Contribution of estradiol levels and hormonal contraceptives to sex differences within the fear network during fear conditioning and extinction

Table 2 Brain regions activations that correlate with estradiol levels in naturally cycling women throughout the different experimental phases of the paradigm

Experimental phase	Correlation	Brain regions	x	y	z	Cluster size	t value	p value FWE
Fear conditioning	Positive	Posterior cingulate cortex	12	−34	46	70	3.10	0.033
		Posterior insular cortex	44	−38	24	116	3.22	0.034
		Amygdala	16	2	12	140	3.32	0.037
		Hypothalamus	−12	0	−8	33	2.71	0.039
		Anterior insular cortex	36	28	6	138	3.09	0.051
	Negative	Orbitofrontal cortex	−16	34	−24	21	3.21	0.038
	Negative	Subgenual anterior cingulate cortex	−6	18	−18	48	3.00	0.039
Shock delivery (unconditioned responses)	Positive	Hypothalamus	8	4	−32	357	4.11	0.015
	Positive	Middle insular cortex	−40	2	8	311	3.53	0.040
	Negative	Orbitofrontal cortex	−14	34	−18	44	3.40	0.011
Late extinction learning	Positive	Subgenual anterior cingulate cortex	−14	26	−14	30	2.88	0.028
Late extinction learning	Negative	Middle insular cortex	−36	4	16	62	3.27	0.024
Early extinction recall	Positive	Parahippocampus	−30	2	−20	183	5.35	0.001
		Subgenual anterior cingulate cortex	10	12	−18	64	4.39	0.002
		Anterior insular cortex	32	18	12	82	4.35	0.003
		Anterior insular cortex	−62	10	0	1595	5.34	0.005
		Dorsal anterior cingulate cortex	10	24	40	91	4.13	0.005
		Ventromedial prefrontal cortex	−14	40	−26	572	4.37	0.014
		Middle cingulate cortex	−4	0	36	76	3.33	0.024
		Orbitofrontal cortex	−16	52	−18	572	3.94	0.034

For each experimental phase (fear conditioning, unconditioned responses ‘shock delivery’, late extinction learning and early extinction recall), correlations between brain activations and estradiol levels are listed. ‘Positive’ and ‘negative’ refer to the direction of the correlation. For each brain region, Montreal Neurological Institute (MNI) coordinates are reported along with cluster size, t value and p value (family-wise error corrected). Note that all these analyses were performed only in naturally cycling women (excluding men and women using oral contraceptives). Only brain regions from the fear conditioning and extinction networks are reported

ISSN: 1471-244X