On Thursday, November 6, 2025, Oana Munteanu, Ph.D candidate presented, within the workshop Current Perspectives and Frontiers in Cognitive Neuroscience: The Human Brain in Cognition and Health, held as part of the SMART Diaspora 2025 conference, the study: “Neuroimaging anxious children and adolescents before and after cognitive behavioral therapy: A systematic review.”
The study provides a systematic analysis of brain changes in children and adolescents diagnosed with anxiety disorders, before and after cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), as well as of neural markers that may predict treatment response.
The results show that, although the existing literature is heterogeneous, significant changes in neural activity were observed in the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) and insula following CBT, correlated with clinical symptom improvements. Furthermore, pre-treatment activity in the ACC, insula, amygdala, and nucleus accumbens (NAcc) was found to be a potential predictor of treatment efficacy.
Through this contribution, our team reaffirms its commitment to advancing interdisciplinary research at the intersection of neuroscience, clinical psychology, and evidence-based interventions.