Subclinical anxiety is associated with reduced self-distancing and enhanced guilt-related connectivity between anterior temporal and subgenual cingulate cortices

Excessive self-blaming emotions are commonly observed in anxiety disorders, with mounting evidence indicating the presence of qualitatively similar symptomatology in subclinical and clinical populations. Prior work points to a central role of the superior anterior temporal lobe (sATL) in the guilt processing circuitry, together with network organisation differences associated with subclinical anxiety. This study aimed to extend these findings by exploring links of trait-anxiety with (i) self-blaming emotions and associated behaviours, and (ii) guilt-dependent neural activity and connectivity. We also explored the role of resting-state fMRI in linking these phenomena. Increased anxiety was linked to stronger self-blaming emotions, and more pronounced self-attacking and hiding. When experiencing negative emotions about themselves (i.e. shame and self-anger), anxious individuals were also less likely to disengage from self-focused thoughts. These behavioural findings were paralleled by enhanced guilt-related connectivity between the left sATL and bilateral posterior subgenual cingulate cortex. The relevance of temporal lobe activity for self-blaming emotions was also evident in the resting-state data. Interestingly, while the approach-avoidance motivation towards guilt memories was unrelated to anxiety, this emotional dimension showed distinct contributions of the left and right sATL, with task-related activity of the former and connectivity of the latter associated with, respectively, more approach and avoidance. As such, the results of the current study link the self-blaming bias of anxious individuals to specific maladaptive patterns of behaviour. Furthermore, the work provides robust evidence for the important role of ATL-related circuitry in guilt processing, supporting its broader involvement in social conceptual processing.