapeutic impact on individuals with excessive anxious apprehension than on those whose primary difficulty is excessive anxious arousal. Although the present study focused on worry, the Metalloexopeptidase findings for anxious apprehension may be due specifically to the repetitive nature of worry. If so, findings may also apply to other patterns of repetitive thinking such as rumination and may be better captured by a higher-order factor sometimes labeled repetitive negative thinking (McEvoy et al. 2010) or perseverative iterative thinking style (Davey and Levy 1998). Given that repetitive thinking patterns are common to a number of psychopathology dimensions (e.g., depression), present findings may indicate that reducing repetitive thinking is an important first step in treatment more generally.