Altered functional connectivity of basal ganglia circuitry in dental phobia

Abstract

Recent symptom provocation studies that compared patients suffering from dental phobia with healthy controls identified hyperactivation of basal ganglia structures, but none have assessed striatal functional connectivity. We reanalyzed data from a previous functional magnetic resonance imaging study on dental phobia. Patients (20 men, 25 women) and healthy controls (18 men, 23 women) had been exposed to pictures showing dental treatment, and neutral contents. We conducted connectivity analyses via psychophysiological interactions (PPIs). Relative to non-phobic controls, the patients showed decreased connectivity between prefrontal and basal ganglia regions. Moreover, the clinical group was characterized by increased internal basal ganglia connectivity, which was more pronounced in female compared with male patients. This study provides first evidence for an altered information flow within a fronto-striatal network in dentophobic individuals during visual symptom provocation, which can be considered a neuromarker of this disorder.