WSchmitt_Annotation13_UWisconsin_EmotionandAsthmaSymptomExacerbation

This study was published as part of an interdisciplinary study of stress and emotion affecting asthma symptoms. The study was published by the Department of Psychology, Lab for Affective Neuroscience at the University of Wisconsin, the Lab for Functional Brain Imaging and Behavior at the University of Wisconsin, the Department of Medicine at the University of Wisconsin, the School of Sport and Exercise Sciences at the University of Birmingham, Birmingham, UK, and the Departments of Oral Biology and Molecular Virology, Immunology, and Medical Genetics at the Ohio State University. The study involved six asthmatics, 3 being female, 3 being male. They were each positive to skin-prick tests with cat dander, house dust mite, or ragweed extract. The study was done by doing functional magnetic resonance imaging as well as measurements of lung function before, during and after a challenge, which was the display of asthma relevant, negative, or valence-neutral words. The challenges occurred one-hour after and four-hours after exposure to one of three different exposures to line up with early phase and late phase reactions. The three tests were done with 1) a saline solution to serve as a baseline, 2) "Meth, an acute bronchoconstrictor, without the capacity to cause inflamation," and 3) a subject-specific antigen, which was to incur a early- and late- phase response. The results showed that "At this time, we do not know whether the signals we are observing in the brain represent the afferent modulation of neural activity by signaling from the lung or reflect central efferent processes that modulate the lung. What we do know is that the effects are highly specific to asthma content. The fact that they were also stronger in response to antigen suggests that it is the afferent signals associated with the development of inflammation that likely play the key role in modulating the sensitivity of the ACC and insula to the presentation of As stimuli."

Rosenkranz, Melissa A., William W. Busse, Tom Johnstone, Cheri A. Swenson, Gina M. Crisafi, Maryjo M. Jackson, Jos A. Bosch, John F. Sheridan, and Richard J. Davidson. "Neural Circuitry Underlying the Interaction between Emotion and Asthma Symptom Exacerbation." Ed. Marcus E. Raichle. //Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences// 102.37 (2005): 13319-3324. //Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences//. PNAS, 13 Sept. 2005. Web. 13 May 2010. <[|www.pnas.org/cgi/doi/10.1073/pnas.0504365102]>.