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Rampino A, Torretta S, Rizzo G, Viscanti G, Quarto T, Gelao B, Fazio L, Attrotto MT, Masellis R, Pergola G, Bertolino A, Blasi G. Emotional Stability Interacts with Cortisol Levels Before fMRI on Brain Processing of Fearful Faces. Neuroscience 2019; 416:190-197. [PMID: 31400483 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroscience.2019.08.002] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/08/2019] [Revised: 07/31/2019] [Accepted: 08/01/2019] [Indexed: 11/19/2022]
Abstract
Functional-Magnetic-Imaging (fMRI) is widely adopted to investigate neurophysiological correlates of emotion processing (EP). However, studies have reported that scanning procedures in neuroimaging protocols may increase or cause anxiety and psychological distress related with the scanning, thus inducing peripheral cortisol release. These phenomena may in turn impact on brain EP. Additionally, previous findings have indicated that inter-individual differences in stress-response intensity are mediated by levels of Emotional Stability (ES), a personality trait that has been associated with brain activity during EP, especially in amygdala and prefrontal cortex (PFC). The aim of this study was to investigate the interaction between indices of stress related to anticipation of fMRI scanning and levels of ES on amygdala and PFC activity during EP. With this aim, 55 healthy volunteers were characterized for trait ES. Furthermore, salivary cortisol levels at baseline and soon before fMRI scanning were measured as an index of stress related to scanning anticipation. During fMRI, participants performed an explicit EP task. We found that variation in salivary cortisol (Δc) interacts with ES on left amygdala and PFC activity during EP. More in details, in the context of a higher ES, the greater the Δc, the lower the activity in left amygdala and PFC. In the context of lower ES, the opposite Δc-brain activity relationship was found. Our results suggest that the stressful potential of fMRI interacts with personality traits in modulating brain activity during EP. These findings should be taken into account when interpreting neuroimaging studies especially exploring brain physiology during EP.
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Affiliation(s)
- Antonio Rampino
- University of Bari "Aldo Moro", Department of Basic Medical Science, Neuroscience and Sense Organs, Piazza Giulio Cesare 11, 70124 Bari, Italy; Azienda Ospedaliero-Universitaria Consorziale Policlinico di Bari, Piazza Giulio Cesare 11, 70124, Bari, Italy
| | - Silvia Torretta
- University of Bari "Aldo Moro", Department of Basic Medical Science, Neuroscience and Sense Organs, Piazza Giulio Cesare 11, 70124 Bari, Italy
| | - Giuseppe Rizzo
- University of Bari "Aldo Moro", Department of Basic Medical Science, Neuroscience and Sense Organs, Piazza Giulio Cesare 11, 70124 Bari, Italy
| | - Giovanna Viscanti
- University of Bari "Aldo Moro", Department of Basic Medical Science, Neuroscience and Sense Organs, Piazza Giulio Cesare 11, 70124 Bari, Italy
| | - Tiziana Quarto
- University of Bari "Aldo Moro", Department of Basic Medical Science, Neuroscience and Sense Organs, Piazza Giulio Cesare 11, 70124 Bari, Italy
| | - Barbara Gelao
- University of Bari "Aldo Moro", Department of Basic Medical Science, Neuroscience and Sense Organs, Piazza Giulio Cesare 11, 70124 Bari, Italy
| | - Leonardo Fazio
- IRCCS Casa Sollievo della Sofferenza, San Giovanni Rotondo (FG), Italy
| | - Maria Teresa Attrotto
- University of Bari "Aldo Moro", Department of Basic Medical Science, Neuroscience and Sense Organs, Piazza Giulio Cesare 11, 70124 Bari, Italy
| | - Rita Masellis
- University of Bari "Aldo Moro", Department of Basic Medical Science, Neuroscience and Sense Organs, Piazza Giulio Cesare 11, 70124 Bari, Italy
| | - Giulio Pergola
- University of Bari "Aldo Moro", Department of Basic Medical Science, Neuroscience and Sense Organs, Piazza Giulio Cesare 11, 70124 Bari, Italy
| | - Alessandro Bertolino
- University of Bari "Aldo Moro", Department of Basic Medical Science, Neuroscience and Sense Organs, Piazza Giulio Cesare 11, 70124 Bari, Italy; Azienda Ospedaliero-Universitaria Consorziale Policlinico di Bari, Piazza Giulio Cesare 11, 70124, Bari, Italy
| | - Giuseppe Blasi
- University of Bari "Aldo Moro", Department of Basic Medical Science, Neuroscience and Sense Organs, Piazza Giulio Cesare 11, 70124 Bari, Italy; Azienda Ospedaliero-Universitaria Consorziale Policlinico di Bari, Piazza Giulio Cesare 11, 70124, Bari, Italy.
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Abstract
In functional laterality research, most ungulate livestock species have until recently been mainly overlooked. However, there are many scientific and practical benefits of studying laterality in ungulate livestock. As social, precocial and domestic species, they may offer insight into the mechanisms involved in the ontogeny and phylogeny of functional laterality and help to better understand the role of laterality in animal welfare. Until now, most studies on ungulate livestock have focused on motor laterality, but interest in other lateralized functions, e.g., cognition and emotions, is growing. Increasingly more studies are also focused on associations with age, sex, personality, health, stress, production and performance. Although the full potential of research on laterality in ungulate livestock is not yet exploited, findings have already shed new light on central issues in cognitive and emotional processing and laid the basis for potentially useful applications in future practice, e.g., stress reduction during human-animal interactions and improved assessments of health, production and welfare. Future research would benefit from further integration of basic laterality methodology (e.g., testing for individual preferences) and applied ethological approaches (e.g., established emotionality tests), which would not only improve our understanding of functional laterality but also benefit the assessment of animal welfare.
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Abstract
We know a good deal about brain lateralization in birds and a good deal about animal welfare, but relatively little about whether there is a noteworthy relationship between avian welfare and brain lateralization. In birds, the left hemisphere is specialised to categorise stimuli and to discriminate preferred categories from distracting stimuli (e.g., food from an array of inedible objects), whereas the right hemisphere responds to small differences between stimuli, controls social behaviour, detects predators and controls attack, fear and escape responses. In this paper, we concentrate on visual lateralization and the effect of light exposure of the avian embryo on the development of lateralization, and we consider its role in the welfare of birds after hatching. Findings suggest that light-exposure during incubation has a general positive effect on post-hatching behaviour, likely because it facilitates control of behaviour by the left hemisphere, which can suppress fear and other distress behaviour controlled by the right hemisphere. In this context, particular attention needs to be paid to the influence of corticosterone, a stress hormone, on lateralization. Welfare of animals in captivity, as is well known, has two cornerstones: enrichment and reduction of stress. What is less well-known is the link between the influence of experience on brain lateralization and its consequent positive or negative outcomes on behaviour. We conclude that the welfare of birds may be diminished by failure to expose the developing embryos to light but we also recognise that more research on the association between lateralization and welfare is needed.
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Scharf HM, Stenstrom K, Dainson M, Benson TJ, Fernandez-Juricic E, Hauber ME. Mimicry-dependent lateralization in the visual inspection of foreign eggs by American robins. Biol Lett 2019; 15:20190351. [PMID: 31337293 DOI: 10.1098/rsbl.2019.0351] [Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/17/2022] Open
Abstract
Brain lateralization, or the specialization of function in the left versus right brain hemispheres, has been found in a variety of lineages in contexts ranging from foraging to social and sexual behaviours, including the recognition of conspecific social partners. Here we studied whether the recognition and rejection of avian brood parasitic eggs, another context for species recognition, may also involve lateralized visual processing. We focused on American robins (Turdus migratorius), an egg-rejecter host to occasional brood parasitism by brown-headed cowbirds (Molothrus ater) and tested if robins preferentially used one visual hemifield over the other to inspect mimetic versus non-mimetic model eggs. At the population level, robins showed a significantly lateralized absolute eyedness index (EI) when viewing mimetic model eggs, but individuals varied in left versus right visual hemifield preference. By contrast, absolute EI was significantly lower when viewing non-mimetic eggs. We also found that robins with more lateralized eye usage rejected model eggs at higher rates. We suggest that the inspection and recognition of foreign eggs represent a specialized and lateralized context of species recognition in this and perhaps in other egg-rejecter hosts of brood parasites.
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Affiliation(s)
- Hannah M Scharf
- Department of Evolution, Ecology, and Behavior, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, IL 61801, USA
| | - Katharine Stenstrom
- Department of Evolution, Ecology, and Behavior, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, IL 61801, USA
| | - Miri Dainson
- Department of Evolution, Ecology, and Behavior, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, IL 61801, USA
| | - Thomas J Benson
- Illinois Natural History Survey, Prairie Research Institute, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, IL 61801, USA
| | | | - Mark E Hauber
- Department of Evolution, Ecology, and Behavior, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, IL 61801, USA.,Illinois Natural History Survey, Prairie Research Institute, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, IL 61801, USA
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55
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Fontana BD, Cleal M, Clay JM, Parker MO. Zebrafish (Danio rerio) behavioral laterality predicts increased short-term avoidance memory but not stress-reactivity responses. Anim Cogn 2019; 22:1051-1061. [PMID: 31342209 PMCID: PMC6834751 DOI: 10.1007/s10071-019-01296-9] [Citation(s) in RCA: 24] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/11/2019] [Revised: 07/09/2019] [Accepted: 07/15/2019] [Indexed: 12/26/2022]
Abstract
Once considered a uniquely human attribute, behavioral laterality has proven to be ubiquitous among non-human animals, and is associated with several neurophenotypes in rodents and fishes. Zebrafish (Danio rerio) is a versatile vertebrate model system widely used in translational neuropsychiatric research owing to their highly conserved genetic homology, well-characterized physiological responses, and extensive behavioral repertoire. Although spontaneous left- and right-biased responses, and associated behavioral domains (e.g., stress reactivity, aggression, and learning), have previously been observed in other teleost species, no information relating to whether spontaneous motor left–right-bias responses of zebrafish predicts other behavioral domains has been described. Thus, we aimed to investigate the existence and incidence of natural left–right bias in adult zebrafish, exploiting an unconditioned continuous free movement pattern (FMP) Y-maze task, and to explore the relationship of biasedness on performance within different behavioral domains. This included learning about threat cues in a Pavlovian fear conditioning test, and locomotion and anxiety-related behavior in the novel tank diving test. Although laterality did not change locomotion or anxiety-related behaviors, we found that biased animals displayed a different search strategy in the Y-maze, making them easily discernable from their unbiased counterparts, and increased learning associated to fear cues. In conclusion, we showed, for the first time, that zebrafish exhibit a natural manifestation of motor behavioral lateralization which can influence aversive learning responses.
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Affiliation(s)
- Barbara D Fontana
- Brain and Behaviour Laboratory, School of Pharmacy and Biomedical Sciences, University of Portsmouth, White Swan Road, Portsmouth, PO1 2DT, UK.
| | - Madeleine Cleal
- Brain and Behaviour Laboratory, School of Pharmacy and Biomedical Sciences, University of Portsmouth, White Swan Road, Portsmouth, PO1 2DT, UK
| | - James M Clay
- Department of Psychology, University of Portsmouth, King Henry I Street, Portsmouth, PO1 2DY, UK
| | - Matthew O Parker
- Brain and Behaviour Laboratory, School of Pharmacy and Biomedical Sciences, University of Portsmouth, White Swan Road, Portsmouth, PO1 2DT, UK.
- The International Zebrafish Neuroscience Research Consortium (ZNRC), 309 Palmer Court, Slidell, LA, 70458, USA.
- Department of Psychology, University of Portsmouth, King Henry I Street, Portsmouth, PO1 2DY, UK.
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Fernández-Lázaro G, Latorre R, Alonso-García E, Barja Núñez I. Nonhuman primate welfare: Can there be a relationship between personality, lateralization and physiological indicators? Behav Processes 2019; 166:103897. [PMID: 31271769 DOI: 10.1016/j.beproc.2019.103897] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/19/2018] [Revised: 06/27/2019] [Accepted: 06/28/2019] [Indexed: 12/27/2022]
Abstract
Measuring personality is being used to improved nonhuman primate welfare. To expand its use, it is important to identify traits that are shared between species and that measures are reliable, easy to use and less time consuming. Combining personality and other indicators strong validation of the results can be obtained. In the present study, we sought to determine if there is a link between physiological stress response (fecal cortisol metabolites), personality (ratings made by animal keepers and reaction to novel objects) and lateralization of the brain (hand preferences) on eight species of nonhuman primates: Callithrix jacchus, Callithrix geoffroyi, Cebuella Pygmaea, Saguinus imperator, Saguinus oedipus, Leontopithecus rosalia, Pithecia pithecia and Nycticebus pygmaeus. Personality assessments achieved good levels of interrater reliability and revealed three components of personality in our sample: fearfulness, activeness and aggressiveness. More exploratory individuals were more active, aggressive and showed higher cortisol metabolite levels. Right-handed subjects inspected novel objects sooner and the strength of the lateralization was linked with individual stress and the aggressiveness component. Our results highlight that there is a relation between personality, lateralization and physiological indicators in nonhuman primates, but although some aspects can be generalized across species and/or sexes others are species/sex dependent.
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Affiliation(s)
- Gloria Fernández-Lázaro
- Friends of Thoreau Program, Instituto Franklin, Universidad de Alcalá, Trinidad 1, 28801, Alcalá de Henares, Madrid, Spain.
| | - Roberto Latorre
- Grupo de Neurocomputación Biológica, Departamento de Ingeniería Informática, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, 28049, Madrid, Spain
| | - Enrique Alonso-García
- Friends of Thoreau Program, Instituto Franklin, Universidad de Alcalá, Trinidad 1, 28801, Alcalá de Henares, Madrid, Spain
| | - Isabel Barja Núñez
- Departamento de Biología, Unidad de Zoología, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, c/Darwin 2, Campus Universitario de Cantoblanco, 28049, Madrid, Spain; Centro de Investigación en Biodiversidad y Cambio Global (CIBC-UAM), Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, C/ Darwin 2, 28049 Madrid, Spain
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57
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Kordestani Moghadam P, Nasehi M, Khodagholi F, Zarrindast MR. Vulnerability of Left Amygdala to Total Sleep Deprivation and Reversed Circadian Rhythm in Molecular Level: Glut1 as a Metabolic Biomarker. Galen Med J 2019; 8:e970. [PMID: 34466456 PMCID: PMC8343873 DOI: 10.31661/gmj.v8i0.970] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/06/2017] [Revised: 09/21/2017] [Accepted: 09/27/2018] [Indexed: 11/22/2022] Open
Abstract
Background: Sleep deprivation (SD) in the long term can cause multi-organ dysfunction as well as neurocognitive disorders. Daytime sleep or napping is a biological compensate due to insomnia or sleep deprivation. Metabolic responses to this biological rhythm may being as a biological indicator or biomarker to compare the effect of them. Glucose transporter type 1 (Glut1) is one of the metabolic biomarkers that is affected by several conditions such as stress, seizure, malignancy, and neurocognitive disorders. We studied the effect of SD, circadian reversed (R) and napping models on the Glut-1 expression level in the right and left amygdala. Materials and Methods: Sixty-four Wistar rats were divided into eight groups as follow: Intact group that rats were placed in a cage without any intervention. In the sham group, rats were on the stable pedal of the SD apparatus (turn off). Experimental groups include total SD48, total SD48- (plus short nap), total SD48+ (plus long nap), R48, R48- (plus short nap), and R48+ (plus long nap). The Glut-1 expression level in the right and left amygdala were measured by western blotting. Results: Our findings demonstrated the significant effect of both SD for 48 hours and reversed circadian on the expression of Glut-1 from sham and intact groups. The long nap plus them could decrease the elevation of Glut-1 in the left amygdala. However, the short nap could not reduce this elevation of Glut-1. Conclusion: Left amygdala is vulnerable to the fluctuation of hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis and stress. In other words, sleep disorders are affecting by Glut-1 as a metabolic biomarker in left amygdala alone.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Mohamad Nasehi
- Institute for Cognitive Science Studies (ICSS), Tehran, Iran
- Cognitive and Neuroscience Research Center (CNRC), Amir-Almomenin Hospital, Tehran Medical Sciences, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran
- Correspondence to: Mohamad Nasehi, Cognitive and Neuroscience Research Center, CNRC, Amir-Almomenin Hospital, Tehran Medical Sciences, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran Telephone Number: +9821-99881118-20 Email Address:
| | - Fariba Khodagholi
- Neuroscience Research Center, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran
| | - Mohamad-Reza Zarrindast
- Institute for Cognitive Science Studies (ICSS), Tehran, Iran
- Department of Pharmacology, School of Medicine, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran
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58
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Salgirli Demirbas Y, Isparta S, Ozturk H, Safak E, Emre B, Piskin İ, Kaya U, Sagmanligil V, Akgul B, Da Graça Pereira G. Functional cerebral asymmetry in dogs living under different environmental conditions. Behav Processes 2019; 165:4-8. [PMID: 31145966 DOI: 10.1016/j.beproc.2019.05.023] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/11/2018] [Revised: 04/10/2019] [Accepted: 05/25/2019] [Indexed: 11/27/2022]
Abstract
Investigating the link between stress and functional cerebral asymmetry (FCA) has been a subject of interest in recent years. The demonstration of this link in the field of veterinary medicine is particularly important as measuring FCA has the potential to be an alternative and non-invasive behavioral method to assess stress in dogs. The present study aimed to investigate whether FCA is affected by different environmental conditions in dogs. The main aim of this study was to investigate the changes in FCA in dogs living under different conditions. To this aim, strength and direction of FCA in 40 urban free-ranging dogs were measured by a Kong test. Dogs were divided into four groups considering their environmental conditions: The dogs in Group 1 (n = 8) were rehabilitated urban free ranging dogs, which were kept in enriched shelter conditions. The dogs in Group 2 (n = 9) were adopted free ranging dogs, which lived in home environment for more than 1 year. The dogs in Group 3 (n = 11) were urban free ranging dogs, which stayed in individual cages in a dog shelter for more than 6 months. The dogs in Group 4 (n = 12) were adopted urban free ranging dogs, which stayed in a dog pension for more than 30 days. Considering the length of their stay in a kennel environment, quality of living condition and emotional states, the dogs in Group 3 and 4 were classified as chronically stressed dogs. Statistically significant differences existed between groups considering strength and direction of lateralization. Most of the dogs in Group 1 (87.5 %) and Group 2 (77.8 %) showed significant paw preferences, whereas most of the dogs in the Group 3 (72.7 %) and Group 4 (75 %) were categorized as ambilateral. Considering the individual level asymmetry in dogs and environmental conditions of dogs in Group 3 and 4, one may suggest that high ambilaterality levels is related with chronic stress. Thus, reduced FCA may not be the reason for stress sensibility, rather it can be an outcome of stressful situations. These results are the first to demonstrate the possible link between chronic stress and ambilaterality in dogs.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Sevim Isparta
- Department of Genetics, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Ankara University, Ankara, Turkey
| | - Hakan Ozturk
- Department of Physiology, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Ankara University, Ankara, Turkey
| | - Etkin Safak
- Department of Physiology, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Ankara University, Ankara, Turkey
| | - Bahri Emre
- Department of Physiology, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Ankara University, Ankara, Turkey
| | - İlksin Piskin
- Department of Physiology, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Ankara University, Ankara, Turkey
| | - Ufuk Kaya
- Department of Biostatistics, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Ankara University, Ankara, Turkey
| | - Vedat Sagmanligil
- Department of Physiology, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Near East University, Lefkosa, North Cyprus
| | - Betul Akgul
- Department of Physiology, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Ankara University, Ankara, Turkey
| | - Gonçalo Da Graça Pereira
- Centro para o Conhecimento Animal, Algés, Portugal; Escola Superior Agrária de Elvas, Instituto Politécnico de Portalegre, Elvas, Portugal; Centro de Investigação de Ciência Animal - Instituto de Ciências, Tecnologias e Agroambiente, Universidade do Porto, Porto, Portugal
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59
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Schmitz J, Güntürkün O, Ocklenburg S. Building an Asymmetrical Brain: The Molecular Perspective. Front Psychol 2019; 10:982. [PMID: 31133928 PMCID: PMC6524718 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2019.00982] [Citation(s) in RCA: 17] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/24/2018] [Accepted: 04/15/2019] [Indexed: 12/17/2022] Open
Abstract
The brain is one of the most prominent examples for structural and functional differences between the left and right half of the body. For handedness and language lateralization, the most widely investigated behavioral phenotypes, only a small fraction of phenotypic variance has been explained by molecular genetic studies. Due to environmental factors presumably also playing a role in their ontogenesis and based on first molecular evidence, it has been suggested that functional hemispheric asymmetries are partly under epigenetic control. This review article aims to elucidate the molecular factors underlying hemispheric asymmetries and their association with inner organ asymmetries. While we previously suggested that epigenetic mechanisms might partly account for the missing heritability of handedness, this article extends this idea by suggesting possible alternatives for transgenerational transmission of epigenetic states that do not require germ line epigenetic transmission. This is in line with a multifactorial model of hemispheric asymmetries, integrating genetic, environmental, and epigenetic influencing factors in their ontogenesis.
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Affiliation(s)
- Judith Schmitz
- Biopsychology, Department of Psychology, Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, Ruhr University Bochum, Bochum, Germany
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60
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Schindler S, Schmidt L, Stroske M, Storch M, Anwander A, Trampel R, Strauß M, Hegerl U, Geyer S, Schönknecht P. Hypothalamus enlargement in mood disorders. Acta Psychiatr Scand 2019; 139:56-67. [PMID: 30229855 DOI: 10.1111/acps.12958] [Citation(s) in RCA: 16] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 08/15/2018] [Indexed: 12/24/2022]
Abstract
OBJECTIVE The purpose of this study was to determine, in vivo, whether the hypothalamus volume is reduced in patients with mood disorders. METHODS The cross-sectional study included 20 unmedicated (MDDu) and 20 medicated patients with major depressive disorder, 21 patients with bipolar disorder, and 23 controls. Twenty of the controls were matched to the MDDu. Seven Tesla, T1-weighted magnetic resonance images were acquired and processed using methods specifically developed for high-precision volumetry of the hypothalamus. RESULTS An overall group difference was observed for the left hypothalamus volume corrected for intracranial volume. Planned contrasts identified that the left hypothalamus was approximately 5% larger in each patient group compared with the control group. A paired t-test with the 20 matched pairs of MDDu and controls and without correction for covariates confirmed the larger left hypothalamus volume in MDDu. CONCLUSIONS Contrary to our expectations, the hypothalamus volume was increased in patients with uni- and bipolar affective disorders. The effect was left-sided and independent of medication status or statistical correction for covariates. Supported by emerging evidence that the stress response may be related to structural and functional asymmetry in the brain, our finding suggests a crucial role of the hypothalamus in mood disorders.
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Affiliation(s)
- S Schindler
- Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University Hospital Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany.,Department of Neurophysics, Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Leipzig, Germany
| | - L Schmidt
- Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University Hospital Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany
| | - M Stroske
- Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University Hospital Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany
| | - M Storch
- Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University Hospital Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany
| | - A Anwander
- Department of Neuropsychology, Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Leipzig, Germany
| | - R Trampel
- Department of Neurophysics, Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Leipzig, Germany
| | - M Strauß
- Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University Hospital Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany
| | - U Hegerl
- Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University Hospital Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany
| | - S Geyer
- Department of Neurophysics, Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Leipzig, Germany
| | - P Schönknecht
- Out-patient Department for Sexual-therapeutic Prevention and Forensic Psychiatry, Leipzig, Germany.,Academic State Hospital Arnsdorf, Arnsdorf, Germany
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61
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de Andrade AC, de Sousa AB. Hand preferences and differences in extractive foraging in seven capuchin monkey species. Am J Primatol 2018; 80:e22901. [DOI: 10.1002/ajp.22901] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/27/2018] [Revised: 06/03/2018] [Accepted: 07/05/2018] [Indexed: 01/16/2023]
Affiliation(s)
- Antonio C. de Andrade
- Universidade Federal da Paraiba, Centro de Ciencias Aplicadas e Educacao; Departamento de Engenharia e Meio Ambiente; Rio Tinto Paraíba Brazil
| | - Allana B. de Sousa
- Universidade Federal da Paraiba, Centro de Ciencias Aplicadas e Educacao; Departamento de Engenharia e Meio Ambiente; Rio Tinto Paraíba Brazil
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62
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Roth MC, Humphreys KL, King LS, Gotlib IH. Self-reported neglect, amygdala volume, and symptoms of anxiety in adolescent boys. CHILD ABUSE & NEGLECT 2018; 80:80-89. [PMID: 29574295 PMCID: PMC5953811 DOI: 10.1016/j.chiabu.2018.03.016] [Citation(s) in RCA: 27] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/22/2017] [Revised: 02/25/2018] [Accepted: 03/12/2018] [Indexed: 05/22/2023]
Abstract
Experiences of psychosocial neglect affect the developing brain and may place individuals at increased risk for anxiety. The majority of research in this area has focused on children who have experienced severe psychosocial deprivation; it is not clear whether typical variation in neglect experienced in community samples would have the same neurobiological consequences as those documented in extreme samples. The present study examined the associations among self-reported childhood neglect, amygdala volume, and anxiety symptoms in a community sample of 138 adolescents ages 9-15 years (43% male). Linear mixed modeling yielded a three-way interaction of neglect, sex, and brain hemisphere, reflecting a significant positive association between neglect and right amygdala volume in boys. Additional analyses indicated that right amygdala volume significantly mediated the association between neglect and anxiety symptoms in boys. These findings are consistent with previous reports of larger amygdala volumes in previously institutionalized children, and with documented associations between caregiving deprivation and anxiety symptoms. The results suggest that the effects of childhood neglect on limbic structures are sex-specific and lateralized, and provide support for a neural mechanism relating childhood neglect to later difficulties in emotional functioning.
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Affiliation(s)
- Marissa C Roth
- Department of Psychology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA.
| | | | - Lucy S King
- Department of Psychology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA
| | - Ian H Gotlib
- Department of Psychology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA
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63
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Ho TC, King LS, Leong JK, Colich NL, Humphreys KL, Ordaz SJ, Gotlib IH. Effects of sensitivity to life stress on uncinate fasciculus segments in early adolescence. Soc Cogn Affect Neurosci 2018; 12:1460-1469. [PMID: 28460088 PMCID: PMC5629927 DOI: 10.1093/scan/nsx065] [Citation(s) in RCA: 37] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/25/2016] [Accepted: 04/23/2017] [Indexed: 11/14/2022] Open
Abstract
Previous research suggests that exposure to early life stress (ELS) affects the structural integrity of the uncinate fasciculus (UF), a frontolimbic white matter tract that undergoes protracted development throughout adolescence. Adolescence is an important transitional period characterized by the emergence of internalizing psychopathology such as anxiety, particularly in individuals with high levels of stress sensitivity. We examined the relations among sensitivity to ELS, structural integrity of the UF, and anxiety symptoms in 104 early adolescents. We conducted structured interviews to assess exposure to ELS and obtained subjective and objective ratings of stress severity, from which we derived an index of ELS sensitivity. We also acquired diffusion MRI and conducted deterministic tractography to visualize UF trajectories and to compute measures of structural integrity from three distinct segments of the UF: frontal, insular, temporal. We found that higher sensitivity to ELS predicted both reduced fractional anisotropy in right frontal UF and higher levels of anxiety symptoms. These findings suggest that fibers in frontal UF, which are still developing throughout adolescence, are most vulnerable to the effects of heightened sensitivity to ELS, and that reduced structural integrity of frontal UF may underlie the relation between early stress and subsequent internalizing psychopathology.
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Affiliation(s)
| | | | | | | | | | - Sarah J Ordaz
- Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA
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de Oliveira D, Keeling LJ. Routine activities and emotion in the life of dairy cows: Integrating body language into an affective state framework. PLoS One 2018; 13:e0195674. [PMID: 29718937 PMCID: PMC5931453 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0195674] [Citation(s) in RCA: 25] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/24/2017] [Accepted: 03/27/2018] [Indexed: 02/07/2023] Open
Abstract
We assessed dairy cows' body postures while they were performing different stationary activities in a loose housing system and then used the variation within and between individuals to identify potential connections between specific postures and the valence and arousal dimensions of emotion. We observed 72 individuals within a single milking herd focusing on their ear, neck and tail positions while they were: feeding from individual roughage bins, being brushed by a mechanical rotating brush and queuing to enter a single automatic milking system. Cows showed different ear, neck and tail postures depending on the situation. When combined, their body posture during feeding was ears back up and neck down, with tail wags directed towards the body, during queuing their ears were mainly axial and forward, their neck below the horizontal and the tail hanging stationary, and during brushing their ears were backwards and asymmetric, the neck horizontal and the tail wagging vigorously. We then placed these findings about cow body posture during routine activities into an arousal/valence framework used in animal emotion research (dimensional model of core affect). In this way we generate a priori predictions of how the positions of the ears, neck and tail of cows may change in other situations, previously demonstrated to vary in valence and arousal. We propose that this new methodology, with its different steps of integration, could contribute to the identification and validation of behavioural (postural) indicators of how positively or negatively cows experience other activities, or situations, and how calm or aroused they are. Although developed here on dairy cattle, by focusing on relevant postures, this approach could be easily adapted to other species.
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Affiliation(s)
- Daiana de Oliveira
- Department of Animal Environment and Health, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Uppsala, Sweden
| | - Linda J. Keeling
- Department of Animal Environment and Health, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Uppsala, Sweden
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Prieur J, Pika S, Blois-Heulin C, Barbu S. Captive chimpanzees' manual laterality in tool use context: Influence of communication and of sociodemographic factors. Behav Processes 2018; 157:610-624. [PMID: 29665416 DOI: 10.1016/j.beproc.2018.04.009] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/27/2017] [Revised: 02/27/2018] [Accepted: 04/10/2018] [Indexed: 12/27/2022]
Abstract
Understanding variations of apes' laterality between activities is a central issue when investigating the evolutionary origins of human hemispheric specialization of manual functions and language. We assessed laterality of 39 chimpanzees in a non-communication action similar to termite fishing that we compared with data on five frequent conspecific-directed gestures involving a tool previously exploited in the same subjects. We evaluated, first, population-level manual laterality for tool-use in non-communication actions; second, the influence of sociodemographic factors (age, sex, group, and hierarchy) on manual laterality in both non-communication actions and gestures. No significant right-hand bias at the population level was found for non-communication tool use, contrary to our previous findings for gestures involving a tool. A multifactorial analysis revealed that hierarchy and age particularly modulated manual laterality. Dominants and immatures were more right-handed when using a tool in gestures than in non-communication actions. On the contrary, subordinates, adolescents, young and mature adults as well as males were more right-handed when using a tool in non-communication actions than in gestures. Our findings support the hypothesis that some primate species may have a specific left-hemisphere processing gestures distinct from the cerebral system processing non-communication manual actions and to partly support the tool use hypothesis.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jacques Prieur
- Ethos "Ethologie Animale et Humaine'', Université de Rennes 1 - CNRS UMR 6552, Station Biologique de Paimpont, France.
| | - Simone Pika
- Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Department of Primatology, "Virtual Geesehouse", Deutscher Platz 6, 04103 Leipzig, Germany
| | - Catherine Blois-Heulin
- Ethos "Ethologie Animale et Humaine'', Université de Rennes 1 - CNRS UMR 6552, Station Biologique de Paimpont, France
| | - Stéphanie Barbu
- Ethos "Ethologie Animale et Humaine'', Université de Rennes 1 - CNRS UMR 6552, Station Biologique de Paimpont, France
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66
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Head-turning asymmetry: A novel lateralization in rats predicts susceptibility to behavioral despair. Behav Brain Res 2018; 338:47-50. [DOI: 10.1016/j.bbr.2017.10.008] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/21/2017] [Revised: 09/24/2017] [Accepted: 10/10/2017] [Indexed: 01/21/2023]
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67
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Lateralization of mother-infant interactions in wild horses. Behav Processes 2018; 148:49-55. [PMID: 29341906 DOI: 10.1016/j.beproc.2018.01.010] [Citation(s) in RCA: 16] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/25/2017] [Revised: 01/11/2018] [Accepted: 01/12/2018] [Indexed: 12/30/2022]
Abstract
The manifestation of behavioural lateralization has been shown to be modified by environmental conditions, life experiences, and selective breeding. This study tests whether the lateralization recently found in feral domestic horse (Equus caballus) is evident in undomesticated horses. Mother-offspring interactions were investigated in Przewalski's horse (E. ferus przewalskii) living in their natural habitat in Mongolia. Lateral position preferences during mare-foal spontaneous reunions were used as a behavioural marker of visual lateralization. Preferences were separately assessed for foals' approaches to their mothers and mares' approaches to their foals. Preference to keep the mother in the visual field of the left eye was found in various types of foals' behaviour. In slow travelling, Przewalski's foals showed stronger preference for the left eye use than feral horse foals. Population-level left-eye bias was also found in mothers approaching their foals. Our results indicate right-hemispheric dominance for control of mother-offspring interactions in Przewalski's horses, similar to what has been reported for other mammals including humans. Benefits conferred by the lateralized social processing of and responding to social stimuli may explain that the left-lateralized social behaviour is a robust trait of equine behaviour, not modified by domestication or specific environmental conditions of the population.
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Possenti CD, Parolini M, Romano A, Caprioli M, Rubolini D, Saino N. Effect of yolk corticosterone on begging in the yellow-legged gull. Horm Behav 2018; 97:121-127. [PMID: 29127025 DOI: 10.1016/j.yhbeh.2017.10.014] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/03/2017] [Revised: 10/25/2017] [Accepted: 10/27/2017] [Indexed: 01/31/2023]
Abstract
Behavioral lateralization is widespread across vertebrates. The development of lateralization is affected by both genetic and environmental factors. In birds, maternal substances in the egg can affect offspring lateralization via activational and/or organizational effects. Corticosterone affects the development of brain asymmetry, suggesting that variation in yolk corticosterone concentration may also influence post-natal behavioral lateralization, a hypothesis that has never been tested so far. In the yellow-legged gull (Larus michahellis), we increased yolk corticosterone concentration within physiological limits and analyzed the direction of lateralization of hatchlings in reverting from supine to prone position ('RTP' response) and in pecking at dummy parental bills to solicit food provisioning ('begging' response). We found that corticosterone treatment negatively affected the frequency of begging and it may cause a slight leftward lateralization. However, the direction of lateralization of the RTP response was not affected by corticosterone administration. Thus, our study shows a maternal effect mediated by corticosterone on a behavioral trait involved in parent-offspring communication during food provisioning events. The findings on lateralization are not conclusive due to the weak effect size but provide information for further ecological and evolutionary studies, investigating mechanisms underlying the development of lateralization.
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Affiliation(s)
- Cristina Daniela Possenti
- Department of Environmental Science and Policy, University of Milan, via Celoria 26, 20133 Milan, Italy.
| | - Marco Parolini
- Department of Environmental Science and Policy, University of Milan, via Celoria 26, 20133 Milan, Italy
| | - Andrea Romano
- Department of Environmental Science and Policy, University of Milan, via Celoria 26, 20133 Milan, Italy
| | - Manuela Caprioli
- Department of Environmental Science and Policy, University of Milan, via Celoria 26, 20133 Milan, Italy
| | - Diego Rubolini
- Department of Environmental Science and Policy, University of Milan, via Celoria 26, 20133 Milan, Italy
| | - Nicola Saino
- Department of Environmental Science and Policy, University of Milan, via Celoria 26, 20133 Milan, Italy
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Letzner S, Güntürkün O, Lor S, Pawlik RJ, Manns M. Visuospatial attention in the lateralised brain of pigeons - a matter of ontogenetic light experiences. Sci Rep 2017; 7:15547. [PMID: 29138476 PMCID: PMC5686156 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-017-15796-6] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/29/2017] [Accepted: 11/02/2017] [Indexed: 12/13/2022] Open
Abstract
The ontogenetic mechanisms leading to complementary hemispheric specialisations of the two brain halves are poorly understood. In pigeons, asymmetrical light stimulation during development triggers the left-hemispheric dominance for visuomotor control but light effects on right-hemispheric specialisations are largely unknown. We therefore tested adult pigeons with and without embryonic light experience in a visual search task in which the birds pecked peas regularly scattered on an area in front of them. Comparing the pecking pattern of both groups indicates that the embryonic light conditions differentially influence biased visuospatial attention under mono- and binocular seeing conditions. When one eye was occluded, dark-incubated pigeons peck only within the limits of the visual hemifield of the seeing eye. Light-exposed pigeons also peck into the contralateral field indicating enlarged monocular visual fields of both hemispheres. While dark-incubated birds evinced an attentional bias to the right halfspace when seeing with both eyes, embryonic light exposure shifted this to the left. Thus, embryonic light experience modifies processes regulating biased visuospatial attention of the adult birds depending on the seeing conditions during testing. These data support the impact of light onto the emergence of functional dominances in both hemispheres and point to the critical role of interhemispheric processes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sara Letzner
- Biopsychology, Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, Ruhr-University Bochum, 44780, Bochum, Germany.,Cognitive Neurophysiology, Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine, TU Dresden, 01307 Dresden, Germany
| | - Onur Güntürkün
- Biopsychology, Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, Ruhr-University Bochum, 44780, Bochum, Germany
| | - Stephanie Lor
- Biopsychology, Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, Ruhr-University Bochum, 44780, Bochum, Germany
| | - Robert Jan Pawlik
- Institute of Medical Psychology and Behavioral Immunobiology, University Hospital Essen, University of Duisburg-Essen, 45122 Essen, Germany
| | - Martina Manns
- Biopsychology, Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, Ruhr-University Bochum, 44780, Bochum, Germany.
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Ferrari MC, McCormick MI, Mitchell MD, Allan BJ, Gonçalves EJ, Chivers DP. Daily variation in behavioural lateralization is linked to predation stress in a coral reef fish. Anim Behav 2017. [DOI: 10.1016/j.anbehav.2017.09.020] [Citation(s) in RCA: 15] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/27/2022]
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71
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Schmitz J, Lor S, Klose R, Güntürkün O, Ocklenburg S. The Functional Genetics of Handedness and Language Lateralization: Insights from Gene Ontology, Pathway and Disease Association Analyses. Front Psychol 2017; 8:1144. [PMID: 28729848 PMCID: PMC5498560 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2017.01144] [Citation(s) in RCA: 24] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/02/2016] [Accepted: 06/22/2017] [Indexed: 11/25/2022] Open
Abstract
Handedness and language lateralization are partially determined by genetic influences. It has been estimated that at least 40 (and potentially more) possibly interacting genes may influence the ontogenesis of hemispheric asymmetries. Recently, it has been suggested that analyzing the genetics of hemispheric asymmetries on the level of gene ontology sets, rather than at the level of individual genes, might be more informative for understanding the underlying functional cascades. Here, we performed gene ontology, pathway and disease association analyses on genes that have previously been associated with handedness and language lateralization. Significant gene ontology sets for handedness were anatomical structure development, pattern specification (especially asymmetry formation) and biological regulation. Pathway analysis highlighted the importance of the TGF-beta signaling pathway for handedness ontogenesis. Significant gene ontology sets for language lateralization were responses to different stimuli, nervous system development, transport, signaling, and biological regulation. Despite the fact that some authors assume that handedness and language lateralization share a common ontogenetic basis, gene ontology sets barely overlap between phenotypes. Compared to genes involved in handedness, which mostly contribute to structural development, genes involved in language lateralization rather contribute to activity-dependent cognitive processes. Disease association analysis revealed associations of genes involved in handedness with diseases affecting the whole body, while genes involved in language lateralization were specifically engaged in mental and neurological diseases. These findings further support the idea that handedness and language lateralization are ontogenetically independent, complex phenotypes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Judith Schmitz
- Department of Biopsychology, Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, Faculty of Psychology, Ruhr-University BochumBochum, Germany
| | - Stephanie Lor
- Department of Biopsychology, Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, Faculty of Psychology, Ruhr-University BochumBochum, Germany
| | - Rena Klose
- Department of Biopsychology, Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, Faculty of Psychology, Ruhr-University BochumBochum, Germany
| | - Onur Güntürkün
- Department of Biopsychology, Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, Faculty of Psychology, Ruhr-University BochumBochum, Germany
| | - Sebastian Ocklenburg
- Department of Biopsychology, Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, Faculty of Psychology, Ruhr-University BochumBochum, Germany
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Damage-induced alarm cues influence lateralized behaviour but not the relationship between behavioural and habenular asymmetry in convict cichlids (Amatitlania nigrofasciata). Anim Cogn 2017; 20:537-551. [PMID: 28324234 DOI: 10.1007/s10071-017-1081-y] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/26/2016] [Revised: 03/05/2017] [Accepted: 03/13/2017] [Indexed: 10/19/2022]
Abstract
Cerebral lateralization, the partitioning of functions into a certain hemisphere of the brain, is ubiquitous among vertebrates. Evidence suggests that the cognitive processing of a stimulus is performed with a specific hemisphere depending in part upon the emotional valence of the stimulus (i.e. whether it is appetitive or aversive). Recent work has implicated a predominance of right-hemisphere processing for aversive stimuli. In fish with laterally placed eyes, the preference to view an object with a specific eye has been used as a proxy for assessing cerebral lateralization. The habenula, one of the most well-known examples of an asymmetrical neural structure, has been linked to behavioural asymmetry in some fish species. Here, we exposed convict cichlid fish (Amatitlania nigrofasciata) to both a social and non-social lateralization task and assessed behavioural lateralization in either the presence or absence of an aversive stimulus, damage-induced alarm cues. We also assessed whether behavioural asymmetry in these tests was related to asymmetry of the habenular nuclei. We found that when alarm cues were present, fish showed increased left-eye (and by proxy, right hemisphere) preference for stimulus viewing. In addition, females, but not males, showed stronger eye preferences when alarm cues were present. We did not find a relationship between behavioural lateralization and habenular lateralization. Our results conflict with previous reports of concordance between behavioural and habenular lateralization in this fish species. However, our results do provide support for the hypothesis of increased right-hemisphere use when an organism is exposed to aversive stimuli.
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