State and trait anxiety modulate hemodynamic amygdala responses to innocuous auditory stimulation

Overview

Authors: Despina Kartsaki¹, Martina-Trisia Cinca-Tomás¹, Emmanouela Kosteletou-Kassotaki¹, Mara Cean¹, Debora Lombardo¹, Judith Domínguez-Borràs¹

Universitat de Barcelona

Institutions: Universitat de Barcelona (Spain)

Journal: Research Square (preprint)

Dates: published online 22 July 2026

Type: Preprint

License: CC BY

Identifiers: DOI 10.21203/rs.3.rs-10360357/v1 · OpenAlex W7170038022

Open access: green, a free copy (OpenAlex)

Status: data only

Categories: fMRI (modality), human (organism), other condition (population), cognitive (subfield)

Methods: Statistics, Connectivity, fMRI & imaging

Keywords: anxiety, amygdala, emotional processing, auditory, visual, functional MRI

Topic: Anxiety, Depression, Psychometrics, Treatment, Cognitive Processes (Experimental and Cognitive Psychology, Psychology), according to OpenAlex

Funding: European Research Council (101088954)

Citations: not cited yet (Europe PMC); 62 references in the paper

Abstract

Anxiety strongly influences emotion processing and the perception of threat. Amygdala activity has been consistently linked to the evaluation of affective salience and threatening stimuli. Here, we investigated whether state and trait anxiety modulate amygdala responses to fearful and neutral stimuli, and whether such modulation differs across visual and auditory modalities. Healthy participants (N = 36, 50% female) underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) while being presented with fearful and neutral faces and voices. Anxiety was assessed using the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI). Whole-brain and amygdala responses were analysed in relation to individual anxiety scores. Higher state and trait anxiety scores were associated with stronger right amygdala responses to neutral relative to fearful voices. This anxiety-related modulation was specific to the auditory modality and was not observed for visual stimuli, despite the participants’ similar emotion ratings across neutral voices and faces. Together, these findings suggest that anxiety is associated with enhanced amygdala sensitivity to emotionally neutral auditory signals, consistent with heightened vigilance to innocuous or ambiguous cues.

Reproduced under the paper's license (CC BY), from the paper cited above.

Code

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Data

Datasets cited

doi:10.18112/openneuro.ds007690.v1.0.0, at OpenNeuro; found in “Data Availability”
openneuro:ds007690, at OpenNeuro; found in “Data Availability”

Data Availability

Data Availability Statement:Raw data are deposited at OpenNeuro and are publicly available in https://openneuro.org/datasets/ds007690/versions/1.0.0 (doi:10.18112/openneuro.ds007690.v1.0.0 (https://doi.org/10.18112/openneuro.ds007690.v1.0.0)).

Reproduced under the paper's license (CC BY), from the paper cited above.

Versions

The history of this record: each version stored by the harvester or made by a correction of its authors or of the maintainers of its code, and what changed in its facts. The texts of the paper (its abstract, its availability statements) are not part of it; versions that changed only those are not listed.

Version 1, 27 September 2026: the first record

Recorded: type, journal, dates, 6 authors, 6 keywords, 1 funder, 55 references.

Cite

This paper

Kartsaki, D., Cinca-Tomás, M.-T., Kosteletou-Kassotaki, E., Cean, M., Lombardo, D., & Domínguez-Borràs, J. (2026). State and trait anxiety modulate hemodynamic amygdala responses to innocuous auditory stimulation. Research Square (preprint). https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-10360357/v1

BibTeX

@article{kartsaki2026state, author = {Kartsaki, Despina and Cinca-Tomás, Martina-Trisia and Kosteletou-Kassotaki, Emmanouela and Cean, Mara and Lombardo, Debora and Domínguez-Borràs, Judith}, title = {{State and trait anxiety modulate hemodynamic amygdala responses to innocuous auditory stimulation}}, journal = {Research Square (preprint)}, year = {2026}, month = jul, publisher = {Research Square}, issn = {2693-5015}, doi = {10.21203/rs.3.rs-10360357/v1}, url = {https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-10360357/v1} }

RIS

TY - JOUR AU - Kartsaki, Despina AU - Cinca-Tomás, Martina-Trisia AU - Kosteletou-Kassotaki, Emmanouela AU - Cean, Mara AU - Lombardo, Debora AU - Domínguez-Borràs, Judith TI - State and trait anxiety modulate hemodynamic amygdala responses to innocuous auditory stimulation T2 - Research Square (preprint) J2 - Res Sq PY - 2026 DA - 2026/07/22 SN - 2693-5015 PB - Research Square DO - 10.21203/rs.3.rs-10360357/v1 UR - https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-10360357/v1 ER -

CSL-JSON

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