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The Effect of Parietal Glutamate/GABA Balance on Test Anxiety Levels in Early Childhood in a Cross-Sectional and Longitudinal Study
Cerebral Cortex, Volume: 32, Issue: 15, Pages: 3243 - 3253
Swansea University Author: George Zacharopoulos
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© The Author(s) 2021. Published by Oxford University Press. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted reuse, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
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DOI (Published version): 10.1093/cercor/bhab412
Abstract
The increased prevalence of test anxiety in our competitive society makes it a health issue of public concern. However, its neurobiological basis, especially during the years of formal education, is currently scant. Previous research has highlighted the association between neural excitation/inhibiti...
| Published in: | Cerebral Cortex |
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| ISSN: | 1047-3211 1460-2199 |
| Published: |
Oxford University Press (OUP)
2021
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| Online Access: |
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| URI: | https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa59140 |
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| Abstract: |
The increased prevalence of test anxiety in our competitive society makes it a health issue of public concern. However, its neurobiological basis, especially during the years of formal education, is currently scant. Previous research has highlighted the association between neural excitation/inhibition balance and psychopathology and disease. We examined whether the glutamate/GABA profile tracks test anxiety levels in development, using a cross-sectional and longitudinal design in a cohort spanning from early childhood to early adulthood (N = 289), reassessed approximately 21 months later (N = 194). We used magnetic resonance spectroscopy to noninvasively quantify glutamate and gamma-Aminobutyric acid (GABA) levels in the intraparietal sulcus (IPS) and the middle frontal gyrus. We show that the glutamate/GABA balance within the IPS relates to current individual variation in test anxiety levels and predict future test anxiety approximately 21 months later. Critically, this relationship was observed during early childhood but not during the later developmental stages. Our results extend the use of the excitation/inhibition balance framework to characterize the psychopathology mechanisms of test anxiety, an underexplored yet widespread and debilitating condition that can impact early child development. Our findings provide a better understanding of the neurotransmitter basis underlying the emergence of anxiety disorders during development. |
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| Keywords: |
development, glutamate/GABA balance, magnetic resonance spectroscopy, test anxiety |
| College: |
Faculty of Medicine, Health and Life Sciences |
| Funders: |
Wellcome Centre for Integrative Neuroimaging Grant: 203139/Z/16/Z; European Research Council Grant: 338065 |
| Issue: |
15 |
| Start Page: |
3243 |
| End Page: |
3253 |