According to this summary of a recent University of Illinois study of brain activity, there are two distinct varieties of anxiety: "anxious apprehension (verbal rumination, worry) and anxious arousal (intense fear, panic, or both)." In brief, those exhibiting anxious apprehension (which maps to a diagnosis of Generalized Anxiety Disorder) show increased activity in the left brain, while those exhibiting anxious arousal (which maps more to panic disorder) show increased activity in the right brain. From the article:
The researchers used functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) to map the brain areas with heightened neural activity during a variety of psychological probes.
As the researchers had predicted, the anxious apprehension group exhibited enhanced left-brain activity and the anxious arousal group had heightened activity in the right brain. The anxious apprehension group showed increased activity in a region of the left inferior frontal lobe that is associated with speech production. The anxious arousal group had more activity in a region of the right-hemisphere inferior temporal lobe that is believed to be involved in tracking and responding to information signaling danger.
Other studies using electroencephalographic (EEG) methods had found that patients diagnosed with generalized anxiety disorder and obsessive-compulsive disorder had heightened activity in the left brain, whereas patients with panic disorder, panic symptoms or those subjected to high stress situations exhibited enhanced activity in the right hemisphere.
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