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New Frontiers in Anxiety Research: The Translational Potential of the Bed Nucleus of the Stria Terminalis

After decades of being overshadowed by the amygdala, new perspectives suggest that a tiny basal forebrain region known as the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis (BNST) may hold key insights into understanding and treating anxiety disorders. Converging research indicates that the amygdala and BNST p...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Knight, Lindsay K., Depue, Brendan E.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2019
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6650589/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31379626
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2019.00510
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author Knight, Lindsay K.
Depue, Brendan E.
author_facet Knight, Lindsay K.
Depue, Brendan E.
author_sort Knight, Lindsay K.
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description After decades of being overshadowed by the amygdala, new perspectives suggest that a tiny basal forebrain region known as the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis (BNST) may hold key insights into understanding and treating anxiety disorders. Converging research indicates that the amygdala and BNST play complementary but distinct functional roles during threat processing, with the BNST specializing in the detection of a potential threat to maintain hypervigilance and anxiety, while the amygdala responds to the perceived presence of an aversive stimulus (i.e., fear). Therefore, given that human anxiety is largely driven by future-oriented hypothetical threats that may never occur, studies involving the BNST stand at the forefront of essential future research with the potential to bring about profound insights for understanding and treating anxiety disorders. In this article, we present a narrative review on the BNST, summarizing its roles in anxiety and the stress response and highlighting the most recent advances in the clinical realm. Furthermore, we discuss oversights in the current state of anxiety research and identify avenues for future exploration.
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spelling pubmed-66505892019-08-02 New Frontiers in Anxiety Research: The Translational Potential of the Bed Nucleus of the Stria Terminalis Knight, Lindsay K. Depue, Brendan E. Front Psychiatry Psychiatry After decades of being overshadowed by the amygdala, new perspectives suggest that a tiny basal forebrain region known as the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis (BNST) may hold key insights into understanding and treating anxiety disorders. Converging research indicates that the amygdala and BNST play complementary but distinct functional roles during threat processing, with the BNST specializing in the detection of a potential threat to maintain hypervigilance and anxiety, while the amygdala responds to the perceived presence of an aversive stimulus (i.e., fear). Therefore, given that human anxiety is largely driven by future-oriented hypothetical threats that may never occur, studies involving the BNST stand at the forefront of essential future research with the potential to bring about profound insights for understanding and treating anxiety disorders. In this article, we present a narrative review on the BNST, summarizing its roles in anxiety and the stress response and highlighting the most recent advances in the clinical realm. Furthermore, we discuss oversights in the current state of anxiety research and identify avenues for future exploration. Frontiers Media S.A. 2019-07-17 /pmc/articles/PMC6650589/ /pubmed/31379626 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2019.00510 Text en Copyright © 2019 Knight and Depue http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Psychiatry
Knight, Lindsay K.
Depue, Brendan E.
New Frontiers in Anxiety Research: The Translational Potential of the Bed Nucleus of the Stria Terminalis
title New Frontiers in Anxiety Research: The Translational Potential of the Bed Nucleus of the Stria Terminalis
title_full New Frontiers in Anxiety Research: The Translational Potential of the Bed Nucleus of the Stria Terminalis
title_fullStr New Frontiers in Anxiety Research: The Translational Potential of the Bed Nucleus of the Stria Terminalis
title_full_unstemmed New Frontiers in Anxiety Research: The Translational Potential of the Bed Nucleus of the Stria Terminalis
title_short New Frontiers in Anxiety Research: The Translational Potential of the Bed Nucleus of the Stria Terminalis
title_sort new frontiers in anxiety research: the translational potential of the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis
topic Psychiatry
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6650589/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31379626
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2019.00510
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