Addiction-related alterations between amygdala and medial PFC are particularly intriguing when considered in light of a larger corpus of research relating such circuit-level interactions to emotional regulation, subjective anxiety, and other neuropsychiatric disorders (Foland-Ross et al., 2010; Hariri et al., 2003; Kim et al., 2011a; Kim et al., 2011b; Pezewas et al., 2005; Hahn et al., 2011; Motzkin et al., 2011). The vmPFC has been posited to actively suppress amygdala functioning (Foland-Ross et al., 2010; Hairiri et al., 2003; Kim et al., 2011b), which in turn, is thought to alleviate emotional distress (Ochsner et al., 2004, Berkman and Lieberman, 2009). Such a regulation-circuit perspective is bolstered by rsFC studies demonstrating that amygdala-vmPFC rsFC strength is inversely related to self-reported anxiety levels in non-clinical samples, where increased anxiety is associated with reduced connectivity (Kim et al., 2011a, Pezewas et al., 2005). Taken further, reduced amygdala-vmPFC rsFC strength, as well as compromised uncinate fasiculus structural integrity, has been observed in neuropsychiatric conditions characterized by pathological levels of anxiety (Hahn et al., 2011; Phan et al., 2009). Diminished amygdala-vmPFC functional and structural connectivity
