White Matter Plasticity in Anxiety: Disruption of Neural Network Synchronization During Threat-Safety Discrimination

Recent evidence highlighted the importance of white matter tracts in typical and atypical behaviors. White matter dynamically changes in response to learning, stress, and social experiences. Several lines of evidence have reported white matter dysfunction in psychiatric conditions, including depression, stress- and anxiety-related disorders. The mechanistic underpinnings of these associations, however, remain poorly understood. Here, we outline an integrative perspective positing a link between aberrant myelin plasticity and anxiety. Drawing on extant literature and emerging new findings, we suggest that in anxiety, unique changes may occur in response to threat and to safety learning and the ability to discriminate between both types of stimuli. We propose that altered myelin plasticity in the neural circuits underlying these two forms of learning relates to the emergence of anxiety-related disorders, by compromising mechanisms of neural network synchronization. The clinical and translational implications of this model for anxiety-related disorders are discussed.