The effect of trait anxiety on risk‐taking: Functional coupling between right hippocampus and left insula

Behavioral research has found that trait anxiety is associated with a lower propensity for risk‐taking. However, the neural mechanisms underlying this relation are still unknown. To address this question, we employed voxel‐based morphometry (VBM) analysis and resting‐state functional connectivity (rs‐FC) to examine the influence of trait anxiety on risk‐taking. We theorized that trait anxiety may affect risk‐taking via negative prospection during episodic future thinking, which is known to be mediated by episodic memory systems including the hippocampus. We measured risk‐taking using the Balloon Analogue Risk Task (BART) and found that risk‐taking in this task was negatively correlated with trait anxiety. The VBM results suggested a positive correlation between trait anxiety and grey matter volumes in the hippocampus, consistent with previous results. Functional connectivity results indicated that functional connectivity between a right hippocampus cortex (RHPC) seed region and left insula (LInsula) was positively correlated with trait anxiety scores but negatively correlated with risk‐taking. Critically, mediation analysis showed that trait anxiety played a completely mediating role in the relation between the functional connectivity of RHPC‐LInsula and risk‐taking. These results suggested that trait anxiety can affect risk‐taking via episodic future thinking mechanisms subserved by the hippocampal cortex acting in concert with emotional and motivational control mechanisms subserved by the insular cortex. The neural mechanism through which trait anxiety affects risk‐taking remains elusive. Our findings indicated that trait anxiety may affect risk‐taking via the right hippocampus cortex (RHPC) and its connectivity with left insula (LInsula). Thus, the current study revealed that high trait anxiety may result in risk aversion through interactions between episodic future thinking and negative emotions subserved by hippocampal–insular coupling.