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Personal View

Precision psychiatry: a neural circuit taxonomy for


depression and anxiety
Leanne M Williams

Although there have been tremendous advances in the understanding of human dysfunctions in the brain circuitry Lancet Psychiatry 2016
for self-reection, emotion, and cognitive control, a brain-based taxonomy for mental disease is still lacking. As a Published Online
result, these advances have not been translated into actionable clinical tools, and the language of brain circuits has not April 14, 2016
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/
been incorporated into training programmes. To address this gap, I present this synthesis of published work, with a
S2215-0366(15)00579-9
focus on functional imaging of circuit dysfunctions across the spectrum of mood and anxiety disorders. This synthesis
Department of Psychiatry and
provides the foundation for a taxonomy of putative types of dysfunction, which cuts across traditional diagnostic Behavioral Sciences, Stanford
boundaries for depression and anxiety and includes instead distinct types of neural circuit dysfunction that together University, CA, USA
reect the heterogeneity of depression and anxiety. This taxonomy is suited to specifying symptoms in terms of (L M Williams PhD)
underlying neural dysfunction at the individual level and is intended as the foundation for building mechanistic Correspondence to:
research and ultimately guiding clinical practice. Dr Leanne M Williams,
Department of Psychiatry and
Behavioral Sciences, Stanford
Introduction causes of disability and lost productivity, with a staggering University, 401 Quarry Road,
Technical and conceptual advances in brain imaging economic cost in the USA of US$4253 billion per year.8 Stanford, CA, 941345717, USA
leawilliams@stanford.edu
have provided new insights into the brain circuits that Other medical specialties, such as cardiovascular medicine,
underlie complex cognitive, emotional, and self-reective face similar challenges in translating complex biological
functions,14 the very functions that dene human signals into clinical care models,9 but are further ahead in
experience. Dysfunctions within and between these linking a taxonomy based on the organ of interest to
circuits give rise to the symptoms that characterise subjective symptoms and treatment indications. For
mental disease. Understanding these dysfunctions oers example, electrocardiography can be used to quantify types
the opportunity to specify symptoms at the level of the of arrhythmia due to electrical circuit dysfunctions (too
organ that generates themthe brain. By doing so, the fast, too slow, irregular) and to indicate specic treatments
notion of mental disease could be revolutionised and (pacemaker), and angiography can be used to quantify
treatments could be tailored according to individual types of blockage due to coronary heart disease (clots,
experiences and underlying neural disconnections. stroke, heart attack) and to indicate treatments (lifestyle
Why therefore is there such a gap between these changes, medications, surgery).
advances and their application in practice? In psychiatry,
language about brain circuits has not been incorporated A neural circuit approach to mental disorder
into clinically meaningful taxonomies, training pro- As a broad hypothesis, it is proposed that specic
grammes do not provide doctors with training in neural dysfunctions in the functional and structural connectivity
circuit terminology, and practitioners do not have of large-scale circuits that govern emotional, cognitive,
neuroscience-based tools to inform their decision and self-reective functions dene unique biotypes of
making. This gap remains despite substantial eorts on depression and anxiety. These biotypes will probably
many fronts. Federally, the US National Institute of dier from traditional diagnostic categories and are likely
Mental Health is pioneering the Research Domain to overlap, interact, or co-occur in individual patients. A
Criteria project, the aim of which is to generate a neuro- single mechanism is unlikely to underlie a broad
biologically valid classication for mental disorders.5 The descriptive diagnosis such as depression. Two people in
aim of the White Houses BRAIN Initiative is to develop whom major depressive disorder is diagnosed might
neurotechnologies for demystifying brain disorders, share only one symptom. The current symptom-based
including depression.6 The National Institute of Mental categories arguably conate several types of individuals
Health and American Psychiatric Association worked in whom diverse brain dysfunctions drive symptoms. If a
hard to develop the new, fth edition of the Diagnostic taxonomy based on brain dysfunctions is articulated,
and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5), and then it can be mapped onto the proles of symptoms to
to incorporate neuroscience not covered in previous which these dysfunctions give rise.
editions.7 Mental disorders have not typically been thought of as
In this Personal View, I propose that the development of brain disorders. Instead, the term brain disorder
a neural circuit taxonomy suited to clinical actions is one normally refers to a neurological condition associated
way to address the gap between brain imaging advances with a discrete lesion or degenerative process. This usage
and practice. There is a compelling need for change, in might reect limited understanding of the real-time
view of the escalating burden of mental disease. Globally, coordination of the brain. With the advent of brain-
405 million people experience depression, and 274 million imaging techniques with sucient spatial and temporal
have anxiety disorders.8 These disorders are the main resolution to quantify neural connections in vivo, now is

www.thelancet.com/psychiatry Published online April 14, 2016 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S2215-0366(15)00579-9 1


Personal View

the right time to reformulate understanding of mental In this Personal View, I focus on six circuits that have
disorders as neural circuit dysfunctions. been implicated in dysfunctions expressed in
depression and anxiety: default mode, salience, negative
Which large-scale circuits? aect, positive aect (reward), attention, and cognitive
Researchers have identied an intrinsic neural circuit control (gure 1). I summarise available evidence as a
architecture that might underlie domain-general basis for proposing putative biotypes of dysfunction
processes of self-reection, salience perception, and that might account for the natural heterogeneity of
attention, as well as sensorimotor, visual, and auditory these disorders.
function.1,3,4,10 The universality of this intrinsic architecture
has been demonstrated with large-scale functional Types of neural circuit dysfunction underlying
connectivity analysis of hundreds of brain regions depression and anxiety
encompassing every major brain system at rest and across The summary of existing evidence is based on published
64 task-evoked states.1 These brain regions have been meta-analyses and reviews and on circuits and circuit
identied with parcellation and meta-analysis.1 During dysfunctions that have been identied in at least two well
rest, the default mode circuit tends to be upregulated, and powered studies. So far, the focus of brain imaging
other circuits downregulated.1,2 This intrinsic architecture research has mainly and appropriately been on case-
might also have a major role in shaping task processes control comparisons, in which mood and anxiety
such as controlling cognitionor reaction to threatening disorder are dened by traditional criteria. Activation
or rewarding stimuli, with a smaller amount of variance within specic brain regions of interest was also a focus.
contributed by extrinsic task-general and task-specic In the past 5 years, there has been an escalation in the
evoked changes.1,1115 This extrinsic architecture has been study of dysfunctions in connectivity within and between
shown by conjunction analysis of multiple datasets with circuits in depression and anxiety, partly as a result of
multiple tasks.15 Task-general proles include a down- advances in precision imaging and analysis techniques,
regulation of within-circuit functional connectivity during including those developed within the Human
task performance and an anticorrelation between default Connectome Project.19,20
mode and circuits involved in attention and cognitive Existing ndings tend to be inconsistent, and reveal
control,1,15 although there could be positive correlations proles of neural hyporeactivity and hyper-reactivity, and
with demanding shifts in task sets.16 Task-specic both hypoconnectivity and hyperconnectivity, within the
activations and connectivity correlate with overt broad diagnostic categories of depression and anxiety.
behavioural performance.17,18 These variations might show the contribution of multiple
biotypes of underlying neural circuit dysfunction that cut
Default mode Salience Negative aect across existing diagnostic categories. Group-average
aMPFC dACC ACC/MPFC results might reect dierent combinations of these
dysfunctions depending on the nature of the sample
aI aI Insula Insula being investigated. Because future clinical translational
TP TP applications will rely on a system for classifying
SLEA SLEA
Amygdala Amygdala
individual patients, neural biotypes are conceptualised
AG PCC AG here as extremes of hypoactivation or hyperactivation
and connectivity within and between underlying neural
Positive aect Attention Cognitive control
circuit dimensions (gure 2). Structural anatomical
dACC/vMPFC msPFC DLPFC
abnormalities can also ground or contribute to neural
DLPFC
LPFC LPFC circuit biotypes dened by functional activation or
aI aI PCG PCG
connectivity, or both, as noted in early important work on
OFC
aIPL aIPL the subgenual cingulate.21
DPC DPC
Striatum Striatum
Default mode circuit
Precuneus
The default mode circuit (typically known as the default
Figure 1: Large-scale intrinsic and task-evoked circuits identied in published mode network) is dened by the anterior medial
work prefrontal cortex, posterior cingulate cortex, and angular
aMPFC=anterior medial prefrontal cortex. AG=angular gyrus. PCC=posterior gyrus.22 Connectivity between these regions has been
cingulate cortex (includes precuneus). dACC=dorsal anterior cingulate cortex.
observed under task-free conditions when participants
aI=anterior insula. TP=temporal pole. SLEA=sublenticular extended amygdala.
ACC/MPFC=dorsal medial prefrontal cortex (includes dorsal ACC and vMPFC, are asked to rest and reect on their thoughts.22,23
including ventralsubgenual and pregenualand rostral ACC). msPFC=medial Independent-components analysis suggests that the
superior prefrontal cortex. LPFC=lateral prefrontal cortex. aIPL=anterior inferior anterior and posterior regions dene sub-networks of the
parietal lobule. MPFC=medial prefrontal cortex. vMPFC=ventromedial prefrontal
cortex. OFC=orbitofrontal cortex. ACC=anterior cingulate cortex.
default mode circuit.23 This circuit also has a basis in
DLPFC=dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (includes anterior prefrontal cortex and structural matter connections between the same
inferior frontal cortex). PCG=precentral gyrus. DPC=dorsal parietal cortex. regions.24

2 www.thelancet.com/psychiatry Published online April 14, 2016 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S2215-0366(15)00579-9


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Putative biotype 1: rumination Putative biotype 2: anxious avoidance


Resting-state analyses of depression have shown a Insula hypoconnectivity within the salience circuit has
consistent prole of functional overactivation and been noted in depression, social anxiety disorder, and
hyperconnectivity of the default mode circuit in panic disorder (gure 2).23,30 It has been inversely
depression.25,26 Hyperfunctioning of the default mode associated with symptom severity.23 Insulaamygdala
circuit in major depressive disorder has been associated hypoconnectivity, which is correlated with anxious
with higher levels of maladaptive rumination about avoidance, has also been observed (gure 2).23 Hyper-
depressive thoughts (gure 2).26 Anatomical ab- connectivity between the insula and anterior nodes of the
normalities might contribute to default mode circuit default mode circuit (gure 2) has been reported in both
hyper-function. Structurally, major depressive disorder depression23 and social anxiety disorder.30 Dorsal nodes of
has been associated with disruptions to both grey matter27 the salience circuit show both hyperconnectivity and
and white matter28 within the default mode circuit, hypoconnectivity with the posterior precuneus node of
particularly within the posterior sub-network. the attention circuit (gure 2).31 The direction of altered
connectivity between salience and attention circuits can
Salience circuit uctuate with the nature of interoceptive or external
The so-called salience circuit is dened by core nodes in events, consistent with the view that the salience-circuit
the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), anterior insula, and guides the switching of attention according to stimulus
sublenticular extended amygdala4 (gure 1). This circuit importance. These salience circuit dysfunctions might
detects salient changes in the environment, both contribute to so-called anxious avoidance biotypes
interoceptive and external. When these changes are characterised by diculty distinguishing relevant salient
detected, the salience circuit might signal the need for cues and an avoidance of situations that could generate
additional processing and initiation of appropriate interoceptive or environmental stimulus overload.
cognitive control.4,29
In addition to the salience circuit, a distinct cingulo- Negative aect circuit
opercular circuit has also been dened. The circuit is The circuit engaged by negatively valenced stimuli
dened by nodes in the anterior medial prefrontal cortex, comprises subcortical nodes in the amygdala, brainstem
dorsal ACC, anterior insula, frontal operculum, and regions, hippocampus, insula, and both dorsal and
anterior thalamus, and is implicated in the detection of ventral prefrontal nodesie, dorsal medial prefrontal
potential mismatches and conict.4 These regions and cortex, dorsal ACC, ventral medial prefrontal cortex, and
functions show overlap with the default mode and ventral (subgenual and pregenual)-rostral ACC
salience circuits even though the cingulo-opercular connections (gure 1).14,32 Dorsal and rostral nodes have
circuit is articulated as a distinct circuit.4 been preferentially implicated in appraisal and expression

1 Rumination 2 Anxious avoidance 3 Negative bias 4 Threat dysregulation


dACC ACC/MPFC
aMPFC dACC

aI aI
Insula Insula Insula Insula Activation
TP TP
Hy al
Ty r
pe

po
c
pi

Amygdala Amygdala Amygdala Amygdala


Hy

SLEA SLEA
Default mode
AG PCC AG
Salience
Precuneus PCC
Negative aect
5 Anhedonia 6 Context insensitivity 7 Inattention 8 Cognitive dyscontrol Positive aect
Attention
dACC/vMPFC dACC/vMPFC msPFC ACC
DLPFC Cognitive control
LPFC LPFC DLPFC

aI aI
OFC OFC Connectivity
aIPL aIPL aIPL
aIPL Hyperconnectivity
DPC DPC Typical connectivity
Striatum Striatum Striatum Striatum PCC
Precuneus Precuneus Hypoconnectivity

Figure 2: Proposed taxonomy of putative biotypes of neural circuit dysfunction for depression and anxiety based on published work
The proposed phenotype associated with each proposed neural dysfunction is mentioned above each type of dysfunction. aMPFC=anterior medial prefrontal cortex.
AG=angular gyrus. PCC=posterior cingulate cortex (includes precuneus). dACC=dorsal anterior cingulate cortex. aI=anterior insula. TP=temporal pole.
SLEA=sublenticular extended amygdala. ACC/MPFC=dorsal medial prefrontal cortex (includes dorsal ACC and vMPFC, including ventralsubgenual and pregenual
and rostral ACC). msPFC=medial superior prefrontal cortex. LPFC=lateral prefrontal cortex. aIPL=anterior inferior parietal lobule. MPFC=medial prefrontal cortex.
vMPFC=ventromedial prefrontal cortex. OFC=orbitofrontal cortex. ACC=anterior cingulate cortex. DLPF=dorsoateral prefrontal cortex (includes anterior prefrontal
cortex and inferior frontal cortex). PCG=precentral gyrus. DPC=dorsal parietal cortex.

www.thelancet.com/psychiatry Published online April 14, 2016 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S2215-0366(15)00579-9 3


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of emotion and can be thought of as an aversive ACC has been observed in major depressive disorder.47
amplication sub-network,32 whereas the ventral nodes An ongoing state of poor emotion regulation might also
are implicated in automatic regulation of negative contribute to the often-noted loss of hippocampal grey
emotion.14,33 These sub-networks can be engaged even in matter in depression and anxiety.48
the absence of conscious sensory awareness.13,14 In view of
their commonly observed coactivation,14 the negative Positive aect circuit
aect circuit might subserve the perception of negative Reward-processing components of the aective circuits
emotion cues and the salience circuitthe arousal are dened by the striatal nucleus accumbens and ventral
aspects of feeling these emotions. tegmental areas (collectively referred to as the striatum)
and their projections to the orbitofrontal cortex and medial
Putative biotype 3: negative bias prefrontal cortex12 (gure 1). These regional components
Several studies of negative-aect-circuit dysfunction can be preferentially engaged by dierent types of reward
suggest biases that are congruent with altered subjective processing, including sensitivity to the presence of salient
mood. These biases are elicited during the processing of reward stimuli and the anticipation of these stimuli.
stimuli such as negative facial expressions. Heightened Evidence so far suggests distinct proles of dysfunctional
insula activation has been observed in major depressive positive-aect processing in depression and anxiety.
disorder in response to mood-congruent facial emotion
stimuli such as sadness and disgust (gure 2).34 Putative biotype 5: anhedonia
Individuals with generalised social anxiety disorder also Consistent ndings of striatal hypoactivation in some
show exaggerated insula activation and insulaACC people with depression49 suggest a distinct loss of
hypoconnectivity when attending to emotional faces.35 sensitivity to reward stimuli that characterises an
Hyper-responsivity of the amygdala has also been anhedonia biotype (gure 2). Striatal hypoactivation in
reported in response to sad faces, consistent with a these patients is apparent in response to socially
mood-congruent negative bias (gure 2).3638 rewarding stimuli (such as happy faces) and during
At rest, hyperconnectivity between the anterior (sub- reward-motivated decision making.49 Anatomically,
genual ACC and dorsal medial prefrontal cortex) nodes a loss of striatal grey matter might contribute to a
of the negative aect circuit and the default mode has functional anhedonia biotype.50 Anhedonia has also
been observed in depression.25,26 This state of intrinsic been associated with greater activation of the
hyperconnectivity is thought to drive rumination and the orbitofrontal cortex (ventral medial prefrontal cortex)
negative attributions that underlie negative biases. during the processing of happy faces51 and reward
outcomes,52 which might reect compensation for
Putative biotype 4: threat dysregulation striatal hypoactivation. Anhedonia might encompass
Several diagnoses have been associated with amygdala negative-aect-circuit dysfunction as suggested by
hyperactivation and cortical hypoactivation elicited by reports of amygdala hypoactivation to happy faces in
threat-relevant negative emotion stimuli. Amygdala unmedicated major depressive disorder,53 generalised
hyperactivation during non-conscious threat processing anxiety disorder,54 and panic disorder.55
has been reported in current depressive disorder,39
generalised anxiety disorder,40 generalised social phobia Putative biotype 6: context insensitivity
anxiety disorder,4042 specic phobia,43 and panic disorder.40,43 In remitted depression, overactivation of the anterior
ACC hypoactivation during threat processing has been cingulate and midfrontal region has been observed
observed in generalised anxiety disorder33,44 and during the anticipation of primary rewards.56 These
generalised social anxiety,44 and task context-dependent ndings suggest a context-insensitivity biotype of neural
ACC hyperactivation in anxiety disorder.33 dysfunction (gure 2), in which there is a heightened
Correspondingly, reduced connectivity between the anticipation of reward without sensitivity to the
amygdala and ventral prefrontal nodes (subgenual surrounding context or the capacity to dierentiate
ventral ACC) has been noted during implicitly processed emotional context. This dysfunction can persist even
threat in unmedicated major depressive disorder,45 during remission.56
generalised social anxiety disorder,46 and generalised
anxiety disorder.32 AmygdalaACC connectivity correlated Attention circuit
with anxious symptoms for threat-related faces in a task- The frontoparietal attention circuit is dened by nodes in
specic manner.32 the medial superior frontal cortices, anterior insula,
This prole of altered activation and connectivity anterior inferior parietal lobule, and precuneus
suggests a core dysfunction of threat dysregulation (gure 1).57 It is implicated in alertness, sustained
(gure 2). Anatomical abnormalities might contribute to attention, and the support of recollection.57 A close
threat dysregulation. A reduction in the uncinate interplay between the attention and default mode circuits
fasciculus white matter connections that support could be important to conguration of the switching
functional communication between the amygdala and between resting and task-context processing.57

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Putative biotype 7: inattention with the positive aect circuit, and together these
Hypoconnectivity within the frontoparietal attention dysfunctions might reect an exploratory hypervigilance
circuit has been noted in major depressive disorder and biotype. Within the cognitive control circuit, task-evoked
in social anxiety,58 and suggests the presence of an dorsolateral prefrontal cortex hyperactivation (rather
inattention biotype (gure 2). In anxiety disorder, fronto- than hypoactivation) has been observed in the absence of
parietal circuit hypoconnectivity has been correlated with behavioural performance decits in unmedicated
a specic behavioural prole of false alarm errors59 depression.67 This dysfunction might show a com-
consistent with disruption to sustained attention. pensatory form of cognitive dyscontrol associated with
cognitive overdrive or a distinct dysfunction dependent
Cognitive control circuit on task demands.
The cognitive control circuit comprises the dorsolateral
prefrontal cortex, ACC, dorsal parietal cortex, and Use of neural circuit dysfunction to guide
precentral gyrus (gure 1). Together these regions and treatment
their interconnectivity are implicated in the support of To advance a neural circuit model, it is essential to
higher cognitive functions, such as working memory and understand how neural-circuit-based biotypes relate to
selective attention.11,60 Under task-specic demands the interventions. In the future, on the basis of increasingly
cognitive control circuit is implicated in cognitive precise evidence about the mechanistic actions of each
exibility.17 circuit and which dysfunctions predict response to
treatment, I envision that these neural circuit biotypes
Putative biotype 8: cognitive dyscontrol could be used to help guide choice of intervention
Dysfunction of the cognitive control circuit during (gure 3). I present three examples focused on
eortful selective processing of relevant stimuli while pharmacotherapy, because drugs are the most common
inhibiting irrelevant stimuli suggests a cognitive type of intervention for both depression and anxiety.
dyscontrol biotype (gure 2). Hypoactivation of the
dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and dorsal anterior Default mode Salience Negative aect
cingulate cortex has been observed in depression.61,62 aMPFC dACC ACC/MPFC
Such hypoactivation persists with later-life depression,63
Insula Insula
suggesting that a cognitive dyscontrol biotype might aI aI
have a trait-like status. TP TP
ACC and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex hypoactivation SLEA SLEA
Amygdala Amygdala
during an inhibition task has been associated with AG PCC AG
slowing of the time to inhibit responses for people with Mindfulness, Serotonin Cognitive
higher anxiety.18 Problems with selective inhibition in self context reuptake behavioural
depression could also be suggested by problems therapies, TMS inhibitors, DBS therapies

suppressing default mode rumination, and a prole of


positive correlation (rather than anticorrelation) between Positive aect Attention Cognitive control
dorsal prefrontal cognitive control regions and posterior dACC/vMPFC msPFC DLPFC DLPFC
cingulate default mode regions.25,64 LPFC LPFC
aI aI PCG PCG
OFC
Exploratory biotypes of neural circuit dysfunction aIPL aIPL
Emerging lines of evidence suggest additional neural Striatum Striatum DPC DPC
circuit biotypes that for now might be deemed more
Precuneus
exploratory. Although most studies suggest default mode
Dopamine Attention Cognitive
hyperconnectivity in depression and anxiety, default noradrenaline training, training, TMS
mode hypoconnectivity has been noted in some.25,65 Default reuptake stimulants
mode hypoconnectivity has been correlated with inhibitors
overgeneral autobiographical memory65 and social
Figure 3: Speculative connection between neural circuit biotypes for
anxiety,58 and might reect impairments in self-re- depression and anxiety and potentially suitable interventions
presentation. Future studies might explore dysfunctions aMPFC=anterior medial prefrontal cortex. AG=angular gyrus. PCC=posterior
on the basis of interactions between negative and positive cingulate cortex (includes precuneus). dACC=dorsal anterior cingulate cortex.
aI=anterior insula. TP=temporal pole. SLEA=sublenticular extended amygdala.
aective circuits given, for example, that the striatum of
ACC/mPFC=dorsal medial prefrontal cortex (includes dorsal ACC and vMPFC,
the reward circuit has also been implicated in aversive including ventralsubgenual and pregenualand rostral ACC). msPFC=medial
processing.13 superior prefrontal cortex. LPFC=lateral prefrontal cortex. aIPL=anterior inferior
With regard to attentional dysfunction, hypercon- parietal lobule. mPFC=medial prefrontal cortex. vMPFC=ventromedial prefrontal
cortex. OFC=orbitofrontal cortex. ACC=anterior cingulate cortex.
nectivity (rather than hypoconnectivity) of the fronto- DLPF=dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (includes anterior prefrontal cortex and
parietal attention circuit has been observed in social inferior frontal cortex). PCG=precentral gyrus. DPC=dorsal parietal cortex.
anxiety.66 The attention circuit shows hypoconnectivity TMS=transcranial magnetic stimulation. DBS=deep-brain stimulation.

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Search strategy and selection criteria


I rst did a scoping search to determine the extent of the primary (activation OR connectivity) AND treatment OR drug OR brain
research literature and seminal articles on brain-imaging-dened stimulation AND (depression OR depressive disorder OR mood
neural networks or circuits in human beings. This scoping search disorder OR anxiety OR anxiety disorder OR generalized anxiety
provided key words for neural networks or circuits. I then OR social anxiety OR phobia); cognitive control OR central
searched PubMed for articles published before Jan 5, 2016, with executive AND (activation OR connectivity) AND (depression OR
the terms default mode AND (activation OR connectivity) AND depressive disorder OR mood disorder OR anxiety OR anxiety
(depression OR depressive disorder OR mood disorder OR anxiety disorder OR generalized anxiety OR social anxiety OR phobia);
OR anxiety disorder OR generalized anxiety OR social anxiety OR cognitive control OR central executive AND (activation OR
phobia); default mode AND (activation OR connectivity) AND connectivity) AND treatment OR drug OR brain stimulation AND
treatment OR drug OR brain stimulation AND (depression OR (depression OR depressive disorder OR mood disorder OR anxiety
depressive disorder OR mood disorder OR anxiety OR anxiety OR anxiety disorder OR generalized anxiety OR social anxiety OR
disorder OR generalized anxiety OR social anxiety OR phobia); phobia); intrinsic OR resting AND (activation OR connectivity)
salience OR cingulo-opercular AND (activation OR connectivity) AND (depression OR depressive disorder OR mood disorder OR
AND (depression OR depressive disorder OR mood disorder OR anxiety OR anxiety disorder OR generalized anxiety OR social
anxiety OR anxiety disorder OR generalized anxiety OR social anxiety OR phobia); intrinsic OR resting AND (activation OR
anxiety OR phobia); salience OR cingulo-opercular AND connectivity) AND treatment OR drug OR brain stimulation AND
(activation OR connectivity) AND treatment OR drug OR brain (depression OR depressive disorder OR mood disorder OR anxiety
stimulation AND (depression OR depressive disorder OR mood OR anxiety disorder OR generalized anxiety OR social anxiety OR
disorder OR anxiety OR anxiety disorder OR generalized anxiety phobia); extrinsic OR task AND (activation OR connectivity) AND
OR social anxiety OR phobia); negative aect OR negative (depression OR depressive disorder OR mood disorder OR anxiety
emotion OR threat OR limbic AND (activation OR connectivity) OR anxiety disorder OR generalized anxiety OR social anxiety OR
AND (depression OR depressive disorder OR mood disorder OR phobia); extrinsic OR task AND (activation OR connectivity) AND
anxiety OR anxiety disorder OR generalized anxiety OR social treatment OR drug OR brain stimulation AND (depression OR
anxiety OR phobia); negative aect OR negative emotion OR depressive disorder OR mood disorder OR anxiety OR anxiety
threat OR limbic AND (activation OR connectivity) AND disorder OR generalized anxiety OR social anxiety OR phobia);
treatment OR drug OR brain stimulation AND (depression OR prefrontal cortex OR DLPFC or MPFC OR anterior cingulate OR
depressive disorder OR mood disorder OR anxiety OR anxiety ACC OR insula OR amygdala OR striatum OR nucleus accumbens
disorder OR generalized anxiety OR social anxiety OR phobia); OR posterior cingulate OR PCC OR precentral OR precuneus AND
positive aect OR positive emotion OR reward AND (activation (activation OR connectivity) AND (depression OR depressive
OR connectivity) AND (depression OR depressive disorder OR disorder OR mood disorder OR anxiety OR anxiety disorder OR
mood disorder OR anxiety OR anxiety disorder OR generalized generalized anxiety OR social anxiety OR phobia); prefrontal
anxiety OR social anxiety OR phobia); positive aect OR positive cortex OR DLPFC or MPFC OR anterior cingulate OR ACC OR
emotion OR reward AND (activation OR connectivity) AND insula OR amygdala OR striatum OR nucleus accumbens OR
treatment OR drug OR brain stimulation AND (depression OR posterior cingulate OR PCC OR precentral OR precuneus AND
depressive disorder OR mood disorder OR anxiety OR anxiety (activationOR connectivity) AND treatment OR drug OR brain
disorder OR generalized anxiety OR social anxiety OR phobia); stimulation AND (depression OR depressive disorder OR mood
attention OR fronto-parietal AND (activation OR connectivity) disorder OR anxiety OR anxiety disorder OR generalized anxiety
AND (depression OR depressive disorder OR mood disorder OR OR social anxiety OR phobia). In the resulting references I
anxiety OR anxiety disorder OR generalized anxiety OR social prioritised meta-analyses and reviews and empirical ndings
anxiety OR phobia); attention OR fronto-parietal AND reproduced in at least two well powered studies.

Choice of pharmacotherapy is based on clinical interview consistent with a negative bias biotype might also help to
at present, and typically only around 30% of patients identify individuals who are unlikely to respond to
recover with the rst drug they are prescribed.68 alternative types of antidepressants such as a dual-avction
In seminal studies, anterior insula hyperactivation serotoninnoradrenaline reuptake inhibitor.53
during resting metabolism (quantied by PET and Relevant to the threat dysregulation biotype, response
relevant to the negative bias biotype) has been identied to uoxetine has been associated with improved
as a dierential biomarker of remission on citalopram amygdalaACC connectivity during an implicit emotion
(vs cognitive behavioural therapy).69 These ndings show task.70 In a biomarker prediction study, pre-treatment
that neural circuit biomarkers can be assessed for their hyporeactivity of the amygdala during implicit emotion
clinical utility with metrics such as number needed to threat processing was predictive of subsequent response
treat (36 in this case69). Another large biomarker to escitalopram and sertraline, and normalised after
prediction study suggests that amygdala hyperactivation treatment.53

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Patients with a striatally mediated anhedonia biotype of hypoconnectivity of cognitive control circuits, is
dysfunction might benet from antidepressants that predictive of response to transcranial magnetic
facilitate plasticity in striatal dopamine pathways. For stimulation (gure 3).74 Deep-brain stimulation of the
example, pramipexole has antidepressant ecacy for subcallosal cingulate has been associated with a
depression and, in animal models, PET shows that it persistent normalisation of hyper-responsivity to
binds to extrastriatal dopamine receptors and modulates negative emotion stimuli that might characterise
striatal function when probed by a reward task.71 negative bias biotypes (gure 3).75 Investigation of new
Bupropion is also thought to act on dopamine and lines of evidence implicating additional neural circuits
modulate striatal function.71 A relation between positive- in treatments for depression and anxiety is also
aect-circuit dysfunction, dopamine-related plasticity, important. For example, connectivity of visual circuits
and a phenotype of anhedonia might explain why could distinguish treatment-resistant patients from
antidepressants that act on serotonin do not seem to treatment-sensitive patients.74
improve anhedonia.71
Conclusion
Future directions With the escalation of insights into large-scale neural
Future studies might escalate progress towards a circuits that govern the exibility of human self-reective,
clinically applicable neural circuit model of mental emotional, and cognitive functions, a foundation has
disorder by pursuing several issues. First, quantitative been laid upon which a neural circuit taxonomy for
metrics should be used to dene cohesive groups of mental diseases such as depression and anxiety can be
people on the basis of their brain dysfunctions and then built. A neural circuit taxonomy can be used to close the
to identify the specic symptoms generated by these gap between insights about the mechanisms of mental
dysfunctions irrespective of traditional diagnostic disease and delivery of these insights into the hands of
categories. Second, large, multisite investigations clinicians as an actionable brain-based system for
should be done using standardised protocols, integrative improving treatment outcomes. By using such an
analytic models, and shared databases. These approach, we can also undertake novel prospective
approaches have been implemented in several imaging investigations of neural-circuited guided treatment
studies.61,72 Standardised imaging protocols will be delivery in real-world settings.
essential for the future viability of routine scans for Contributors
mental health assessment.73 LMW conceived and wrote this Personal View.
Third, advancing an understanding of biotypes suited Declaration of interests
to the clinic is essential, and can be achieved by I have received fees from Brain Resource and Humana for projects not
establishing metrics (such as Z scores) for the normative related to this work.
distribution of neural circuit variables in healthy people Acknowledgments
and across dimensions of familial risk. Methods to I thank Andrea Goldstein-Piekarski (Stanford, CA, USA) for comments
on an early draft, and Nowreen Chowdhry (Stanford, CA, USA) and
establish the reproducibility of imaging data across Katherine Grisanzio (Stanford, CA, USA) for their contributions to
people, sites, and time are also needed.72 Fourth, the referencing and to gures. I was supported by a National Institute of
relations between activation, connectivity and structure, Mental Health grant (R01MH101496).
and the more nuanced interactions between circuits References
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