1. Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte
2. Instituto do Cérebro
3. ICe - Artigos publicados em periódicos

Title:	Effects of diazepam on BOLD activation during the processing of aversive faces
Authors:	Del-Ben, Cristina M Ferreira, Cesar AQ Sanchez, Tiago A Alves-Neto, Wolme C Guapo, Vinicius G Araújo, Dráulio Barros de Graeff, Frederico G
Keywords:	Benzodiazepines;Emotions;Facial expression;Magnetic resonance;Imaging
Issue Date:	2012
Portuguese Abstract:	This study aimed to measure, using fMRI, the effect of diazepam on the haemodynamic response to emotional faces. Twelve healthy male volunteers (mean age¼24.8363.16 years), were evaluated in a randomized, balanced-order, double-blind, placebo-controlled crossover design. Diazepam (10 mg) or placebo was given 1 h before the neuroimaging acquisition. In a blocked design covert face emotional task, subjects were presented with neutral (A) and aversive (B) (angry or fearful) faces. Participants were also submitted to an explicit emotional face recognition task, and subjective anxiety was evaluated throughout the procedures. Diazepam attenuated the activation of right amygdala and right orbitofrontal cortex and enhanced the activation of right anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) to fearful faces. In contrast, diazepam enhanced the activation of posterior left insula and attenuated the activation of bilateral ACC to angry faces. In the behavioural task, diazepam impaired the recognition of fear in female faces. Under the action of diazepam, volunteers were less anxious at the end of the experimental session. These results suggest that benzodiazepines can differentially modulate brain activation to aversive stimuli, depending on the stimulus features and indicate a role of amygdala and insula in the anxiolytic action of benzodiazepines.
URI:	https://repositorio.ufrn.br/jspui/handle/123456789/23252
ISSN:	0269-8811
Appears in Collections:	ICe - Artigos publicados em periódicos

Items in DSpace are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.