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Intersubject representational similarity analysis uncovers the impact of state anxiety on brain activation patterns in the human extrastriate cortex

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Abstract

The current study used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and showed that state anxiety modulated extrastriate cortex activity in response to emotionally-charged visual images. State anxiety and neuroimaging data from 53 individuals were subjected to an intersubject representational similarity analysis (ISRSA), wherein the geometries between neural and behavioral data were compared. This analysis identified the extrastriate cortex (fusiform gyrus and area MT) to be the sole regions whose activity patterns covaried with state anxiety. Importantly, we show that this brain-behavior association is revealed when treating state anxiety data as a multidimensional response pattern, rather than a single composite score. This suggests that ISRSA using multivariate distances may be more sensitive in identifying the shared geometries between self-report questionnaires and brain imaging data. Overall, our findings demonstrate that a transient state of anxiety may influence how visual information – especially those relevant to the valence dimension – is processed in the extrastriate cortex.

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Data availability

The fMRI data used to perform the analysis in the paper is available at Neurovault (https://neurovault.org/collections/16284/).

Code availability

The code and data used to perform the analysis in the paper are available on GitHub (https://github.com/CHEN-lab-NTU/state_anxiety_ISRSA).

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Acknowledgments

This research was supported by funding from the NSTC and MOE (MOST 109-2636-H-002-006 and 110-2636-H-002-004; NSTC 111-2628-H-002-004 and 111-2423-H-002-008-MY4; MOE NTU-CC-110L9A00702 and 112L9A00402 to P.-H.A. Chen) in Taiwan. This research was also supported by the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF-2021R1F1A1045988 to M.J. Kim).

Declarations

Funding

This research was supported by funding from the NSTC and MOE (MOST 109-2636-H-002-006 and 110-2636-H-002-004; NSTC 111-2628-H-002-004 and 111-2423-H-002-008-MY4; MOE NTU-CC-110L9A00702 and 112L9A00402 to P.-H.A. Chen) in Taiwan. This research was also supported by the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF-2021R1F1A1045988 to M.J. Kim).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan

    Po-Yuan A. Hsiao, Feng-Chun B. Chou & Pin-Hao A. Chen

  2. Department of Psychology, Sungkyunkwan University, Seoul, South Korea

    M. Justin Kim

  3. Center for Neuroscience Imaging Research, Institute for Basic Science, Suwon, South Korea

    M. Justin Kim

  4. Neurobiology and Cognitive Science Center, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan

    Pin-Hao A. Chen

  5. Graduate Institute of Brain and Mind Sciences, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan

    Pin-Hao A. Chen

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  1. Po-Yuan A. Hsiao
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  2. M. Justin Kim
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  3. Feng-Chun B. Chou
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  4. Pin-Hao A. Chen
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Contributions

Study design (Chen, P.-H. A.), data collection (Chen, P.-H. A.), statistical analysis (Hsiao, P.-Y. A. and Chou, F.-C. B.), interpretation of results (Hsiao, P.-Y. A, Kim, M.J. and Chen, P.-H. A.), writing the manuscript (All authors), and approval of final version to be published and agreement to be accountable for the integrity and accuracy of all aspects of the work (All authors).

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Correspondence to Pin-Hao A. Chen.

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Hsiao, PY.A., Kim, M.J., Chou, FC.B. et al. Intersubject representational similarity analysis uncovers the impact of state anxiety on brain activation patterns in the human extrastriate cortex. Brain Imaging and Behavior 18, 1–9 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11682-024-00854-1

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