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Martino M, Magioncalda P. A three-dimensional model of neural activity and phenomenal-behavioral patterns. Mol Psychiatry 2024; 29:639-652. [PMID: 38114633 DOI: 10.1038/s41380-023-02356-w] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/18/2023] [Revised: 11/16/2023] [Accepted: 11/27/2023] [Indexed: 12/21/2023]
Abstract
How phenomenal experience and behavior are related to neural activity in physiology and psychopathology represents a fundamental question in neuroscience and psychiatry. The phenomenal-behavior patterns may be deconstructed into basic dimensions, i.e., psychomotricity, affectivity, and thought, which might have distinct neural correlates. This work provides a data overview on the relationship of these phenomenal-behavioral dimensions with brain activity across physiological and pathological conditions (including major depressive disorder, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, anxiety disorders, addictive disorders, Parkinson's disease, Tourette syndrome, Alzheimer's disease, and frontotemporal dementia). Accordingly, we propose a three-dimensional model of neural activity and phenomenal-behavioral patterns. In this model, neural activity is organized into distinct units in accordance with connectivity patterns and related input/output processing, manifesting in the different phenomenal-behavioral dimensions. (1) An external neural unit, which involves the sensorimotor circuit/brain's sensorimotor network and is connected with the external environment, processes external inputs/outputs, manifesting in the psychomotor dimension (processing of exteroception/somatomotor activity). External unit hyperactivity manifests in psychomotor excitation (hyperactivity/hyperkinesia/catatonia), while external unit hypoactivity manifests in psychomotor inhibition (retardation/hypokinesia/catatonia). (2) An internal neural unit, which involves the interoceptive-autonomic circuit/brain's salience network and is connected with the internal/body environment, processes internal inputs/outputs, manifesting in the affective dimension (processing of interoception/autonomic activity). Internal unit hyperactivity manifests in affective excitation (anxiety/dysphoria-euphoria/panic), while internal unit hypoactivity manifests in affective inhibition (anhedonia/apathy/depersonalization). (3) An associative neural unit, which involves the brain's associative areas/default-mode network and is connected with the external/internal units (but not with the environment), processes associative inputs/outputs, manifesting in the thought dimension (processing of ideas). Associative unit hyperactivity manifests in thought excitation (mind-wandering/repetitive thinking/psychosis), while associative unit hypoactivity manifests in thought inhibition (inattention/cognitive deficit/consciousness loss). Finally, these neural units interplay and dynamically combine into various neural states, resulting in the complex phenomenal experience and behavior across physiology and neuropsychiatric disorders.
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Affiliation(s)
- Matteo Martino
- Graduate Institute of Mind Brain and Consciousness, Taipei Medical University, Taipei, Taiwan.
| | - Paola Magioncalda
- Graduate Institute of Mind Brain and Consciousness, Taipei Medical University, Taipei, Taiwan.
- International Master/Ph.D. Program in Medicine, College of Medicine, Taipei Medical University, Taipei, Taiwan.
- Department of Radiology, Taipei Medical University-Shuang Ho Hospital, New Taipei City, Taiwan.
- Department of Medical Research, Taipei Medical University-Shuang Ho Hospital, New Taipei City, Taiwan.
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Northoff G, Daub J, Hirjak D. Overcoming the translational crisis of contemporary psychiatry - converging phenomenological and spatiotemporal psychopathology. Mol Psychiatry 2023; 28:4492-4499. [PMID: 37704861 PMCID: PMC10914603 DOI: 10.1038/s41380-023-02245-2] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/30/2023] [Revised: 08/17/2023] [Accepted: 08/25/2023] [Indexed: 09/15/2023]
Abstract
Despite all neurobiological/neurocomputational progress in psychiatric research, recent authors speak about a 'crisis of contemporary psychiatry'. Some argue that we do not yet know the computational mechanisms underlying the psychopathological symptoms ('crisis of mechanism') while others diagnose a neglect of subjectivity, namely first-person experience ('crisis of subjectivity'). In this perspective, we propose that Phenomenological Psychopathology, due to its focus on first-person experience of space and time, is in an ideal position to address the crisis of subjectivity and, if extended to the brain's spatiotemporal topographic-dynamic structure as key focus of Spatiotemporal Psychopathology, the crisis of mechanism. We demonstrate how the first-person experiences of space and time differ between schizophrenia, mood disorders and anxiety disorders allowing for their differential-diagnosis - this addresses the crisis of subjectivity. Presupposing space and time as shared features of brain, experience, and symptoms as their "common currency", the structure of abnormal space and time experience may also serve as template for the structure of the brain's spatiotemporal neuro-computational mechanisms - this may address the crisis of mechanism. Preliminary scientific evidence in our examples of schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, anxiety disorder, and depression support such clinically relevant spatiotemporal determination of both first-person experience (crisis of subjectivity) and the brain's neuro-computational structure (crisis of mechanism). In conclusion, converging Phenomenological Psychopathology with Spatiotemporal Psychopathology might help to overcome the translational crisis in psychiatry by delineating more fine-grained neuro computational and -phenomenal mechanisms; this offers novel candidate biomarkers for diagnosis and therapy including both pharmacological and non-pharmacological treatment.
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Affiliation(s)
- Georg Northoff
- Mind, Brain Imaging and Neuroethics Research Unit, The Royal's Institute of Mental Health Research, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, ON, Canada.
| | - Jonas Daub
- Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Central Institute of Mental Health, Medical Faculty Mannheim, University of Heidelberg, Mannheim, Germany
| | - Dusan Hirjak
- Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Central Institute of Mental Health, Medical Faculty Mannheim, University of Heidelberg, Mannheim, Germany.
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Zugman A, Jett L, Antonacci C, Winkler AM, Pine DS. A systematic review and meta-analysis of resting-state fMRI in anxiety disorders: Need for data sharing to move the field forward. J Anxiety Disord 2023; 99:102773. [PMID: 37741177 PMCID: PMC10753861 DOI: 10.1016/j.janxdis.2023.102773] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/31/2022] [Revised: 09/11/2023] [Accepted: 09/12/2023] [Indexed: 09/25/2023]
Abstract
Anxiety disorders are among the most prevalent psychiatric disorders. Neuroimaging findings remain uncertain, and resting state functional magnetic resonance (rs-fMRI) connectivity is of particular interest since it is a scalable functional imaging modality. Given heterogeneous past findings for rs-fMRI in anxious individuals, we characterize patterns across anxiety disorders by conducting a systematic review and meta-analysis. Studies were included if they contained at the time of scanning both a healthy group and a patient group. Due to insufficient study numbers, the quantitative meta-analysis only included seed-based studies. We performed an activation likelihood estimation (ALE) analysis that compared patients and healthy volunteers. All analyses were corrected for family-wise error with a cluster-level threshold of p < .05. Patients exhibited hypo-connectivity between the amygdala and the medial frontal gyrus, anterior cingulate cortex, and cingulate gyrus. This finding, however, was not robust to potential file-drawer effects. Though limited by strict inclusion criteria, our results highlight the heterogeneous nature of reported findings. This underscores the need for data sharing when attempting to detect reliable patterns of disruption in brain activity across anxiety disorders.
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Affiliation(s)
- André Zugman
- Section on Development and Affective Neuroscience (SDAN), Emotion and Development Branch, National Institute of Mental Health, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, United States.
| | - Laura Jett
- Section on Development and Affective Neuroscience (SDAN), Emotion and Development Branch, National Institute of Mental Health, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, United States; Child Emotion Lab, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Madison, WI, United States.
| | - Chase Antonacci
- Section on Development and Affective Neuroscience (SDAN), Emotion and Development Branch, National Institute of Mental Health, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, United States; Department of Psychology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, United States.
| | - Anderson M Winkler
- Section on Development and Affective Neuroscience (SDAN), Emotion and Development Branch, National Institute of Mental Health, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, United States; Division of Human Genetics, School of Medicine, The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, Brownsville, Texas, United States.
| | - Daniel S Pine
- Section on Development and Affective Neuroscience (SDAN), Emotion and Development Branch, National Institute of Mental Health, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, United States.
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4
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Han S, Gao J, Hu J, Ye Y, Huang H, Liu J, Liu M, Ai H, Qiu J, Luo Y, Xu P. Disruptions of salience network during uncertain anticipation of conflict control in anxiety. Asian J Psychiatr 2023; 88:103721. [PMID: 37562270 DOI: 10.1016/j.ajp.2023.103721] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/06/2023] [Revised: 06/20/2023] [Accepted: 08/01/2023] [Indexed: 08/12/2023]
Abstract
BACKGROUND Anxiety has been characterized by disrupted processing of conflict control, while little is known about anticipatory processing of conflicts in anxiety. Anticipation is the key factor in both anxiety and cognitive control, especially under uncertain conditions. The current study therefore examined neurocomputational mechanisms of uncertain anticipation of conflict control in anxiety. METHODS Twenty-six participants with high-trait anxiety and twenty-nine low-trait anxiety participants completed a cue-flanker task with functional magnetic resonance imaging. The hierarchical drift diffusion model (HDDM) was used to measure the cognitive computations during the task. To identify the neurocomputational mechanism of anticipatory control in anxiety, mediation analysis and dynamic causal modelling (DCM) analysis were conducted to examine the relationship between functional connectivity of brain networks and the parameters of HDDM. RESULTS We found influences of regulatory signals from the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex to dorsal anterior cingulate cortex on decision threshold in low-trait anxiety (LTA), but not in high-trait anxiety (HTA), especially for the condition with uncertain cues. The results indicate deficient top-down anticipatory control of upcoming conflicts in anxious individuals. DCM and HDDM analyses revealed that lower decision threshold was associated with higher intrinsic connectivity of salience network (SN) in anxious individuals, suggesting that dysfunctional SN disrupts anticipation of conflict control under uncertainty in anxiety. CONCLUSIONS Our results suggest hyperfunction of the SN underlies the deficient information accumulation during uncertain anticipation of upcoming conflicts in anxiety. Our findings shed new light on the mechanisms of anticipation processing and the psychopathology of anxiety.
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Affiliation(s)
- Shangfeng Han
- Department of Psychology and Center for Brain and Cognitive Sciences, School of Education, Guangzhou University, Guangzhou, China; Shenzhen Key Laboratory of Affective and Social Neuroscience, Center for Brain Disorders and Cognitive Sciences, School of Psychology, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen, China
| | - Jie Gao
- School of Psychology, Chengdu Medical College, Chengdu, China
| | - Jie Hu
- School of Psychology, Chengdu Medical College, Chengdu, China
| | - Yanghua Ye
- Shenzhen Key Laboratory of Affective and Social Neuroscience, Center for Brain Disorders and Cognitive Sciences, School of Psychology, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen, China
| | - Huiya Huang
- Shenzhen Key Laboratory of Affective and Social Neuroscience, Center for Brain Disorders and Cognitive Sciences, School of Psychology, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen, China
| | - Jing Liu
- The National Clinical Research Center for Mental Disorders & Beijing Key Laboratory of Mental Disorders, Beijing Anding Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing, China; Advanced Innovation Center for Human Brain Protection, Capital Medical University, Beijing, China
| | - Mingfang Liu
- Community Health Service Center of Beijing Normal University, China
| | - Hui Ai
- Institute of Applied Psychology, Tianjin University, Tianjin, China; Academy of Medical Engineering and Translational Medicine, Tianjin University, Tianjin, China
| | - Jianyin Qiu
- Shanghai Mental Health Center, School of Medicine, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, China
| | - Yuejia Luo
- School of Psychology, Chengdu Medical College, Chengdu, China; Institute for Neuropsychological Rehabilitation, University of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences, Qingdao, China.
| | - Pengfei Xu
- The State Key Lab of Cognitive and Learning, Beijing Key Laboratory of Applied Experimental Psychology, National Demonstration Center for Experimental Psychology Education (BNU), Faculty of Psychology, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China; Center for Emotion and Brain, Shenzhen Institute of Neuroscience, Shenzhen, China.
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Baumel WT, Mills JA, Schroeder HK, Neptune Z, Levine A, Strawn JR. Gastrointestinal Symptoms in Pediatric Patients with Anxiety Disorders and Their Relationship to Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitor Treatment or Placebo. Child Psychiatry Hum Dev 2023:10.1007/s10578-023-01586-x. [PMID: 37659029 DOI: 10.1007/s10578-023-01586-x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 08/08/2023] [Indexed: 09/05/2023]
Abstract
Gastrointestinal symptoms are commonly reported as adverse effects of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), the first-line pharmacologic treatment for pediatric anxiety disorders; however, the temporal course of these symptoms during treatment, although believed to be transient, has never been prospectively evaluated. Additionally, rates of gastrointestinal symptoms and functional gastrointestinal syndromes in anxious youth are poorly understood. We examined gastrointestinal symptoms in youth with anxiety disorders during a double-blind, placebo-controlled trial of escitalopram (n = 51). Then, in a separate sample of prospectively treated children and adolescents with generalized, social and/or separation anxiety disorders (n = 56), we examined the frequency of gastrointestinal symptoms based on the Questionnaire on Pediatric Gastrointestinal Symptoms (QPGS) and ROME III criteria and the association of these symptoms with clinical and demographic characteristics using logistic regression. The frequency/severity of abdominal pain, diarrhea, bloating constipation or total gastrointestinal symptoms did not differ between patients receiving placebo (n = 25) or escitalopram (n = 26). However, escitalopram-treated youth had transient changes in nausea/vomiting and total upper gastrointestinal symptoms during the first two weeks of treatment. ROME III criteria for functional gastrointestinal syndromes were present in 12/56 patients (21.4%). QPGS-related functional gastrointestinal syndromes and symptoms were unrelated to treatment, treatment type, or clinical or demographic variables. Gastrointestinal symptoms are common in youth with anxiety and SSRIs produce transient-rather than sustained-gastrointestinal symptoms. Assessing gastrointestinal symptoms prior to pharmacotherapy and discussing factors that increase (or decrease) the likelihood of transient SSRI-related symptoms in youth may decrease patient uncertainty related to side effects and decrease medication-related anxiety.
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Affiliation(s)
- W Thomas Baumel
- Department of Psychiatry, University of North Carolina, 77 Vilcom Center Dr, Chapel Hill, NC, 27514, USA.
| | - Jeffrey A Mills
- Department of Economics, Lindner College of Business, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH, USA
| | - Heidi K Schroeder
- Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Neuroscience, Anxiety Disorders Research Program, College of Medicine, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH, USA
| | - Zoe Neptune
- Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Neuroscience, Anxiety Disorders Research Program, College of Medicine, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH, USA
| | - Amir Levine
- Department of Psychiatry, Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Columbia University Medical Center, New York, NY, USA
| | - Jeffrey R Strawn
- Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Neuroscience, Anxiety Disorders Research Program, College of Medicine, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH, USA
- Department of Pediatrics, Division of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, Divisions of Clinical Pharmacology, Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, Cincinnati, OH, USA
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Jiang J, Li W, Cui H, Zhu Z, Zhang L, Hu Q, Li H, Wang Y, Pang J, Wang J, Li Q, Li C. Feasibility of applying graph theory to diagnosing generalized anxiety disorder using machine learning models. Psychiatry Res Neuroimaging 2023; 333:111656. [PMID: 37224661 DOI: 10.1016/j.pscychresns.2023.111656] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/20/2022] [Revised: 04/13/2023] [Accepted: 04/24/2023] [Indexed: 05/26/2023]
Abstract
The aim of this study was to investigate whether the alterations of topological properties can facilitate the diagnosis of generalized anxiety disorder (GAD). Twenty first-episode drug-naive Chinese individuals with GAD and twenty age-sex-education-matched healthy controls (HCs) were included in the primary training set, and the results of which were validated using nineteen drug-free patients with GAD and nineteen unmatched HCs. Two 3 T scanners were used to acquire T1, diffusion tensor, and resting-state functional images. Topological properties were altered in the functional cerebral networks among patients with GAD, but not in the structural networks. Using the nodal topological properties in the anti-correlated functional networks, machine learning models distinguished drug-naive GADs from their matched HCs independent of the type of kernels and the amount of features. Although the models built with drug-naive GADs failed to distinguish drug-free GADs from HCs, the features selected for those models could be used to build new models for distinguishing drug-free GADs from HCs. Our findings suggested that it is feasible to utilize the topological characteristics of brain network to facilitate the diagnosis of GAD. However, further research with decent sample sizes, multimodal features, and improved modeling methods are needed to build more robust models.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jiangling Jiang
- Department of Psychiatry, Tongji Hospital of Tongji University, 389 Xincun Road, 200065 Shanghai, China; Shanghai Key Laboratory of Psychotic Disorders, Shanghai Mental Health Center, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, 600 Wan Ping Nan Road, 200030 Shanghai, China
| | - Wei Li
- Shanghai Key Laboratory of Psychotic Disorders, Shanghai Mental Health Center, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, 600 Wan Ping Nan Road, 200030 Shanghai, China
| | - Huiru Cui
- Shanghai Key Laboratory of Psychotic Disorders, Shanghai Mental Health Center, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, 600 Wan Ping Nan Road, 200030 Shanghai, China
| | - Zhipei Zhu
- Shanghai Key Laboratory of Psychotic Disorders, Shanghai Mental Health Center, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, 600 Wan Ping Nan Road, 200030 Shanghai, China
| | - Li Zhang
- Shanghai Key Laboratory of Psychotic Disorders, Shanghai Mental Health Center, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, 600 Wan Ping Nan Road, 200030 Shanghai, China
| | - Qiang Hu
- Shanghai Key Laboratory of Psychotic Disorders, Shanghai Mental Health Center, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, 600 Wan Ping Nan Road, 200030 Shanghai, China
| | - Hui Li
- Shanghai Key Laboratory of Psychotic Disorders, Shanghai Mental Health Center, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, 600 Wan Ping Nan Road, 200030 Shanghai, China
| | - Yiran Wang
- Shanghai Key Laboratory of Psychotic Disorders, Shanghai Mental Health Center, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, 600 Wan Ping Nan Road, 200030 Shanghai, China
| | - Jiaoyan Pang
- School of Government, Shanghai University of Political Science and Law, 7989 Waiqingsong Road, 201701 Shanghai, China
| | - Jijun Wang
- Shanghai Key Laboratory of Psychotic Disorders, Shanghai Mental Health Center, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, 600 Wan Ping Nan Road, 200030 Shanghai, China; Institute of Psychology and Behavioral Science, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, 600 Wan Ping Nan Road, 200030 Shanghai, China; Brain Science and Technology Research Center, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, China, 800 Dongchuan Road, 200240 Shanghai, China; Center for Excellence in Brain Science and Intelligence Technology (CEBSIT), Chinese Academy of Science, 320 Yue Yang Road, 200031 Shanghai, China
| | - Qingwei Li
- Department of Psychiatry, Tongji Hospital of Tongji University, 389 Xincun Road, 200065 Shanghai, China.
| | - Chunbo Li
- Shanghai Key Laboratory of Psychotic Disorders, Shanghai Mental Health Center, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, 600 Wan Ping Nan Road, 200030 Shanghai, China; Institute of Psychology and Behavioral Science, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, 600 Wan Ping Nan Road, 200030 Shanghai, China; Brain Science and Technology Research Center, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, China, 800 Dongchuan Road, 200240 Shanghai, China; Center for Excellence in Brain Science and Intelligence Technology (CEBSIT), Chinese Academy of Science, 320 Yue Yang Road, 200031 Shanghai, China.
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Steinhäuser JL, Teed AR, Al-Zoubi O, Hurlemann R, Chen G, Khalsa SS. Reduced vmPFC-insula functional connectivity in generalized anxiety disorder: a Bayesian confirmation study. Sci Rep 2023; 13:9626. [PMID: 37316518 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-023-35939-2] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/15/2022] [Accepted: 05/26/2023] [Indexed: 06/16/2023] Open
Abstract
Differences in the correlated activity of networked brain regions have been reported in individuals with generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) but an overreliance on null-hypothesis significance testing (NHST) limits the identification of disorder-relevant relationships. In this preregistered study, we applied both a Bayesian statistical framework and NHST to the analysis of resting-state fMRI scans from females with GAD and matched healthy comparison females. Eleven a-priori hypotheses about functional connectivity (FC) were evaluated using Bayesian (multilevel model) and frequentist (t-test) inference. Reduced FC between the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) and the posterior-mid insula (PMI) was confirmed by both statistical approaches and was associated with anxiety sensitivity. FC between the vmPFC-anterior insula, the amygdala-PMI, and the amygdala-dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC) region pairs did not survive multiple comparison correction using the frequentist approach. However, the Bayesian model provided evidence for these region pairs having decreased FC in the GAD group. Leveraging Bayesian modeling, we demonstrate decreased FC of the vmPFC, insula, amygdala, and dlPFC in females with GAD. Exploiting the Bayesian framework revealed FC abnormalities between region pairs excluded by the frequentist analysis and other previously undescribed regions in GAD, demonstrating the value of applying this approach to resting-state FC data in clinical investigations.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jonas L Steinhäuser
- Laureate Institute for Brain Research, Tulsa, OK, USA.
- Division of Psychological and Social Medicine and Developmental Neurosciences, Faculty of Medicine, Technische Universität Dresden, Dresden, Germany.
| | - Adam R Teed
- Laureate Institute for Brain Research, Tulsa, OK, USA
| | - Obada Al-Zoubi
- Laureate Institute for Brain Research, Tulsa, OK, USA
- Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Oklahoma, Tulsa, OK, USA
| | - René Hurlemann
- Department of Psychiatry, School of Medicine & Health Sciences, University of Oldenburg, Oldenburg, Germany
- Research Center Neurosensory Science, University of Oldenburg, Oldenburg, Germany
| | - Gang Chen
- Scientific and Statistical Computing Core, National Institute of Mental Health, Bethesda, MD, USA
| | - Sahib S Khalsa
- Laureate Institute for Brain Research, Tulsa, OK, USA.
- Oxley College of Health Sciences, University of Tulsa, Tulsa, OK, USA.
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Fan S, Yu Y, Wu Y, Kai Y, Wang H, Chen Y, Zu M, Pang X, Tian Y. Altered brain entropy and functional connectivity patterns in generalized anxiety disorder patients. J Affect Disord 2023; 332:168-175. [PMID: 36972849 DOI: 10.1016/j.jad.2023.03.062] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/01/2022] [Revised: 03/14/2023] [Accepted: 03/18/2023] [Indexed: 03/29/2023]
Abstract
BACKGROUND Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) is a highly prevalent disease characterized by chronic, pervasive, and intrusive worry. Previous resting-state functional MRI (fMRI) studies on GAD have mainly focused on conventional static linear features. Entropy analysis of resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rs-fMRI) has recently been adopted to characterize brain temporal dynamics in some neuropsychological or psychiatric diseases. However, the nonlinear dynamic complexity of brain signals has been rarely explored in GAD. METHODS We measured the approximate entropy (ApEn) and sample entropy (SampEn) of the resting-state fMRI data from 38 GAD patients and 37 matched healthy controls (HCs). The brain regions with significantly different ApEn and SampEn values between the two groups were extracted. Using these brain regions as seed points, we also investigated whether there are differences in whole brain resting-state function connectivity (RSFC) pattern between GADs and HCs. Correlation analysis was subsequently conducted to investigate the association between brain entropy, RSFC and the severity of anxiety symptoms. A linear support vector machine (SVM) was used to assess the discriminative power of BEN and RSFC features among GAD patients and HCs. RESULTS Compared to the HCs, patients with GAD showed increased levels of ApEn in the right angular cortex (AG) and increased levels of SampEn in the right middle occipital gyrus (MOG) as well as the right inferior occipital gyrus (IOG). Contrarily, compared to the HCs, patients with GAD showed decreased RSFC between the right AG and the right inferior parietal gyrus (IPG). The SVM-based classification model achieved 85.33 % accuracy (sensitivity: 89.19 %; specificity: 81.58 %; and area under the receiver operating characteristic curve: 0.9018). The ApEn of the right AG and the SVM-based decision value was positively correlated with the Hamilton Anxiety Scale (HAMA). LIMITATIONS This study used cross-sectional data and sample size was small. CONCLUSION Patients with GAD showed increased level of nonlinear dynamical complexity of ApEn in the right AG and decreased linear features of RSFC in the right IPG. Combining the linear and nonlinear features of brain signals may be used to effectively diagnose psychiatric disorders.
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Affiliation(s)
- Siyu Fan
- Department of Neurology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical University, Hefei 230022, China
| | - Yue Yu
- Department of Neurology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical University, Hefei 230022, China
| | - Yue Wu
- Department of Neurology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical University, Hefei 230022, China
| | - Yiao Kai
- Department of Neurology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical University, Hefei 230022, China
| | - Hongping Wang
- Department of Neurology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical University, Hefei 230022, China
| | - Yue Chen
- Shanghai Fourth People's Hospital Affiliated to Tongji University, Shanghai 200081, China
| | - Meidan Zu
- Department of Psychology and Sleep Medicine, The Second Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical University, Hefei 230601, China
| | - Xiaonan Pang
- Department of Neurology, The Second Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical University, Hefei 230601, China.
| | - Yanghua Tian
- Department of Neurology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical University, Hefei 230022, China; The College of Mental Health and Psychological Sciences, Anhui Medical University, Hefei 230032, China; Collaborative Innovation Center of Neuropsychiatric Disorders and Mental Health, Hefei 230032, China.
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9
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Moraga-Amaro R, Muñoz P, Villalobos T, Linsambarth S, Maldonado F, Meirone V, Femopase B, Stehberg J. Real-world data of non-invasive stimulation of the human insula-prefrontal cortices using deep TMS to treat anxiety for occupational stress and generalized anxiety disorder. Psychiatry Res 2023; 320:115036. [PMID: 36586377 DOI: 10.1016/j.psychres.2022.115036] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [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: 08/19/2022] [Revised: 12/13/2022] [Accepted: 12/25/2022] [Indexed: 12/26/2022]
Abstract
Activation of the insula is found in all anxiety-related disorders and increased insular-prefrontal cortex (PFC) functional connectivity is associated with reduced anxiety. In this study, the combined stimulation of the insula and PFC using the dTMS H4 (insula+LPFC) and H2 (PFC) coils were used to reduce anxiety in 13 subjects experiencing occupational stress, and 55 participants suffering from generalized anxiety disorder (GAD). The combined HF stimulation of the insula and PFC significantly decreased anxiety scores according to the HARS, CAS, and STAI anxiety scales, leading to a reduction in anxiety according to HARS of 88.7% and 70.7% in participants with occupational stress and the clinical sample of participants diagnosed with GAD, respectively. The findings suggest that the prefrontal-insular axis is critical for the regulation of anxiety and its stimulation can be used for the treatment of anxiety in people suffering from occupational stress and GAD.
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Affiliation(s)
- Rodrigo Moraga-Amaro
- Laboratorio de Neurobiología, Instituto de Ciencias Biomédicas, Facultad de Medicina. Universidad Andres Bello, Santiago, Chile
| | - Paula Muñoz
- Clínica Nova Vita. Del Inca 4446 of. 708. Las Condes, Santiago, Chile
| | - Tomás Villalobos
- Laboratorio de Neurobiología, Instituto de Ciencias Biomédicas, Facultad de Medicina. Universidad Andres Bello, Santiago, Chile
| | | | - Francisco Maldonado
- Laboratorio de Neurobiología, Instituto de Ciencias Biomédicas, Facultad de Medicina. Universidad Andres Bello, Santiago, Chile
| | - Valeria Meirone
- Clínica Nova Vita. Del Inca 4446 of. 708. Las Condes, Santiago, Chile
| | - Bruno Femopase
- Clínica Nova Vita. Del Inca 4446 of. 708. Las Condes, Santiago, Chile
| | - Jimmy Stehberg
- Laboratorio de Neurobiología, Instituto de Ciencias Biomédicas, Facultad de Medicina. Universidad Andres Bello, Santiago, Chile.
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Li R, Shen F, Sun X, Zou T, Li L, Wang X, Deng C, Duan X, He Z, Yang M, Li Z, Chen H. Dissociable salience and default mode network modulation in generalized anxiety disorder: a connectome-wide association study. Cereb Cortex 2023; 33:6354-6365. [PMID: 36627243 DOI: 10.1093/cercor/bhac509] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/28/2022] [Revised: 11/30/2022] [Accepted: 12/01/2022] [Indexed: 01/12/2023] Open
Abstract
Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) is a common anxiety disorder experiencing psychological and somatic symptoms. Here, we explored the link between the individual variation in functional connectome and anxiety symptoms, especially psychological and somatic dimensions, which remains unknown. In a sample of 118 GAD patients and matched 85 healthy controls (HCs), we used multivariate distance-based matrix regression to examine the relationship between resting-state functional connectivity (FC) and the severity of anxiety. We identified multiple hub regions belonging to salience network (SN) and default mode network (DMN) where dysconnectivity associated with anxiety symptoms (P < 0.05, false discovery rate [FDR]-corrected). Follow-up analyses revealed that patient's psychological anxiety was dominated by the hyper-connectivity within DMN, whereas the somatic anxiety could be modulated by hyper-connectivity within SN and DMN. Moreover, hypo-connectivity between SN and DMN were related to both anxiety dimensions. Furthermore, GAD patients showed significant network-level FC changes compared with HCs (P < 0.01, FDR-corrected). Finally, we found the connectivity of DMN could predict the individual psychological symptom in an independent GAD sample. Together, our work emphasizes the potential dissociable roles of SN and DMN in the pathophysiology of GAD's anxiety symptoms, which may be crucial in providing a promising neuroimaging biomarker for novel personalized treatment strategies.
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Affiliation(s)
- Rong Li
- The Clinical Hospital of Chengdu Brain Science Institute, MOE Key Laboratory for Neuroinformation, High-Field Magnetic Resonance Brain Imaging Key Laboratory of Sichuan Province, School of Life Science and Technology, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu 610054, P.R. China
| | - Fei Shen
- The Clinical Hospital of Chengdu Brain Science Institute, MOE Key Laboratory for Neuroinformation, High-Field Magnetic Resonance Brain Imaging Key Laboratory of Sichuan Province, School of Life Science and Technology, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu 610054, P.R. China
| | - Xiyue Sun
- The Clinical Hospital of Chengdu Brain Science Institute, MOE Key Laboratory for Neuroinformation, High-Field Magnetic Resonance Brain Imaging Key Laboratory of Sichuan Province, School of Life Science and Technology, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu 610054, P.R. China
| | - Ting Zou
- The Clinical Hospital of Chengdu Brain Science Institute, MOE Key Laboratory for Neuroinformation, High-Field Magnetic Resonance Brain Imaging Key Laboratory of Sichuan Province, School of Life Science and Technology, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu 610054, P.R. China
| | - Liyuan Li
- The Clinical Hospital of Chengdu Brain Science Institute, MOE Key Laboratory for Neuroinformation, High-Field Magnetic Resonance Brain Imaging Key Laboratory of Sichuan Province, School of Life Science and Technology, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu 610054, P.R. China
| | - Xuyang Wang
- The Clinical Hospital of Chengdu Brain Science Institute, MOE Key Laboratory for Neuroinformation, High-Field Magnetic Resonance Brain Imaging Key Laboratory of Sichuan Province, School of Life Science and Technology, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu 610054, P.R. China
| | - Chijun Deng
- The Clinical Hospital of Chengdu Brain Science Institute, MOE Key Laboratory for Neuroinformation, High-Field Magnetic Resonance Brain Imaging Key Laboratory of Sichuan Province, School of Life Science and Technology, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu 610054, P.R. China
| | - Xujun Duan
- The Clinical Hospital of Chengdu Brain Science Institute, MOE Key Laboratory for Neuroinformation, High-Field Magnetic Resonance Brain Imaging Key Laboratory of Sichuan Province, School of Life Science and Technology, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu 610054, P.R. China
| | - Zongling He
- The Clinical Hospital of Chengdu Brain Science Institute, MOE Key Laboratory for Neuroinformation, High-Field Magnetic Resonance Brain Imaging Key Laboratory of Sichuan Province, School of Life Science and Technology, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu 610054, P.R. China
| | - Mi Yang
- The Clinical Hospital of Chengdu Brain Science Institute, MOE Key Laboratory for Neuroinformation, High-Field Magnetic Resonance Brain Imaging Key Laboratory of Sichuan Province, School of Life Science and Technology, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu 610054, P.R. China
| | - Zezhi Li
- Department of Psychiatry, The Affiliated Brain Hospital of Guangzhou Medical University, Guangzhou 510370, P.R. China
| | - Huafu Chen
- The Clinical Hospital of Chengdu Brain Science Institute, MOE Key Laboratory for Neuroinformation, High-Field Magnetic Resonance Brain Imaging Key Laboratory of Sichuan Province, School of Life Science and Technology, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu 610054, P.R. China
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11
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Zhang Y, Cai X, Duan M, He H. The influence of high worry on static and dynamic insular functional connectivity. Front Neurosci 2023; 17:1062947. [PMID: 37025377 PMCID: PMC10070698 DOI: 10.3389/fnins.2023.1062947] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/06/2022] [Accepted: 02/23/2023] [Indexed: 04/08/2023] Open
Abstract
Worry is a form of repetitive negative thought. High worry-proneness is one risk factor leading to anxiety disorder. Several types of research indicated that anxiety disorder was highly associated with disrupted interoception. The insula is consistently considered to play a key role in interoception. However, the relationship between worry and the interoception network is poorly investigated in worry-prone individuals. Thus, it is essential to identify the neural characteristic of high worry-proneness subjects. A total of 32 high worry-proneness (HWP) subjects and 25 low worry-proneness (LWP) subjects were recruited and underwent magnetic resonance imaging scanning. Six subregions of insula were chosen as regions of interest. Then, seed-based static and dynamic functional connectivity were calculated. Increased static functional connectivity was observed between the ventral anterior insula and inferior parietal lobule in HWP compared to LWP. Decreased static functional connectivity was found between the left ventral anterior insula and the pregenual anterior cingulate cortex. Decreased dynamic functional connectivity was also shown between the right posterior insula and the inferior parietal lobule in HWP. Moreover, a post-hoc test exploring the effect of changed function within the insular region confirmed that a significant positive relationship between static functional connectivity (ventral anterior insula-inferior parietal lobule) and dynamic functional connectivity (posterior insula-inferior parietal lobule) in LWP but not in HWP. Our results might suggest that deficient insular function may be an essential factor related to high worry in healthy subjects.
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Affiliation(s)
- Youxue Zhang
- School of Education and Psychology, Chengdu Normal University, Chengdu, China
- The Clinical Hospital of Chengdu Brain Science Institute, MOE Key Lab for Neuroinformation, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, China
| | - Xueli Cai
- Psychological Research and Counseling Center, Southwest Jiaotong University, Chengdu, Sichuan, China
| | - Mingjun Duan
- The Clinical Hospital of Chengdu Brain Science Institute, MOE Key Lab for Neuroinformation, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, China
| | - Hui He
- The Clinical Hospital of Chengdu Brain Science Institute, MOE Key Lab for Neuroinformation, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, China
- *Correspondence: Hui He,
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12
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Specific and common functional connectivity deficits in drug-free generalized anxiety disorder and panic disorder: A data-driven analysis. Psychiatry Res 2023; 319:114971. [PMID: 36459805 DOI: 10.1016/j.psychres.2022.114971] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/25/2022] [Revised: 11/17/2022] [Accepted: 11/19/2022] [Indexed: 11/22/2022]
Abstract
Evidence of comparing neural network differences between anxiety disorder subtypes is limited, while it is crucial to reveal the pathogenesis of anxiety disorders. The present study aimed to investigate specific and common resting-state functional connectivity (FC) networks in generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), panic disorder (PD), and healthy controls (HC). We employed the gRAICAR algorithm to decompose the resting-state fMRI into independent components and align the components across 61 subjects (22 GAD, 18 PD and 21 HC). The default mode network and precuneus network exhibited GAD-specific aberrance, the anterior default mode network showed atypicality specific to PD, and the right fronto-parietal network showed aberrance common to GAD and PD. Between GAD-specific networks, FC between bilateral dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) was positively correlated with interoceptive sensitivity. In the common network, altered FCs between DLPFC and angular gyrus, and between orbitofrontal cortex and precuneus, were positively correlated with anxiety severity and interoceptive sensitivity. The pathological mechanism of PD could closely relate to the dysfunction of prefrontal cortex, while GAD could involve more extensive brain areas, which may be related to fear generalization.
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13
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Cui Q, Chen Y, Tang Q, Sheng W, Li D, Zeng Y, Jiang K, He Z, Chen H. Neural mechanisms of aberrant self-referential processing in patients with generalized anxiety disorder. Prog Neuropsychopharmacol Biol Psychiatry 2022; 119:110595. [PMID: 35787397 DOI: 10.1016/j.pnpbp.2022.110595] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/07/2021] [Revised: 06/07/2022] [Accepted: 06/27/2022] [Indexed: 10/17/2022]
Abstract
Massive theoretical studies in clinical psychology have implicated the self in understanding internalizing disorders (i.e., anxiety and mood disorders), in which self-related tasks were frequently used to investigate internalizing psychopathology. As one of the most frequently seen internalizing disorder in primary care, patients with generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) are characterized by inappropriate self-related processing such as negative self-referential thinking. However, relevant neural mechanisms remain unknown. In this study, participants underwent a self-related task which they were presented with several positive and negative trait words and were required to judge the extent to which these traits matched themselves when compared to their average peers. Aberrant brain activation and functional connectivity of GAD were detected during processing positive and negative traits. Compared to healthy controls (HCs), patients with GAD exhibited abnormal self-processing which manifested as lower biased self-rating scores particularly for negative traits and weaker brain activity in the left dorsomedial prefrontal cortex, inferior frontal gyrus, superior temporal sulcus (STS), and bilateral lingual gyrus when processing trait words. Abnormal functional connections between these hypoactive regions and regions associated with reward, emotion, and theory of mind were observed in subsequent psychophysiological interaction analysis. An attenuation of connectivity between the left insula and left STS was associated with greater severity of anxiety symptom in GAD patients. These findings provide insight into the abnormal neurocognitive mechanisms of biased self-related processing in GAD patients, which involves distorted self-schema accompanied by abnormal activation and functional connections of regions implicated in self-related and social cognition processing.
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Affiliation(s)
- Qian Cui
- School of Public Affairs and Administration, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, China
| | - Yuyan Chen
- The Clinical Hospital of Chengdu Brain Science Institute, School of Life Science and Technology, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, China; MOE Key Lab for Neuroinformation; High-Field Magnetic Resonance Brain Imaging Key Laboratory of Sichuan Province, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, China
| | - Qin Tang
- The Clinical Hospital of Chengdu Brain Science Institute, School of Life Science and Technology, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, China; MOE Key Lab for Neuroinformation; High-Field Magnetic Resonance Brain Imaging Key Laboratory of Sichuan Province, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, China
| | - Wei Sheng
- The Clinical Hospital of Chengdu Brain Science Institute, School of Life Science and Technology, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, China; MOE Key Lab for Neuroinformation; High-Field Magnetic Resonance Brain Imaging Key Laboratory of Sichuan Province, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, China
| | - Di Li
- The Clinical Hospital of Chengdu Brain Science Institute, School of Life Science and Technology, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, China; MOE Key Lab for Neuroinformation; High-Field Magnetic Resonance Brain Imaging Key Laboratory of Sichuan Province, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, China
| | - Yuhong Zeng
- The Clinical Hospital of Chengdu Brain Science Institute, School of Life Science and Technology, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, China; MOE Key Lab for Neuroinformation; High-Field Magnetic Resonance Brain Imaging Key Laboratory of Sichuan Province, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, China
| | - Kexing Jiang
- The Clinical Hospital of Chengdu Brain Science Institute, School of Life Science and Technology, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, China; MOE Key Lab for Neuroinformation; High-Field Magnetic Resonance Brain Imaging Key Laboratory of Sichuan Province, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, China
| | - Zongling He
- The Clinical Hospital of Chengdu Brain Science Institute, School of Life Science and Technology, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, China
| | - Huafu Chen
- Department of Radiology, First Affiliated Hospital to Army Medical University, Chongqing, China; MOE Key Lab for Neuroinformation; High-Field Magnetic Resonance Brain Imaging Key Laboratory of Sichuan Province, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, China.
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14
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Zhou S, Su S, Hong A, Yang C, Liu Q, Feng W, Wang Z. Abnormal functional connectivity of brain regions associated with fear network model in panic disorder. World J Biol Psychiatry 2022; 23:764-772. [PMID: 35255781 DOI: 10.1080/15622975.2022.2038389] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/25/2023]
Abstract
Background: Patients with panic disorder (PD) have an abnormal function in brain regions related to fear network is well recognised. However, the traditional fear network model (FNM) which was based on animals' horrible behaviours has been found that it's not enough to explain the pathological mechanism of PD. This study aims to explore brain regions' abnormalities in the new advanced FNM, and estimate whether it can better explain PD.Methods: Magnetic resonance imaging resting-state scans were acquired in 40 patients with PD (35 drug-naïve and 5 drug-free) and 40 healthy controls (HCs). Twelve brain regions in the advanced FNM were chosen as regions of interest (ROIs) to examine the group difference in the ROIs and whole-brain resting-state functional connectivity (rsFC).Results: We found significantly increased thalamic rsFC with the insula, compared with HCs. And it was significantly correlated with HAMA-somatic score. We also found increased thalamic rsFC with occipital gyrus, temporal gyrus, and frontal gyrus when compared with HCs.Conclusions: Taken together, PD patients exhibit abnormal rsFC alterations within the advanced FNM, especially the increased rsFC within thalamus-insula loop, suggesting that excessive sensitivity to external information plays an important role in PD. The advanced FNM may provide a fuller explanation about PD.
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Affiliation(s)
- Shuangyi Zhou
- Shanghai Mental Health Centre, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, China
| | - Shanshan Su
- Shanghai Mental Health Centre, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, China
| | - Ang Hong
- Shanghai Mental Health Centre, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, China
| | - Chen Yang
- Shanghai Mental Health Centre, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, China
| | - Qiang Liu
- Shanghai Mental Health Centre, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, China
| | - Wei Feng
- Department of Psychological Medicine, Fudan University Shanghai Cancer Center, Shanghai, China
| | - Zhen Wang
- Shanghai Mental Health Centre, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, China
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15
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Wang R, Mo F, Shen Y, Song Y, Cai H, Zhu J. Functional connectivity gradients of the insula to different cerebral systems. Hum Brain Mapp 2022; 44:790-800. [PMID: 36206289 PMCID: PMC9842882 DOI: 10.1002/hbm.26099] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/18/2022] [Revised: 09/16/2022] [Accepted: 09/24/2022] [Indexed: 01/25/2023] Open
Abstract
The diverse functional roles of the insula may emerge from its heavy connectivity to an extensive network of cortical and subcortical areas. Despite several previous attempts to investigate the hierarchical organization of the insula by applying the recently developed gradient approach to insula-to-whole brain connectivity data, little is known about whether and how there is variability across connectivity gradients of the insula to different cerebral systems. Resting-state functional MRI data from 793 healthy subjects were used to discover and validate functional connectivity gradients of the insula, which were computed based on its voxel-wise functional connectivity profiles to distinct cerebral systems. We identified three primary patterns of functional connectivity gradients of the insula to distinct cerebral systems. The connectivity gradients to the higher-order transmodal associative systems, including the prefrontal, posterior parietal, temporal cortices, and limbic lobule, showed a ventroanterior-dorsal axis across the insula; those to the lower-order unimodal primary systems, including the motor, somatosensory, and occipital cortices, displayed radiating transitions from dorsoanterior toward both ventroanterior and dorsoposterior parts of the insula; the connectivity gradient to the subcortical nuclei exhibited an organization along the anterior-posterior axis of the insula. Apart from complementing and extending previous literature on the heterogeneous connectivity patterns of insula subregions, the presented framework may offer ample opportunities to refine our understanding of the role of the insula in many brain disorders.
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Affiliation(s)
- Rui Wang
- Department of RadiologyThe First Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical UniversityHefeiChina,Research Center of Clinical Medical Imaging, Anhui ProvinceHefeiChina,Anhui Provincial Institute of Translational MedicineHefeiChina
| | - Fan Mo
- Department of RadiologyThe First Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical UniversityHefeiChina,Research Center of Clinical Medical Imaging, Anhui ProvinceHefeiChina,Anhui Provincial Institute of Translational MedicineHefeiChina
| | - Yuhao Shen
- Department of RadiologyThe First Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical UniversityHefeiChina,Research Center of Clinical Medical Imaging, Anhui ProvinceHefeiChina,Anhui Provincial Institute of Translational MedicineHefeiChina
| | - Yu Song
- Department of RadiologyThe First Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical UniversityHefeiChina,Research Center of Clinical Medical Imaging, Anhui ProvinceHefeiChina,Anhui Provincial Institute of Translational MedicineHefeiChina
| | - Huanhuan Cai
- Department of RadiologyThe First Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical UniversityHefeiChina,Research Center of Clinical Medical Imaging, Anhui ProvinceHefeiChina,Anhui Provincial Institute of Translational MedicineHefeiChina
| | - Jiajia Zhu
- Department of RadiologyThe First Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical UniversityHefeiChina,Research Center of Clinical Medical Imaging, Anhui ProvinceHefeiChina,Anhui Provincial Institute of Translational MedicineHefeiChina
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16
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Li Y, Jiang L. State and Trait Anxiety Share Common Network Topological Mechanisms of Human Brain. Front Neuroinform 2022; 16:859309. [PMID: 35811997 PMCID: PMC9260038 DOI: 10.3389/fninf.2022.859309] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/21/2022] [Accepted: 05/04/2022] [Indexed: 12/01/2022] Open
Abstract
Anxiety is a future-oriented unpleasant and negative mental state induced by distant and potential threats. It could be subdivided into momentary state anxiety and stable trait anxiety, which play a complex and combined role in our mental and physical health. However, no studies have systematically investigated whether these two different dimensions of anxiety share a common or distinct topological mechanism of human brain network. In this study, we used macroscale human brain morphological similarity network and functional connectivity network as well as their spatial and temporal variations to explore the topological properties of state and trait anxiety. Our results showed that state and trait anxiety were both negatively correlated with the coefficient of variation of nodal efficiency in the left frontal eyes field of volume network; state and trait anxiety were both positively correlated with the median and mode of pagerank centrality distribution in the right insula for both static and dynamic functional networks. In summary, our study confirmed that state and trait anxiety shared common human brain network topological mechanisms in the insula and the frontal eyes field, which were involved in preliminary cognitive processing stage of anxiety. Our study also demonstrated that the common brain network topological mechanisms had high spatiotemporal robustness and would enhance our understanding of human brain temporal and spatial organization.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yubin Li
- CAS Key Laboratory of Behavioral Science, Institute of Psychology, Beijing, China
- Department of Psychology, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
| | - Lili Jiang
- CAS Key Laboratory of Behavioral Science, Institute of Psychology, Beijing, China
- Department of Psychology, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
- *Correspondence: Lili Jiang
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17
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Wang X, Ma L, Luo Y, Yang Y, Upreti B, Cheng Y, Cui R, Liu S, Xu J. Increasing of Blood Brain Barrier Permeability and the Association With Depression and Anxiety in Systemic Lupus Erythematosus Patients. Front Med (Lausanne) 2022; 9:852835. [PMID: 35425773 PMCID: PMC9001971 DOI: 10.3389/fmed.2022.852835] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/11/2022] [Accepted: 03/08/2022] [Indexed: 12/31/2022] Open
Abstract
Objective To study changes in blood brain barrier (BBB) permeability in systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) patients, and explore the association between the alterations in BBB permeability and depression/anxiety in SLE. Methods Brain dynamic contrast enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (DCE-MRI) images were collected from 42 SLE patients and 23 healthy controls (HCs). Based on the Patlak pharmacokinetic model, the Ktrans value of each voxel in the whole brain of each subject was calculated. BBB permeability indicator (the Ktrans value) between SLE patients and healthy control group was compared. Hamilton Depression Scale (HAMD) and Hamilton Anxiety Scale (HAMA) were used to assess the mental health of SLE patients. The difference in BBB permeability was compared on SLE patients with depression/anxiety, SLE patients without depression/anxiety and HCs by ANOVA analysis. Results The Ktrans value of the right insular region of the SLE group was significantly higher than that of the healthy control group. And the Ktrans value of the right insular region in SLE patients with depression/anxiety was significantly increased compared with SLE patients without depression/anxiety and HCs. Conclusions SLE patients have increased BBB permeability, mainly in the right insular area. The increased BBB permeability in the right insular region is associated with the depression/anxiety in SLE patients.
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Affiliation(s)
- Xiangyu Wang
- Department of Rheumatology and Immunology, First Affiliated Hospital of Kunming Medical University, Kunming, China
| | - Lihua Ma
- Department of Rheumatology and Immunology, First Affiliated Hospital of Kunming Medical University, Kunming, China
| | - Yuli Luo
- Department of Rheumatology and Immunology, First Affiliated Hospital of Kunming Medical University, Kunming, China
| | - Yifan Yang
- Department of Rheumatology and Immunology, First Affiliated Hospital of Kunming Medical University, Kunming, China
| | - Bibhuti Upreti
- Department of Rheumatology and Immunology, First Affiliated Hospital of Kunming Medical University, Kunming, China
| | - Yuqi Cheng
- Department of Psychiatry, First Affiliated Hospital of Kunming Medical University, Kunming, China
| | - Ruomei Cui
- Department of Rheumatology and Immunology, First Affiliated Hospital of Kunming Medical University, Kunming, China
| | - Shuang Liu
- Department of Rheumatology and Immunology, First Affiliated Hospital of Kunming Medical University, Kunming, China
| | - Jian Xu
- Department of Rheumatology and Immunology, First Affiliated Hospital of Kunming Medical University, Kunming, China
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18
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Gan Q, Ding N, Bi G, Liu R, Zhao X, Zhong J, Wu S, Zeng Y, Cui L, Wu K, Fu Y, Chen Z. Enhanced Resting-State Functional Connectivity With Decreased Amplitude of Low-Frequency Fluctuations of the Salience Network in Mindfulness Novices. Front Hum Neurosci 2022; 16:838123. [PMID: 35308619 PMCID: PMC8927720 DOI: 10.3389/fnhum.2022.838123] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/17/2021] [Accepted: 01/24/2022] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Mindfulness and accordant interventions are often used as complementary treatments to psychological or psychosomatic problems. This has also been gradually integrated into daily lives for the promotion of psychological well-being in non-clinical populations. The experience of mindful acceptance in a non-judgmental way brought about the state, which was less interfered by a negative effect. Mindfulness practice often begins with focused attention (FA) meditation restricted to an inner experience. We postulate that the brain areas related to an interoceptive function would demonstrate an intrinsic functional change after mindfulness training for the mindful novices along with paying more attention to internal processes. To further explore the influence of mindfulness on the organization of the brain regions, both functional connectivity (FC) in the voxel and the region of interest (ROI) level were calculated. In the current study, 32 healthy volunteers, without any meditation experiences, were enrolled and randomly assigned to a mindfulness-based stress reduction group (MBSR) or control group (CON). Participants in the MBSR group completed 8 weeks of mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) and rated their mindfulness skills before and after MBSR. All subjects were evaluated via resting-state functional MRI (rs-fMRI) in both baselines and after 8 weeks. They also completed a self-report measure of their state and trait anxiety as well as a positive and negative affect. Pre- and post-MBSR assessments revealed a decreased amplitude of low-frequency fluctuations (ALFF) in the right anterior cingulate gyrus (ACC.R), left anterior and posterior insula (aIC.L, pIC.L), as well as left superior medial frontal gyrus (SFGmed.L) in MBSR practitioners. Strengthened FC between right anterior cingulate cortex (ACC.R) and aIC.R was observed. The mean ALFF values of those regions were inversely and positively linked to newly acquired mindful abilities. Along with a decreased negative affect score, our results suggest that the brain regions related to attention and interoceptive function were involved at the beginning of mindfulness. This study provides new clues in elucidating the time of evaluating the brain mechanisms of mindfulness novices.
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Affiliation(s)
- Quan Gan
- Medical Faculty, Kunming University of Science and Technology, Kunming, China
| | - Ning Ding
- Medical Faculty, Kunming University of Science and Technology, Kunming, China
| | - Guoli Bi
- Medical Faculty, Kunming University of Science and Technology, Kunming, China
- Department of Magnetic Resonance Imaging, The First People’s Hospital of Yunnan Province, Kunming, China
| | - Ruixiang Liu
- Department of Clinical Psychology, The Second People’s Hospital of Yunnan Province, Kunming, China
| | - Xingrong Zhao
- Department of Psychiatry, The First Affiliated Hospital of Kunming Medical University, Kunming, China
| | - Jingmei Zhong
- Department of Clinical Psychology, The First People’s Hospital of Yunnan Province, Kunming, China
| | - Shaoyuan Wu
- Department of Clinical Psychology, The First People’s Hospital of Yunnan Province, Kunming, China
| | - Yong Zeng
- Department of Clinical Psychology, The Sixth Affiliated Hospital of Kunming Medical University, Yuxi, China
| | - Liqian Cui
- Department of Neurology, The First Affiliated Hospital, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China
| | - Kunhua Wu
- Medical Faculty, Kunming University of Science and Technology, Kunming, China
- Department of Magnetic Resonance Imaging, The First People’s Hospital of Yunnan Province, Kunming, China
| | - Yunfa Fu
- School of Information Engineering and Automation, Kunming University of Science and Technology, Kunming, China
| | - Zhuangfei Chen
- Medical Faculty, Kunming University of Science and Technology, Kunming, China
- *Correspondence: Zhuangfei Chen,
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19
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Li X, Qin F, Liu J, Luo Q, Zhang Y, Hu J, Chen Y, Wei D, Qiu J. An insula-based network mediates the relation between rumination and interoceptive sensibility in the healthy population. J Affect Disord 2022; 299:6-11. [PMID: 34818518 DOI: 10.1016/j.jad.2021.11.047] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/30/2021] [Revised: 11/11/2021] [Accepted: 11/15/2021] [Indexed: 11/30/2022]
Abstract
BACKGROUND Individuals sometimes continuously centered their attention on the same thoughts. When such process tends to be negative and self-referential, we delineated this mental state as rumination, which may undermine body's perception of endogenous signal, but little is known about the certainly relationship and the potential neural mechanisms. METHODS Rumination and interoceptive sensibility were measured by questionnaires, then insula-related network of rumination dimensions were examined by the whole brain resting-state functional connectivity (FC) in 479 college students, and whether the insula-based network mediate the relationship between rumination and interoceptive sensibility were tested. RESULTS Rumination (including brooding reflective pondering) and interoceptive sensibility showed positive correlations. The neural mechanisms of brooding and reflective pondering were all related to the insula-networks, to be specific, brooding was positively correlated with the FC between the left posterior insula (PI) and left parahippocampal gyrus/ hippocampus (PHG), reflective pondering were positively correlated with the FC between the insula subregion and the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. Moreover, the relationship between brooding and interoceptive sensibility was mediated by the FC between left PI and left PHG. LIMITATIONS We just tested the relationship between rumination and interoceptive sensibility at a cross-sectional level, but it is unclear that whether the longitudinal relationship would be predicted by the related network. CONCLUSIONS Our findings provided new insights into neural mechanisms of brooding and reflective pondering, also the integration of brooding and interoceptive sensibility. The insula-related networks may contribute crucially to rumination and interoception.
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Affiliation(s)
- Xianrui Li
- Key Laboratory of Cognition and Personality (SWU), Ministry of Education, Chongqing 400715, China; Faculty of Psychology, Southwest University (SWU), Chongqing 400715, China
| | - Facai Qin
- Key Laboratory of Cognition and Personality (SWU), Ministry of Education, Chongqing 400715, China; Faculty of Psychology, Southwest University (SWU), Chongqing 400715, China
| | - Jiahui Liu
- Key Laboratory of Cognition and Personality (SWU), Ministry of Education, Chongqing 400715, China; Faculty of Psychology, Southwest University (SWU), Chongqing 400715, China
| | - Qian Luo
- Key Laboratory of Cognition and Personality (SWU), Ministry of Education, Chongqing 400715, China; Faculty of Psychology, Southwest University (SWU), Chongqing 400715, China
| | - Yi Zhang
- Key Laboratory of Cognition and Personality (SWU), Ministry of Education, Chongqing 400715, China; Faculty of Psychology, Southwest University (SWU), Chongqing 400715, China
| | - Jun Hu
- Key Laboratory of Cognition and Personality (SWU), Ministry of Education, Chongqing 400715, China; Faculty of Psychology, Southwest University (SWU), Chongqing 400715, China
| | - Yulin Chen
- Key Laboratory of Cognition and Personality (SWU), Ministry of Education, Chongqing 400715, China; Faculty of Psychology, Southwest University (SWU), Chongqing 400715, China
| | - Dongtao Wei
- Key Laboratory of Cognition and Personality (SWU), Ministry of Education, Chongqing 400715, China; Faculty of Psychology, Southwest University (SWU), Chongqing 400715, China.
| | - Jiang Qiu
- Key Laboratory of Cognition and Personality (SWU), Ministry of Education, Chongqing 400715, China; Faculty of Psychology, Southwest University (SWU), Chongqing 400715, China; Southwest University Branch, Collaborative Innovation Center of Assessment Toward Basic Education Quality at Beijing Normal University.
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20
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Out-of-step: brain-heart desynchronization in anxiety disorders. Mol Psychiatry 2021; 26:1726-1737. [PMID: 33504952 DOI: 10.1038/s41380-021-01029-w] [Citation(s) in RCA: 18] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/19/2020] [Revised: 12/30/2020] [Accepted: 01/12/2021] [Indexed: 12/11/2022]
Abstract
Imaging studies in anxiety disorders (AD) show abnormal functional connectivity primarily in the salience network (SN), somatomotor network (SMN), and default mode network (DMN). However, it is not clear how precisely these network changes occur including their relation to psychopathological symptoms. Here, we show that the functional networks affected in AD overlap with cortical regions that receive visceral inputs (the so-called central/visceral autonomic network). Focusing on cardiac afferents, we suggest that network changes in AD may be due to reduced phase synchronization between ongoing neural and cardiac activity. This neuro-cardiac desynchronization occurs due to the abnormal phase resetting of neural activity at the onset of each heartbeat, as measured by a lower intertrial coherence and heartbeat-evoked potential. Biochemically, cardiac afferents reach subcortical serotonergic raphe nuclei and noradrenergic locus coeruleus (among others) which, in turn, are known to reciprocally modulate the DMN and SMN/SN on the cortical level. Consistent with the network changes in AD, decreases in serotonergic and noradrenergic activity are known to increase connectivity in both SMN and SN while, at the same time, they decrease DMN connectivity. SMN and SN increases, in turn, lead to increased emotional arousal/anxiety and bodily awareness whereas decreased DMN connectivity leads to an unstable sense-of-self in AD. Finally, we integrate our proposal with interoceptive predictive processing models suggesting neuro-cardiac desynchronization as a mechanism for "noisy" bottom-up information leading to a persistently uncertain bodily state in top-down models. In sum, integrating theories on active interference and hyperarousal, we propose a precise neuro-cardiac and biochemically -driven mechanisms for key psychopathological symptoms of AD.
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21
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Kim N, Kim MJ. Altered Task-Evoked Corticolimbic Responsivity in Generalized Anxiety Disorder. Int J Mol Sci 2021; 22:ijms22073630. [PMID: 33807276 PMCID: PMC8037355 DOI: 10.3390/ijms22073630] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/13/2021] [Revised: 03/23/2021] [Accepted: 03/26/2021] [Indexed: 11/16/2022] Open
Abstract
Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) is marked by uncontrollable, persistent worry and exaggerated response to uncertainty. Here, we review and summarize the findings from the GAD literature that employs functional neuroimaging methods. In particular, the present review focuses on task-based blood oxygen level-dependent (BOLD) functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies. We find that select brain regions often regarded as a part of a corticolimbic circuit (e.g., amygdala, anterior cingulate cortex, prefrontal cortex) are consistently targeted for a priori hypothesis-driven analyses, which, in turn, shows varying degrees of abnormal BOLD responsivity in GAD. Data-driven whole-brain analyses show the insula and the hippocampus, among other regions, to be affected by GAD, depending on the task used in each individual study. Overall, while the heterogeneity of the tasks and sample size limits the generalizability of the findings thus far, some promising convergence can be observed in the form of the altered BOLD responsivity of the corticolimbic circuitry in GAD.
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Affiliation(s)
- Nayoung Kim
- Department of Psychology, Sungkyunkwan University, Seoul 03063, Korea;
| | - M. Justin Kim
- Department of Psychology, Sungkyunkwan University, Seoul 03063, Korea;
- Center for Neuroscience Imaging Research, Institute for Basic Science, Suwon 16060, Korea
- Correspondence:
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22
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Lischke A, Pahnke R, Mau-Moeller A, Weippert M. Heart Rate Variability Modulates Interoceptive Accuracy. Front Neurosci 2021; 14:612445. [PMID: 33536870 PMCID: PMC7849500 DOI: 10.3389/fnins.2020.612445] [Citation(s) in RCA: 16] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/30/2020] [Accepted: 12/02/2020] [Indexed: 12/17/2022] Open
Abstract
Our emotional experiences depend on our interoceptive ability to perceive and interpret changes in our autonomous nervous system. An inaccurate perception and interpretation of autonomic changes impairs our ability to understand and regulate our emotional reactions. Impairments in emotion understanding and emotion regulation increase our risk for mental disorders, indicating that interoceptive deficits play an important role in the etiology and pathogenesis of mental disorders. We, thus, need measures to identify those of us whose interoceptive deficits impair their emotion understanding and emotion regulation. Here, we used cardiac measures to investigate how our ability to engage prefrontal and (para-)limbic brain region regions affects our ability to perceive and interpret cardiac changes. We administered a heartbeat detection task to a sample of healthy individuals (n = 113) whose prefrontal-(para-) limbic engagement had been determined on basis of a heart rate variability recording. We found a positive association between heartbeat detection and heart rate variability, implying that individuals with higher heart rate variability were more accurate in heartbeat detection than individuals with lower heart rate variability. These findings suggest that our interoceptive accuracy depends on our prefrontal-(para-)limbic engagement during the perception and interpretation of cardiac changes. Our findings also show that cardiac measures may be useful to investigate the association between interoceptive accuracy and prefrontal-(para-)limbic engagement in a time- and cost-efficient manner.
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Affiliation(s)
- Alexander Lischke
- Department of Psychology, University of Greifswald, Greifswald, Germany
| | - Rike Pahnke
- Department of Sport Science, University of Rostock, Rostock, Germany
| | - Anett Mau-Moeller
- Department of Sport Science, University of Rostock, Rostock, Germany
| | - Matthias Weippert
- Department of Sport Science, University of Rostock, Rostock, Germany
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23
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Shen Z, Yu L, Zhao Z, Jin K, Pan F, Hu S, Li S, Xu Y, Xu D, Huang M. Gray Matter Volume and Functional Connectivity in Hypochondriasis: A Magnetic Resonance Imaging and Support Vector Machine Analysis. Front Hum Neurosci 2020; 14:596157. [PMID: 33343319 PMCID: PMC7738430 DOI: 10.3389/fnhum.2020.596157] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/18/2020] [Accepted: 10/23/2020] [Indexed: 12/19/2022] Open
Abstract
Objective: Patients with hypochondriasis hold unexplainable beliefs and a fear of having a lethal disease, with poor compliances and treatment response to psychotropic drugs. Although several studies have demonstrated that patients with hypochondriasis demonstrate abnormalities in brain structure and function, gray matter volume (GMV) and functional connectivity (FC) in hypochondriasis still remain unclear. Methods: The present study collected T1-weighted and resting-state functional magnetic resonance images from 21 hypochondriasis patients and 22 well-matched healthy controls (HCs). We first analyzed the difference in the GMV between the two groups. We then used the regions showing a difference in GMV between two groups as seeds to perform functional connectivity (FC) analysis. Finally, a support vector machine (SVM) was applied to the imaging data to distinguish hypochondriasis patients from HCs. Results: Compared with the HCs, the hypochondriasis group showed decreased GMV in the left precuneus, and increased GMV in the left medial frontal gyrus. FC analyses revealed decreased FC between the left medial frontal gyrus and cuneus, and between the left precuneus and cuneus. A combination of both GMV and FC in the left precuneus, medial frontal gyrus, and cuneus was able to discriminate the hypochondriasis patients from HCs with a sensitivity of 0.98, specificity of 0.93, and accuracy of 0.95. Conclusion: Our study suggests that smaller left precuneus volumes and decreased FC between the left precuneus and cuneus seem to play an important role of hypochondriasis. Future studies are needed to confirm whether this finding is generalizable to patients with hypochondriasis.
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Affiliation(s)
- Zhe Shen
- Department of Psychiatry, The First Affiliated Hospital, College of Medicine, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China
- The Key Laboratory of Mental Disorder’s Management of Zhejiang Province, Hangzhou, China
- Zhejiang Engineering Center for Mathematical Mental Health, Hangzhou, China
| | - Liang Yu
- Department of Anesthesiology and Pain, The Affiliated Hangzhou First People’s Hospital, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Hangzhou, China
| | - Zhiyong Zhao
- Key Laboratory for Biomedical Engineering of Ministry of Education, Department of Biomedical Engineering, College of Biomedical Engineering and Instrument Science, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China
| | - Kangyu Jin
- Department of Psychiatry, The First Affiliated Hospital, College of Medicine, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China
- The Key Laboratory of Mental Disorder’s Management of Zhejiang Province, Hangzhou, China
- Zhejiang Engineering Center for Mathematical Mental Health, Hangzhou, China
| | - Fen Pan
- Department of Psychiatry, The First Affiliated Hospital, College of Medicine, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China
- The Key Laboratory of Mental Disorder’s Management of Zhejiang Province, Hangzhou, China
- Zhejiang Engineering Center for Mathematical Mental Health, Hangzhou, China
| | - Shaohua Hu
- Department of Psychiatry, The First Affiliated Hospital, College of Medicine, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China
- The Key Laboratory of Mental Disorder’s Management of Zhejiang Province, Hangzhou, China
- Zhejiang Engineering Center for Mathematical Mental Health, Hangzhou, China
| | - Shangda Li
- Department of Psychiatry, The First Affiliated Hospital, College of Medicine, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China
- The Key Laboratory of Mental Disorder’s Management of Zhejiang Province, Hangzhou, China
- Zhejiang Engineering Center for Mathematical Mental Health, Hangzhou, China
| | - Yi Xu
- Department of Psychiatry, The First Affiliated Hospital, College of Medicine, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China
- The Key Laboratory of Mental Disorder’s Management of Zhejiang Province, Hangzhou, China
- Zhejiang Engineering Center for Mathematical Mental Health, Hangzhou, China
| | - Dongrong Xu
- Columbia University and New York State Psychiatric Institute, Riverside Drive, New York, NY, United States
| | - Manli Huang
- Department of Psychiatry, The First Affiliated Hospital, College of Medicine, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China
- The Key Laboratory of Mental Disorder’s Management of Zhejiang Province, Hangzhou, China
- Zhejiang Engineering Center for Mathematical Mental Health, Hangzhou, China
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24
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Wang X, Tan Y, Van den Bergh O, von Leupoldt A, Qiu J. Intrinsic functional brain connectivity patterns underlying enhanced interoceptive sensibility. J Affect Disord 2020; 276:804-814. [PMID: 32738665 DOI: 10.1016/j.jad.2020.07.032] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/19/2020] [Revised: 06/19/2020] [Accepted: 07/11/2020] [Indexed: 11/29/2022]
Abstract
BACKGROUND Cumulative evidence has suggested that brain regions including the bilateral insula and the anterior cingulate cortex play critical roles in the processing of interoceptive information. However, the brain functional connectivity patterns underlying interoceptive sensibility (IS) and their role in the relationship between IS and self-reported bodily symptoms remain unknown. We aimed to investigate the intrinsic functional connectivity patterns associated with IS and how this modulates the relationship between IS and self-reported bodily symptoms. METHODS Resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging was used to test the intrinsic large-scale functional connectivity in 459 healthy subjects. IS and self-reported bodily symptoms were assessed by questionnaires. RESULTS Individuals with greater IS had a stronger tendency to report bodily symptoms. Higher IS was correlated with decreased ventral anterior insula-superior temporal gyrus, dorsal anterior cingulate cortex-middle frontal cortex and amygdala-medioventral occipital cortex connectivity. The large-scale functional connectivity of cingulo-opercular task control network (CON)-default mode network, CON-subcortical network and CON-dorsal attention network moderated the association between IS and bodily symptoms. LIMITATIONS The Body Perception Questionnaire mainly reflects the self-perceived tendency to focus on negatively-valenced interoceptive sensations. Future research should distinguish neutral and negative IS in order to make the definition of IS clearer. CONCLUSIONS This study suggests that IS may be related to impaired intrinsic functional connectivity between brain areas related to multisensory integration and cognitive-affective control, resulting in increased vigilance-attention to bodily signals. These findings offer new empirical evidence for a better understanding of the intricate relationships between interoception and symptom reporting.
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Affiliation(s)
- Xiaoqin Wang
- Key Laboratory of Cognition and Personality, Ministry of Education, Chongqing, China; School of Psychology, Southwest University, Chongqing, China
| | - Yafei Tan
- School of Psychology, Central China Normal University, Wuhan, China
| | | | | | - Jiang Qiu
- Key Laboratory of Cognition and Personality, Ministry of Education, Chongqing, China; School of Psychology, Southwest University, Chongqing, China.
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25
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Scalabrini A, Mucci C, Angeletti LL, Northoff G. The Self and its World: A Neuro-Ecological and Temporo-Spatial Account of Existential Fear. CLINICAL NEUROPSYCHIATRY 2020; 17:46-58. [PMID: 34908967 PMCID: PMC8629082 DOI: 10.36131/clinicalnpsych20200203] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/05/2020] [Accepted: 04/05/2020] [Indexed: 11/25/2022]
Abstract
The current international crisis situation caused by the COVID-19 pandemic is having a strong psychological impact on our subjectivities. We are constantly threatened by the danger of i) being infected, ii) infecting other people, and (iii) by the loss of social relation. Departing from these premises, we here aim to investigate the psychological and neurodynamics of this complex phenomenon. First, we discuss about recent psychological and neuronal findings on fear and its disorders, related to an unbalanced intero-exteroceptive processing and emotional regulation. Secondly we move to the psychological and neuronal dynamics of self and others characterized by a temporo-spatial alignment with the world. Due to the neural overlap of emotion and self and the deep-reaching neuro-ecological layers of self, emotional feelings like fear and anxiety cannot be detached and dissociated from the world; they signify the world–brain relation, and, more specifically, our self-other relation. The deepest neuro-ecological and neuro-social layers of self are threatened by the loss of subjectivity, which is manifest in our loss of body and thus the fear of dying, and the loss of intersubjectivity that surfaces in our fear of infecting others, which reflect the intimate anchorage of the self with the world. In our opinion the pandemic of COVID-19 deeply affect our sense of self and its spatio-temporal neuronal dynamics providing the prerequisites for the manifestation of fear and existential anxiety, thus disrupting the brain-world relation with significant repercussions on our psyche and on our daily lives.
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Affiliation(s)
- Andrea Scalabrini
- Department of Psychological, Health and Territorial Sciences (DiSPuTer), G. d'Annunzio University of Chieti-Pescara, Via dei Vestini 33, 66100 Chieti (CH), Italy
| | - Clara Mucci
- Department of Psychological, Health and Territorial Sciences (DiSPuTer), G. d'Annunzio University of Chieti-Pescara, Via dei Vestini 33, 66100 Chieti (CH), Italy
| | - Lorenzo Lucherini Angeletti
- Psychiatry Unit, Department of Health Sciences, University of Florence, Largo G. Alessandro Brambilla 3, 50134, Florence, Italy
| | - Georg Northoff
- The Royal's Institute of Mental Health Research & University of Ottawa. Brain and Mind Research Institute, Centre for Neural Dynamics, Faculty of Medicine, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, 145 Carling Avenue, Rm. 6435, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada K1Z 7K4.,Mental Health Centre, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Tianmu Road 305, Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, 310013, China.,Centre for Cognition and Brain Disorders, Hangzhou Normal University, Tianmu Road 305, Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, 310013, China.,TMU Research Centre for Brain and Consciousness, Shuang Hospital, Taipei Medical University, No. 250 Wu-Xing Street, 11031 Taipei, Taiwan.,Graduate Institute of Humanities in Medicine, Taipei Medical University, No. 250 Wu-Xing Street, 11031 Taipei, Taiwan
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