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Varkevisser T, Geuze E, van Honk J. Amygdala fMRI-A Critical Appraisal of the Extant Literature. Neurosci Insights 2024; 19:26331055241270591. [PMID: 39148643 PMCID: PMC11325331 DOI: 10.1177/26331055241270591] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/23/2024] [Accepted: 07/08/2024] [Indexed: 08/17/2024] Open
Abstract
Even before the advent of fMRI, the amygdala occupied a central space in the affective neurosciences. Yet this amygdala-centred view on emotion processing gained even wider acceptance after the inception of fMRI in the early 1990s, a landmark that triggered a goldrush of fMRI studies targeting the amygdala in vivo. Initially, this amygdala fMRI research was mostly confined to task-activation studies measuring the magnitude of the amygdala's response to emotional stimuli. Later, interest began to shift more towards the study of the amygdala's resting-state functional connectivity and task-based psychophysiological interactions. Later still, the test-retest reliability of amygdala fMRI came under closer scrutiny, while at the same time, amygdala-based real-time fMRI neurofeedback gained widespread popularity. Each of these major subdomains of amygdala fMRI research has left its marks on the field of affective neuroscience at large. The purpose of this review is to provide a critical assessment of this literature. By integrating the insights garnered by these research branches, we aim to answer the question: What part (if any) can amygdala fMRI still play within the current landscape of affective neuroscience? Our findings show that serious questions can be raised with regard to both the reliability and validity of amygdala fMRI. These conclusions force us to cast doubt on the continued viability of amygdala fMRI as a core pilar of the affective neurosciences.
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Affiliation(s)
- Tim Varkevisser
- University Medical Center, Utrecht, The Netherlands
- Brain Research and Innovation Center, Ministry of Defence, Utrecht, The Netherlands
- Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands
| | - Elbert Geuze
- University Medical Center, Utrecht, The Netherlands
- Brain Research and Innovation Center, Ministry of Defence, Utrecht, The Netherlands
| | - Jack van Honk
- Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands
- University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa
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2
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Grogans SE, Hur J, Barstead MG, Anderson AS, Islam S, Kim HC, Kuhn M, Tillman RM, Fox AS, Smith JF, DeYoung KA, Shackman AJ. Neuroticism/Negative Emotionality Is Associated with Increased Reactivity to Uncertain Threat in the Bed Nucleus of the Stria Terminalis, Not the Amygdala. J Neurosci 2024; 44:e1868232024. [PMID: 39009438 PMCID: PMC11308352 DOI: 10.1523/jneurosci.1868-23.2024] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/29/2023] [Revised: 06/01/2024] [Accepted: 06/03/2024] [Indexed: 07/17/2024] Open
Abstract
Neuroticism/negative emotionality (N/NE)-the tendency to experience anxiety, fear, and other negative emotions-is a fundamental dimension of temperament with profound consequences for health, wealth, and well-being. Elevated N/NE is associated with a panoply of adverse outcomes, from reduced socioeconomic attainment to psychiatric illness. Animal research suggests that N/NE reflects heightened reactivity to uncertain threat in the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis (BST) and central nucleus of the amygdala (Ce), but the relevance of these discoveries to humans has remained unclear. Here we used a novel combination of psychometric, psychophysiological, and neuroimaging approaches to test this hypothesis in an ethnoracially diverse, sex-balanced sample of 220 emerging adults selectively recruited to encompass a broad spectrum of N/NE. Cross-validated robust-regression analyses demonstrated that N/NE is preferentially associated with heightened BST activation during the uncertain anticipation of a genuinely distressing threat (aversive multimodal stimulation), whereas N/NE was unrelated to BST activation during certain-threat anticipation, Ce activation during either type of threat anticipation, or BST/Ce reactivity to threat-related faces. It is often assumed that different threat paradigms are interchangeable assays of individual differences in brain function, yet this has rarely been tested. Our results revealed negligible associations between BST/Ce reactivity to the anticipation of threat and the presentation of threat-related faces, indicating that the two tasks are nonfungible. These observations provide a framework for conceptualizing emotional traits and disorders; for guiding the design and interpretation of biobank and other neuroimaging studies of psychiatric risk, disease, and treatment; and for refining mechanistic research.
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Affiliation(s)
- Shannon E Grogans
- Department of Psychology, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland 20742
| | - Juyoen Hur
- Department of Psychology, Yonsei University, Seoul 03722, Republic of Korea
| | | | - Allegra S Anderson
- Department of Psychological Sciences, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee 37240
| | - Samiha Islam
- Department of Psychology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104
| | - Hyung Cho Kim
- Department of Psychology, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland 20742
- Neuroscience and Cognitive Science Program, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland 20742
| | - Manuel Kuhn
- Center for Depression, Anxiety and Stress Research, McLean Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Belmont, Massachusetts 02478
| | | | - Andrew S Fox
- Department of Psychology, University of California, Davis, California 95616
- California National Primate Research Center, University of California, Davis, California 95616
| | - Jason F Smith
- Department of Psychology, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland 20742
| | - Kathryn A DeYoung
- Department of Psychology, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland 20742
| | - Alexander J Shackman
- Department of Psychology, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland 20742
- Neuroscience and Cognitive Science Program, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland 20742
- Maryland Neuroimaging Center, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland 20742
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3
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Min J, Koenig J, Nashiro K, Yoo HJ, Cho C, Thayer JF, Mather M. Resting heart rate variability is associated with neural adaptation when repeatedly exposed to emotional stimuli. Neuropsychologia 2024; 196:108819. [PMID: 38360391 PMCID: PMC11293881 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2024.108819] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/06/2023] [Revised: 01/24/2024] [Accepted: 02/05/2024] [Indexed: 02/17/2024]
Abstract
Higher heart rate variability (HRV) at rest is associated with better emotion regulation ability. While the neurovisceral integration model explains this by postulating that HRV can index how the brain adaptively modulates responses to emotional stimuli, neuroimaging studies directly supporting this idea are scarce. We examined the neural correlates of regulating negative and positive emotion in relation to resting HRV based on the neuroimaging and heart rate data of one hundred young adults. The results showed that those with higher HRV better recruit the medial prefrontal cortex while intensifying positive compared to negative emotion. We also examined how individual differences in resting HRV are associated with adjusting brain activity to repeated emotional stimuli. During repeated viewing of emotional images, subjects with higher resting HRV better reduced activity in the medial prefrontal cortex, posterior cingulate gyrus, and angular gyrus, most of which overlapped with the default mode network. This HRV-DMN association was observed during passively viewing emotional images rather than during actively regulating emotion. While the regulating trials can better detect task-induced changes, the viewing trials might approximate resting state, better revealing individual differences. These findings suggest two possibilities: people with higher resting HRV might have a tendency to spontaneously engage with emotion regulation or possess a trait helping emotional arousal fade away.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jungwon Min
- University of Southern California, Irvine, CA, United States.
| | - Julian Koenig
- University of Cologne, Faculty of Medicine and University Hospital Cologne, Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Psychosomatics and Psychotherapy, Germany
| | - Kaoru Nashiro
- University of Southern California, Irvine, CA, United States
| | - Hyun Joo Yoo
- University of Southern California, Irvine, CA, United States
| | - Christine Cho
- University of Southern California, Irvine, CA, United States
| | | | - Mara Mather
- University of Southern California, Irvine, CA, United States
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4
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Labuschagne I, Dominguez JF, Grace S, Mizzi S, Henry JD, Peters C, Rabinak CA, Sinclair E, Lorenzetti V, Terrett G, Rendell PG, Pedersen M, Hocking DR, Heinrichs M. Specialization of amygdala subregions in emotion processing. Hum Brain Mapp 2024; 45:e26673. [PMID: 38590248 PMCID: PMC11002533 DOI: 10.1002/hbm.26673] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/21/2023] [Revised: 02/28/2024] [Accepted: 03/13/2024] [Indexed: 04/10/2024] Open
Abstract
The amygdala is important for human fear processing. However, recent research has failed to reveal specificity, with evidence that the amygdala also responds to other emotions. A more nuanced understanding of the amygdala's role in emotion processing, particularly relating to fear, is needed given the importance of effective emotional functioning for everyday function and mental health. We studied 86 healthy participants (44 females), aged 18-49 (mean 26.12 ± 6.6) years, who underwent multiband functional magnetic resonance imaging. We specifically examined the reactivity of four amygdala subregions (using regions of interest analysis) and related brain connectivity networks (using generalized psycho-physiological interaction) to fear, angry, and happy facial stimuli using an emotional face-matching task. All amygdala subregions responded to all stimuli (p-FDR < .05), with this reactivity strongly driven by the superficial and centromedial amygdala (p-FDR < .001). Yet amygdala subregions selectively showed strong functional connectivity with other occipitotemporal and inferior frontal brain regions with particular sensitivity to fear recognition and strongly driven by the basolateral amygdala (p-FDR < .05). These findings suggest that amygdala specialization to fear may not be reflected in its local activity but in its connectivity with other brain regions within a specific face-processing network.
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Affiliation(s)
- Izelle Labuschagne
- Healthy Brain and Mind Research Centre, School of Behavioural and Health SciencesAustralian Catholic UniversityMelbourneVictoriaAustralia
- School of PsychologyThe University of QueenslandBrisbaneQueenslandAustralia
| | | | - Sally Grace
- Healthy Brain and Mind Research Centre, School of Behavioural and Health SciencesAustralian Catholic UniversityMelbourneVictoriaAustralia
| | - Simone Mizzi
- School of Health and Biomedical ScienceRMIT UniversityMelbourneVictoriaAustralia
| | - Julie D. Henry
- School of PsychologyThe University of QueenslandBrisbaneQueenslandAustralia
| | - Craig Peters
- Department of Pharmacy PracticeWayne State UniversityDetroitMichiganUSA
| | | | - Erin Sinclair
- Healthy Brain and Mind Research Centre, School of Behavioural and Health SciencesAustralian Catholic UniversityMelbourneVictoriaAustralia
| | - Valentina Lorenzetti
- Healthy Brain and Mind Research Centre, School of Behavioural and Health SciencesAustralian Catholic UniversityMelbourneVictoriaAustralia
| | - Gill Terrett
- Healthy Brain and Mind Research Centre, School of Behavioural and Health SciencesAustralian Catholic UniversityMelbourneVictoriaAustralia
| | - Peter G. Rendell
- Healthy Brain and Mind Research Centre, School of Behavioural and Health SciencesAustralian Catholic UniversityMelbourneVictoriaAustralia
| | - Mangor Pedersen
- Department of Psychology and NeuroscienceAuckland University of TechnologyAucklandNew Zealand
- The Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental HealthThe University of MelbourneMelbourneVictoriaAustralia
| | - Darren R. Hocking
- Institute for Health & SportVictoria UniversityMelbourneVictoriaAustralia
| | - Markus Heinrichs
- Department of PsychologyAlbert‐Ludwigs‐University of FreiburgFreiburg im BreisgauGermany
- Freiburg Brain Imaging CenterUniversity Medical Center, Albert‐Ludwigs University of FreiburgFreiburg im BreisgauGermany
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Fischer H, Nilsson ME, Ebner NC. Why the Single-N Design Should Be the Default in Affective Neuroscience. AFFECTIVE SCIENCE 2024; 5:62-66. [PMID: 38495781 PMCID: PMC10942943 DOI: 10.1007/s42761-023-00182-5] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/21/2022] [Accepted: 02/07/2023] [Indexed: 03/19/2024]
Abstract
Many studies in affective neuroscience rely on statistical procedures designed to estimate population averages and base their main conclusions on group averages. However, the obvious unit of analysis in affective neuroscience is the individual, not the group, because emotions are individual phenomena that typically vary across individuals. Conclusions based on group averages may therefore be misleading or wrong, if interpreted as statements about emotions of an individual, or meaningless, if interpreted as statements about the group, which has no emotions. We therefore advocate the Single-N design as the default strategy in research on emotions, testing one or several individuals extensively with the primary purpose of obtaining results at the individual level. In neuroscience, the equivalent to the Single-N design is deep imaging, the emerging trend of extensive measurements of activity in single brains. Apart from the fact that individuals react differently to emotional stimuli, they also vary in shape and size of their brains. Group-based analysis of brain imaging data therefore refers to an "average brain" that was activated in a way that may not be representative of the physiology of any of the tested individual brains, nor of how these brains responded to the experimental stimuli. Deep imaging avoids such group-averaging artifacts by simply focusing on the individual brain. This methodological shift toward individual analysis has already opened new research areas in fields like vision science. Inspired by this, we call for a corresponding shift in affective neuroscience, away from group averages, and toward experimental designs targeting the individual.
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Affiliation(s)
- Håkan Fischer
- Department of Psychology, Stockholm University, 106 91 Stockholm, Sweden
- Stockholm University Brain Imaging Center (SUBIC), 106 91 Stockholm, Sweden
- Department of Psychology, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611 USA
| | - Mats E. Nilsson
- Department of Psychology, Stockholm University, 106 91 Stockholm, Sweden
| | - Natalie C. Ebner
- Department of Psychology, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611 USA
- Institute of Aging, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611 USA
- Center for Cognitive Aging and Memory, Department of Clinical and Health Psychology, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611 USA
- Florida Institute for Cybersecurity Research, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32610-0165 USA
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Bach P, Zaiser J, Zimmermann S, Gessner T, Hoffmann S, Gerhardt S, Berhe O, Bekier NK, Abel M, Radler P, Langejürgen J, Tost H, Lenz B, Vollstädt-Klein S, Stallkamp J, Kirschbaum C, Kiefer F. Stress-Induced Sensitization of Insula Activation Predicts Alcohol Craving and Alcohol Use in Alcohol Use Disorder. Biol Psychiatry 2024; 95:245-255. [PMID: 37678541 DOI: 10.1016/j.biopsych.2023.08.024] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/20/2023] [Revised: 08/24/2023] [Accepted: 08/25/2023] [Indexed: 09/09/2023]
Abstract
BACKGROUND Stress and alcohol cues trigger alcohol consumption and relapse in alcohol use disorder. However, the neurobiological processes underlying their interaction are not well understood. Thus, we conducted a randomized, controlled neuroimaging study to investigate the effects of psychosocial stress on neural cue reactivity and addictive behaviors. METHODS Neural alcohol cue reactivity was assessed in 91 individuals with alcohol use disorder using a validated functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) task. Activation patterns were measured twice, at baseline and during a second fMRI session, prior to which participants were assigned to psychosocial stress (experimental condition) or a matched control condition or physical exercise (control conditions). Together with fMRI data, alcohol craving and cortisol levels were assessed, and alcohol use data were collected during a 12-month follow-up. Analyses tested the effects of psychosocial stress on neural cue reactivity and associations with cortisol levels, craving, and alcohol use. RESULTS Compared with both control conditions, psychosocial stress elicited higher alcohol cue-induced activation in the left anterior insula (familywise error-corrected p < .05) and a stress- and cue-specific dynamic increase in insula activation over time (F22,968 = 2.143, p = .007), which was predicted by higher cortisol levels during the experimental intervention (r = 0.310, false discovery rate-corrected p = .016). Cue-induced insula activation was positively correlated with alcohol craving during fMRI (r = 0.262, false discovery rate-corrected p = .032) and alcohol use during follow-up (r = 0.218, false discovery rate-corrected p = .046). CONCLUSIONS Results indicate a stress-induced sensitization of cue-induced activation in the left insula as a neurobiological correlate of the effects of psychosocial stress on alcohol craving and alcohol use in alcohol use disorder, which likely reflects changes in salience attribution and goal-directed behavior.
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Affiliation(s)
- Patrick Bach
- Department of Addictive Behavior and Addiction Medicine, Central Institute of Mental Health, Medical Faculty Mannheim. Heidelberg University, Heidelberg, Germany; Feuerlein Center on Translational Addiction Medicine, University of Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany.
| | - Judith Zaiser
- Department of Addictive Behavior and Addiction Medicine, Central Institute of Mental Health, Medical Faculty Mannheim. Heidelberg University, Heidelberg, Germany
| | - Sina Zimmermann
- Department of Addictive Behavior and Addiction Medicine, Central Institute of Mental Health, Medical Faculty Mannheim. Heidelberg University, Heidelberg, Germany
| | - Tatjana Gessner
- Department of Addictive Behavior and Addiction Medicine, Central Institute of Mental Health, Medical Faculty Mannheim. Heidelberg University, Heidelberg, Germany
| | - Sabine Hoffmann
- Department of Addictive Behavior and Addiction Medicine, Central Institute of Mental Health, Medical Faculty Mannheim. Heidelberg University, Heidelberg, Germany; Department of Biostatistics, Central Institute of Mental Health, Medical Faculty Mannheim, Heidelberg University, Mannheim, Germany
| | - Sarah Gerhardt
- Department of Addictive Behavior and Addiction Medicine, Central Institute of Mental Health, Medical Faculty Mannheim. Heidelberg University, Heidelberg, Germany
| | - Oksana Berhe
- Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Central Institute of Mental Health, Medical Faculty Mannheim, Heidelberg University, Heidelberg, Germany
| | - Nina Kim Bekier
- Department of Addictive Behavior and Addiction Medicine, Central Institute of Mental Health, Medical Faculty Mannheim. Heidelberg University, Heidelberg, Germany
| | - Martin Abel
- Department of Addictive Behavior and Addiction Medicine, Central Institute of Mental Health, Medical Faculty Mannheim. Heidelberg University, Heidelberg, Germany
| | - Philipp Radler
- Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturing Engineering and Automation Institute for Production Technology and Automation, Mannheim, Germany
| | - Jens Langejürgen
- Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturing Engineering and Automation Institute for Production Technology and Automation, Mannheim, Germany
| | - Heike Tost
- Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Central Institute of Mental Health, Medical Faculty Mannheim, Heidelberg University, Heidelberg, Germany
| | - Bernd Lenz
- Department of Addictive Behavior and Addiction Medicine, Central Institute of Mental Health, Medical Faculty Mannheim. Heidelberg University, Heidelberg, Germany
| | - Sabine Vollstädt-Klein
- Department of Addictive Behavior and Addiction Medicine, Central Institute of Mental Health, Medical Faculty Mannheim. Heidelberg University, Heidelberg, Germany; Mannheim Center for Translational Neurosciences, Medical Faculty of Mannheim, University of Heidelberg, Mannheim, Germany
| | - Jan Stallkamp
- Mannheim Institute for Intelligent Systems in Medicine, Medical Faculty Mannheim, Heidelberg University, Heidelberg, Germany
| | - Clemens Kirschbaum
- Department of Psychology, Technical University Dresden, Dresden, Germany
| | - Falk Kiefer
- Department of Addictive Behavior and Addiction Medicine, Central Institute of Mental Health, Medical Faculty Mannheim. Heidelberg University, Heidelberg, Germany; Feuerlein Center on Translational Addiction Medicine, University of Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany; Mannheim Center for Translational Neurosciences, Medical Faculty of Mannheim, University of Heidelberg, Mannheim, Germany
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7
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Sulpizio S, Scaltritti M, Spinelli G. Fast habituation to semantic interference generated by taboo connotation in reading aloud. Cogn Emot 2024:1-16. [PMID: 38294682 DOI: 10.1080/02699931.2024.2307367] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/27/2023] [Accepted: 01/11/2024] [Indexed: 02/01/2024]
Abstract
The recognition of taboo words - i.e. socially inappropriate words - has been repeatedly associated to semantic interference phenomena, with detrimental effects on the performance in the ongoing task. In the present study, we investigated taboo interference in the context of reading aloud, a task configuration which prompts the overt violation of conventional sociolinguistic norms by requiring the explicit utterance of taboo items. We assessed whether this form of semantic interference is handled by habituative or cognitive control processes. In addition to the reading aloud task, participants performed a vocal Stroop task featuring different conditions to dissociate semantic, task, and response conflict. Taboo words were read slower than non-taboo words, but this effect was subject to a quick habituation, with a decreasing interference over the course of trials, which allowed participants to selectively attend to goal-relevant information. In the Stroop task, only semantic conflict was significantly reduced by habituation. These findings suggest that semantic properties can be quickly and flexibly weighed on the basis of contextual appropriateness, thus characterising semantic processing as a flexible and goal-directed component of reading aloud.
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Affiliation(s)
- Simone Sulpizio
- Dipartimento di Psicologia, Università degli Studi di Milano-Bicocca, Milano, Italy
- Milan Center for Neuroscience (NeuroMI), University of Milano-Bicocca, Milano, Italy
| | - Michele Scaltritti
- Dipartimento di Psicologia e Scienze Cognitive, Università degli Studi di Trento, Trento, Italy
| | - Giacomo Spinelli
- Dipartimento di Psicologia, Università degli Studi di Milano-Bicocca, Milano, Italy
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8
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Liu Y, Zhao X, Hu W, Ren Y, Wei Z, Ren X, Tang Z, Wang N, Chen H, Li Y, Shi Z, Qin S, Yang J. Neural habituation during acute stress signals a blunted endocrine response and poor resilience. Psychol Med 2023; 53:7735-7745. [PMID: 37309913 DOI: 10.1017/s0033291723001666] [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] [Indexed: 06/14/2023]
Abstract
BACKGROUND A blunted hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis response to acute stress is associated with psychiatric symptoms. Although the prefrontal cortex and limbic areas are important regulators of the HPA axis, whether the neural habituation of these regions during stress signals both blunted HPA axis responses and psychiatric symptoms remains unclear. In this study, neural habituation during acute stress and its associations with the stress cortisol response, resilience, and depression were evaluated. METHODS Seventy-seven participants (17-22 years old, 37 women) were recruited for a ScanSTRESS brain imaging study, and the activation changes between the first and last stress blocks were used as the neural habituation index. Meanwhile, participants' salivary cortisol during test was collected. Individual-level resilience and depression were measured using questionnaires. Correlation and moderation analyses were conducted to investigate the association between neural habituation and endocrine data and mental symptoms. Validated analyses were conducted using a Montreal Image Stress Test dataset in another independent sample (48 participants; 17-22 years old, 24 women). RESULTS Neural habituation of the prefrontal cortex and limbic area was negatively correlated with cortisol responses in both datasets. In the ScanSTRESS paradigm, neural habituation was both positively correlated with depression and negatively correlated with resilience. Moreover, resilience moderated the relationship between neural habituation in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex and cortisol response. CONCLUSIONS This study suggested that neural habituation of the prefrontal cortex and limbic area could reflect motivation dysregulation during repeated failures and negative feedback, which might further lead to maladaptive mental states.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yadong Liu
- Faculty of Psychology, Southwest University, Chongqing 400715, China
- Key Laboratory of Cognition and Personality, Ministry of Education, Southwest University, Chongqing 400715, China
| | - Xiaolin Zhao
- Faculty of Psychology, Southwest University, Chongqing 400715, China
- Key Laboratory of Cognition and Personality, Ministry of Education, Southwest University, Chongqing 400715, China
| | - Weiyu Hu
- Faculty of Psychology, Southwest University, Chongqing 400715, China
- Key Laboratory of Cognition and Personality, Ministry of Education, Southwest University, Chongqing 400715, China
| | - Yipeng Ren
- Faculty of Psychology, Southwest University, Chongqing 400715, China
- Key Laboratory of Cognition and Personality, Ministry of Education, Southwest University, Chongqing 400715, China
| | - Zhenni Wei
- Faculty of Psychology, Southwest University, Chongqing 400715, China
- Key Laboratory of Cognition and Personality, Ministry of Education, Southwest University, Chongqing 400715, China
| | - Xi Ren
- Faculty of Psychology, Southwest University, Chongqing 400715, China
- Key Laboratory of Cognition and Personality, Ministry of Education, Southwest University, Chongqing 400715, China
| | - Zihan Tang
- Faculty of Psychology, Southwest University, Chongqing 400715, China
- Key Laboratory of Cognition and Personality, Ministry of Education, Southwest University, Chongqing 400715, China
| | - Nan Wang
- Faculty of Psychology, Southwest University, Chongqing 400715, China
- Key Laboratory of Cognition and Personality, Ministry of Education, Southwest University, Chongqing 400715, China
| | - Haopeng Chen
- Faculty of Psychology, Southwest University, Chongqing 400715, China
- Key Laboratory of Cognition and Personality, Ministry of Education, Southwest University, Chongqing 400715, China
| | - Yizhuo Li
- Faculty of Psychology, Southwest University, Chongqing 400715, China
- Key Laboratory of Cognition and Personality, Ministry of Education, Southwest University, Chongqing 400715, China
| | - Zhenhao Shi
- Center for Studies of Addiction, Department of Psychiatry, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA
| | - Shaozheng Qin
- State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning, McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China
| | - Juan Yang
- Faculty of Psychology, Southwest University, Chongqing 400715, China
- Key Laboratory of Cognition and Personality, Ministry of Education, Southwest University, Chongqing 400715, China
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9
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Jo S, Song Y, Lee Y, Heo SH, Jang SJ, Kim Y, Shin JH, Jeong J, Park HS. Functional MRI Assessment of Brain Activity During Hand Rehabilitation with an MR-Compatible Soft Glove in Chronic Stroke Patients: A Preliminary Study. IEEE Int Conf Rehabil Robot 2023; 2023:1-6. [PMID: 37941170 DOI: 10.1109/icorr58425.2023.10304776] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/10/2023]
Abstract
Brain plasticity plays a significant role in functional recovery after stroke, but the specific benefits of hand rehabilitation robot therapy remain unclear. Evaluating the specific effects of hand rehabilitation robot therapy is crucial in understanding how it impacts brain activity and its relationship to rehabilitation outcomes. This study aimed to investigate the brain activity pattern during hand rehabilitation exercise using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), and to compare it before and after 3-week hand rehabilitation robot training. To evaluate it, an fMRI experimental environment was constructed to facilitate the same hand posture used in rehabilitation robot therapy. Two stroke survivors participated and the conjunction analysis results from fMRI scans showed that patient 1 exhibited a significant improvement in activation profile after hand rehabilitation robot training, indicative of improved motor function in the bilateral motor cortex. However, activation profile of patient 2 exhibited a slight decrease, potentially due to habituation to the rehabilitation task. Clinical results supported these findings, with patient 1 experiencing a greater increase in FMA score than patient 2. These results suggest that hand rehabilitation robot therapy can induce different brain activity patterns in stroke survivors, which may be linked to patient-specific training outcomes. Further studies with larger sample sizes are necessary to confirm these findings.
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10
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Caudle MM, Dugas N, Stout DM, Ball TM, Bomyea J. Adjunctive cognitive training with exposure enhances fear and neural outcomes in social anxiety. Psychiatry Res 2023; 327:115416. [PMID: 37604041 DOI: 10.1016/j.psychres.2023.115416] [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: 01/02/2023] [Revised: 07/26/2023] [Accepted: 08/11/2023] [Indexed: 08/23/2023]
Abstract
Exposure-based cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is the gold standard for treating social anxiety disorder (SAD), yet response is not universal. CBT is thought to operate via extinction-related learning during exposure, which in turn relies on cognitive processes such as working memory. The present proof-of-concept study investigates the potential for training working memory to improve anxiety related outcomes following exposure. Thirty-three adults with elevated social anxiety were randomized to complete a working memory training or sham training condition. Post-training, participants completed a working memory assessment, speech exposure session, and two fMRI tasks. Participants who received working memory training demonstrated lower distress ratings by the end of the speech exposures and better performance on the fMRI working memory task than those in sham. Working memory training completers had greater neural activation in frontoparietal regions during an in-scanner working memory task and exhibited less neural activation in the fusiform gyrus in response to an emotional face processing task than those in sham. Adding working memory training to exposure procedures could strengthen functioning of frontoparietal regions and alter emotional processing - key mechanisms implicated in extinction learning. Findings provide preliminary evidence that training working memory in conjunction with exposure may enhance exposure success.
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Affiliation(s)
- M M Caudle
- San Diego State University, University of California San Diego Joint Doctoral Program in Clinical Psychology, 6363 Alvarado Court, Suite 103, San Diego, CA 92120, United States; Department of Veteran Affairs Medical Center, 3350 La Jolla Village Dr, San Diego, CA 92161, United States; Department of Psychiatry, University of California, 9500 Gilman Dr, La Jolla, CA 92093, United States
| | - N Dugas
- Department of Veteran Affairs Medical Center, 3350 La Jolla Village Dr, San Diego, CA 92161, United States; Department of Psychiatry, University of California, 9500 Gilman Dr, La Jolla, CA 92093, United States
| | - D M Stout
- Department of Psychiatry, University of California, 9500 Gilman Dr, La Jolla, CA 92093, United States; VA San Diego Center of Excellence for Stress and Mental Health, 3350 La Jolla Village Dr, San Diego, CA 92161, United States
| | - T M Ball
- Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences, Stanford School of Medicine, 401 Quarry Road, Stanford, CA, 94305, United States
| | - J Bomyea
- Department of Psychiatry, University of California, 9500 Gilman Dr, La Jolla, CA 92093, United States; VA San Diego Center of Excellence for Stress and Mental Health, 3350 La Jolla Village Dr, San Diego, CA 92161, United States.
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11
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Chaudhary S, Zhang S, Zhornitsky S, Chen Y, Chao HH, Li CSR. Age-related reduction in trait anxiety: Behavioral and neural evidence of automaticity in negative facial emotion processing. Neuroimage 2023; 276:120207. [PMID: 37263454 PMCID: PMC10330646 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2023.120207] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 7.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/10/2023] [Revised: 05/14/2023] [Accepted: 05/29/2023] [Indexed: 06/03/2023] Open
Abstract
Trait anxiety diminishes with age, which may result from age-related decline in registering salient emotional stimuli and/or enhancement in emotion regulation. We tested the hypotheses in 88 adults 21 to 85 years of age and studied with fMRI of the Hariri task. Age-related decline in stimulus registration would manifest in delayed reaction time (RT) and diminished saliency circuit activity in response to emotional vs. neutral stimuli. Enhanced control of negative emotions would manifest in diminished limbic/emotional circuit and higher prefrontal cortical (PFC) responses to negative emotion. The results showed that anxiety was negatively correlated with age. Age was associated with faster RT and diminished activation of the medial PFC, in the area of the dorsal and rostral anterior cingulate cortex (dACC/rACC) - a hub of the saliency circuit - during matching of negative but not positive vs. neutral emotional faces. A slope test confirmed the differences in the regressions. Further, age was not associated with activation of the PFC in whole-brain regression or in region-of-interest analysis of the dorsolateral PFC, an area identified from meta-analyses of the emotion regulation literature. Together, the findings fail to support either hypothesis; rather, the findings suggest age-related automaticity in processing negative emotions as a potential mechanism of diminished anxiety. Automaticity results in faster RT and diminished anterior cingulate activity in response to negative but not positive emotional stimuli. In support, analyses of psychophysiological interaction demonstrated higher dACC/rACC connectivity with the default mode network, which has been implicated in automaticity in information processing. As age increased, individuals demonstrated faster RT with higher connectivity during matching of negative vs. neutral images. Automaticity in negative emotion processing needs to be investigated as a mechanism of age-related reduction in anxiety.
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Affiliation(s)
- Shefali Chaudhary
- Department of Psychiatry, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, CT 06519, United States.
| | - Sheng Zhang
- Department of Psychiatry, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, CT 06519, United States.
| | - Simon Zhornitsky
- Department of Psychiatry, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, CT 06519, United States.
| | - Yu Chen
- Department of Psychiatry, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, CT 06519, United States.
| | - Herta H Chao
- VA Connecticut Healthcare System, West Haven, CT 06516, United States; Department of Medicine, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, CT 06519, United States.
| | - Chiang-Shan R Li
- Department of Psychiatry, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, CT 06519, United States; Department of Neuroscience, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, CT 06520, United States; Wu Tsai Institute, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06520, United States.
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12
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Vai B, Calesella F, Lenti C, Fortaner-Uyà L, Caselani E, Fiore P, Breit S, Poletti S, Colombo C, Zanardi R, Benedetti F. Reduced corticolimbic habituation to negative stimuli characterizes bipolar depressed suicide attempters. Psychiatry Res Neuroimaging 2023; 331:111627. [PMID: 36924742 DOI: 10.1016/j.pscychresns.2023.111627] [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: 11/16/2022] [Revised: 02/10/2023] [Accepted: 03/07/2023] [Indexed: 03/18/2023]
Abstract
Suicide attempts in Bipolar Disorder are characterized by high levels of lethality and impulsivity. Reduced rates of amygdala and cortico-limbic habituation can identify a fMRI phenotype of suicidality in the disorder related to internal over-arousing states. Hence, we investigated if reduced amygdala and whole-brain habituation may differentiate bipolar suicide attempters (SA, n = 17) from non-suicide attempters (nSA, n = 57), and healthy controls (HC, n = 32). Habituation was assessed during a fMRI task including facial expressions of anger and fear and a control condition. Associations with suicidality and current depressive symptomatology were assessed, including machine learning procedure to estimate the potentiality of habituation as biomarker for suicidality. SA showed lower habituation compared to HC and nSA in several cortico-limbic areas, including amygdalae, cingulate and parietal cortex, insula, hippocampus, para-hippocampus, cerebellar vermis, thalamus, and striatum, while nSA displayed intermediate rates between SA and HC. Lower habituation rates in the amygdalae were also associated with higher depressive and suicidal current symptomatology. Machine learning on whole-brain and amygdala habituation differentiated SA vs. nSA with 94% and 69% of accuracy, respectively. Reduced habituation in cortico-limbic system can identify a candidate biomarker for attempting suicide, helping in detecting at-risk bipolar patients, and in developing new therapeutic interventions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Benedetta Vai
- Psychiatry and Clinical Psychobiology, Division of Neuroscience, IRCCS San Raffaele Scientific Institute, Milano, Italy; University Vita-Salute San Raffaele, Milano, Italy.
| | - Federico Calesella
- Psychiatry and Clinical Psychobiology, Division of Neuroscience, IRCCS San Raffaele Scientific Institute, Milano, Italy; University Vita-Salute San Raffaele, Milano, Italy
| | - Claudia Lenti
- Psychiatry and Clinical Psychobiology, Division of Neuroscience, IRCCS San Raffaele Scientific Institute, Milano, Italy
| | - Lidia Fortaner-Uyà
- Psychiatry and Clinical Psychobiology, Division of Neuroscience, IRCCS San Raffaele Scientific Institute, Milano, Italy; University Vita-Salute San Raffaele, Milano, Italy
| | - Elisa Caselani
- Psychiatry and Clinical Psychobiology, Division of Neuroscience, IRCCS San Raffaele Scientific Institute, Milano, Italy
| | - Paola Fiore
- Psychiatry and Clinical Psychobiology, Division of Neuroscience, IRCCS San Raffaele Scientific Institute, Milano, Italy
| | - Sigrid Breit
- Psychiatry and Clinical Psychobiology, Division of Neuroscience, IRCCS San Raffaele Scientific Institute, Milano, Italy; Translational Research Center, University Hospital of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University of Bern, Bern Switzerland
| | - Sara Poletti
- Psychiatry and Clinical Psychobiology, Division of Neuroscience, IRCCS San Raffaele Scientific Institute, Milano, Italy; University Vita-Salute San Raffaele, Milano, Italy
| | - Cristina Colombo
- University Vita-Salute San Raffaele, Milano, Italy; Unit of Mood Disorders, IRCCS Ospedale San Raffaele Turro, Milano, Italy
| | - Raffaella Zanardi
- University Vita-Salute San Raffaele, Milano, Italy; Unit of Mood Disorders, IRCCS Ospedale San Raffaele Turro, Milano, Italy
| | - Francesco Benedetti
- Psychiatry and Clinical Psychobiology, Division of Neuroscience, IRCCS San Raffaele Scientific Institute, Milano, Italy; University Vita-Salute San Raffaele, Milano, Italy
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13
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Baumeister S, Moessnang C, Bast N, Hohmann S, Aggensteiner P, Kaiser A, Tillmann J, Goyard D, Charman T, Ambrosino S, Baron-Cohen S, Beckmann C, Bölte S, Bourgeron T, Rausch A, Crawley D, Dell'Acqua F, Dumas G, Durston S, Ecker C, Floris DL, Frouin V, Hayward H, Holt R, Johnson MH, Jones EJH, Lai MC, Lombardo MV, Mason L, Oakley B, Oldehinkel M, Persico AM, San José Cáceres A, Wolfers T, Loth E, Murphy DGM, Buitelaar JK, Tost H, Meyer-Lindenberg A, Banaschewski T, Brandeis D. Processing of social and monetary rewards in autism spectrum disorders. Br J Psychiatry 2023; 222:100-111. [PMID: 36700346 PMCID: PMC9929925 DOI: 10.1192/bjp.2022.157] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 7.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/29/2022] [Revised: 10/12/2022] [Accepted: 10/19/2022] [Indexed: 01/27/2023]
Abstract
BACKGROUND Reward processing has been proposed to underpin the atypical social feature of autism spectrum disorder (ASD). However, previous neuroimaging studies have yielded inconsistent results regarding the specificity of atypicalities for social reward processing in ASD. AIMS Utilising a large sample, we aimed to assess reward processing in response to reward type (social, monetary) and reward phase (anticipation, delivery) in ASD. METHOD Functional magnetic resonance imaging during social and monetary reward anticipation and delivery was performed in 212 individuals with ASD (7.6-30.6 years of age) and 181 typically developing participants (7.6-30.8 years of age). RESULTS Across social and monetary reward anticipation, whole-brain analyses showed hypoactivation of the right ventral striatum in participants with ASD compared with typically developing participants. Further, region of interest analysis across both reward types yielded ASD-related hypoactivation in both the left and right ventral striatum. Across delivery of social and monetary reward, hyperactivation of the ventral striatum in individuals with ASD did not survive correction for multiple comparisons. Dimensional analyses of autism and attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) scores were not significant. In categorical analyses, post hoc comparisons showed that ASD effects were most pronounced in participants with ASD without co-occurring ADHD. CONCLUSIONS Our results do not support current theories linking atypical social interaction in ASD to specific alterations in social reward processing. Instead, they point towards a generalised hypoactivity of ventral striatum in ASD during anticipation of both social and monetary rewards. We suggest this indicates attenuated reward seeking in ASD independent of social content and that elevated ADHD symptoms may attenuate altered reward seeking in ASD.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sarah Baumeister
- Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Central Institute of Mental Health, Medical Faculty Mannheim, University of Heidelberg, Mannheim, Germany
| | - Carolin Moessnang
- Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Central Institute of Mental Health, University of Heidelberg, Mannheim, Germany
| | - Nico Bast
- Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Central Institute of Mental Health, Medical Faculty Mannheim, University of Heidelberg, Mannheim, Germany and Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Psychosomatics and Psychotherapy, University Hospital Frankfurt am Main, Goethe University, Frankfurt, Germany
| | - Sarah Hohmann
- Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Central Institute of Mental Health, Medical Faculty Mannheim, University of Heidelberg, Mannheim, Germany
| | - Pascal Aggensteiner
- Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Central Institute of Mental Health, Medical Faculty Mannheim, University of Heidelberg, Mannheim, Germany
| | - Anna Kaiser
- Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Central Institute of Mental Health, Medical Faculty Mannheim, University of Heidelberg, Mannheim, Germany
| | - Julian Tillmann
- Department of Psychology, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience, King's College London, London, United Kingdom and Department of Applied Psychology: Health, Development, Enhancement, and Intervention, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria
| | - David Goyard
- Neurospin Centre CEA, Saclay, Gif sur Yvette, France
| | - Tony Charman
- Department of Psychology, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience, King's College London, London, UK
| | - Sara Ambrosino
- Department of Psychiatry, University Medical Center Utrecht Brain Center, Utrecht University, Utrecht, the Netherlands
| | - Simon Baron-Cohen
- Autism Research Centre, Department of Psychiatry, University of Cambridge, UK
| | - Christian Beckmann
- Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, Radboud University, Nijmegen, the Netherlands and Department of Cognitive Neuroscience, Radboud University Medical Centre, Nijmegen, the Netherlands
| | - Sven Bölte
- Center of Neurodevelopmental Disorders (KIND), Centre for Psychiatry Research; Department of Women's and Children's Health, Karolinska Institutet and Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Stockholm Health Care Services, Region Stockholm, Stockholm, Sweden and School of Allied Health, University of Western Australia, Perth, Western Australia
| | - Thomas Bourgeron
- Institut Pasteur, Human Genetics and Cognitive Functions Unit, Paris, France
| | - Annika Rausch
- Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, Radboud University, Nijmegen, the Netherlands and Department of Cognitive Neuroscience, Radboud University Medical Centre, Nijmegen, the Netherlands
| | - Daisy Crawley
- Department of Forensic and Neurodevelopmental Sciences, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience, King's College London, London, UK
| | - Flavio Dell'Acqua
- Department of Forensic and Neurodevelopmental Sciences, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience, King's College London, London, UK and Sackler Institute for Translational Neurodevelopment, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience, King's College London, London, UK
| | - Guillaume Dumas
- Institut Pasteur, Human Genetics and Cognitive Functions Unit, Paris, France
| | - Sarah Durston
- Department of Psychiatry, University Medical Center Utrecht Brain Center, Utrecht University, Utrecht, the Netherlands
| | - Christine Ecker
- Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Psychosomatics and Psychotherapy, University Hospital Frankfurt am Main, Goethe University, Frankfurt, Germany
| | - Dorothea L. Floris
- Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, Radboud University, Nijmegen, the Netherlands; Department of Cognitive Neuroscience, Radboud University Medical Centre, Nijmegen, the Netherlands and Methods of Plasticity Research, Department of Psychology, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
| | | | - Hannah Hayward
- Department of Forensic and Neurodevelopmental Sciences, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience, King's College London, UK
| | - Rosemary Holt
- Autism Research Centre, Department of Psychiatry, University of Cambridge, UK
| | - Mark H. Johnson
- Autism Research Centre, Department of Psychiatry, University of Cambridge, UK and Centre for Brain and Cognitive Development, Birkbeck, University of London, UK
| | - Emily J. H. Jones
- Centre for Brain and Cognitive Development, Birkbeck, University of London, London, UK
| | - Meng-Chuan Lai
- Autism Research Centre, Department of Psychiatry, University of Cambridge, UK; Centre for Addiction and Mental Health and The Hospital for Sick Children, Department of Psychiatry, University of Toronto, Canada and Department of Psychiatry, National Taiwan University Hospital and College of Medicine, Taiwan
| | - Michael V. Lombardo
- Autism Research Centre, Department of Psychiatry, University of Cambridge, UK and Laboratory for Autism and Neurodevelopmental Disorders, Center for Neuroscience and Cognitive Systems @UniTn, Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, Italy
| | - Luke Mason
- Centre for Brain and Cognitive Development, Birkbeck, University of London, UK
| | - Bethany Oakley
- Department of Forensic and Neurodevelopmental Sciences, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience, King's College London, UK and Sackler Institute for Translational Neurodevelopment, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience, King's College London, UK
| | - Marianne Oldehinkel
- Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, Radboud University, the Netherlands and Department of Cognitive Neuroscience, Radboud University Medical Centre, the Netherlands
| | - Antonio M. Persico
- Child and Adolescent Neuropsychiatry Program at Modena University Hospital, & Department of Biomedical, Metabolic and Neural Sciences, University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, Italy
| | - Antonia San José Cáceres
- Department of Forensic and Neurodevelopmental Sciences, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience, King's College London, UK and Instituto de Investigación Sanitaria Gregorio Marañón, Hospital General Universitario Gregorio Marañón and CIBERSAM, Spain
| | - Thomas Wolfers
- Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, Radboud University, Nijmegen, the Netherlands and Department of Cognitive Neuroscience, Radboud University Medical Centre, Nijmegen, the Netherlands
| | - Eva Loth
- Department of Forensic and Neurodevelopmental Sciences, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience, King's College London, London, UK and Sackler Institute for Translational Neurodevelopment, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience, King's College London, London, UK
| | - Declan G. M. Murphy
- Department of Forensic and Neurodevelopmental Sciences, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience, King's College London, London, UK and Sackler Institute for Translational Neurodevelopment, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience, King's College London, London, UK
| | - Jan K. Buitelaar
- Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, Radboud University, Nijmegen, the Netherlands; Department of Cognitive Neuroscience, Radboud University Medical Centre, Nijmegen, the Netherlands and Karakter Child and Adolescent Psychiatry University Centre, Nijmegen, the Netherlands
| | - Heike Tost
- Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Central Institute of Mental Health, University of Heidelberg, Mannheim, Germany
| | - Andreas Meyer-Lindenberg
- Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Central Institute of Mental Health, University of Heidelberg, Mannheim, Germany
| | - Tobias Banaschewski
- Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Central Institute of Mental Health, Medical Faculty Mannheim, University of Heidelberg, Mannheim, Germany
| | - Daniel Brandeis
- Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Central Institute of Mental Health, Medical Faculty Mannheim, University of Heidelberg, Mannheim, Germany; Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Psychiatric University Hospital, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland and Neuroscience Center Zurich, University of Zurich and ETH Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
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14
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Stopyra MA, Simon JJ, Rheude C, Nikendei C. Pathophysiological aspects of complex PTSD - a neurobiological account in comparison to classic posttraumatic stress disorder and borderline personality disorder. Rev Neurosci 2023; 34:103-128. [PMID: 35938987 DOI: 10.1515/revneuro-2022-0014] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/13/2022] [Accepted: 06/25/2022] [Indexed: 01/11/2023]
Abstract
Despite a great diagnostic overlap, complex posttraumatic stress disorder (CPTSD) has been recognised by the ICD-11 as a new, discrete entity and recent empirical evidence points towards a distinction from simple posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and borderline personality disorder (BPD). The development and maintenance of these disorders is sustained by neurobiological alterations and studies using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) may further contribute to a clear differentiation of CPTSD, PTSD and BPD. However, there are no existing fMRI studies directly comparing CPTSD, PTSD and BPD. In addition to a summarization of diagnostic differences and similarities, the current review aims to provide a qualitative comparison of neuroimaging findings on affective, attentional and memory processing in CPTSD, PTSD and BPD. Our narrative review alludes to an imbalance in limbic-frontal brain networks, which may be partially trans-diagnostically linked to the degree of trauma symptoms and their expression. Thus, CPTSD, PTSD and BPD may underlie a continuum where similar brain regions are involved but the direction of activation may constitute its distinct symptom expression. The neuronal alterations across these disorders may conceivably be better understood along a symptom-based continuum underlying CPTSD, PTSD and BPD. Further research is needed to amend for the heterogeneity in experimental paradigms and sample criteria.
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Affiliation(s)
- Marion A Stopyra
- Department of General Internal Medicine and Psychosomatics, Centre for Psychosocial Medicine, University Hospital Heidelberg, Im Neuenheimer Feld 410, 69120 Heidelberg, Germany
| | - Joe J Simon
- Department of General Internal Medicine and Psychosomatics, Centre for Psychosocial Medicine, University Hospital Heidelberg, Im Neuenheimer Feld 410, 69120 Heidelberg, Germany
| | - Christiane Rheude
- Department of General Internal Medicine and Psychosomatics, Centre for Psychosocial Medicine, University Hospital Heidelberg, Im Neuenheimer Feld 410, 69120 Heidelberg, Germany
| | - Christoph Nikendei
- Department of General Internal Medicine and Psychosomatics, Centre for Psychosocial Medicine, University Hospital Heidelberg, Im Neuenheimer Feld 410, 69120 Heidelberg, Germany
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15
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Bertram T, Hoffmann Ayala D, Huber M, Brandl F, Starke G, Sorg C, Mulej Bratec S. Human threat circuits: Threats of pain, aggressive conspecific, and predator elicit distinct BOLD activations in the amygdala and hypothalamus. Front Psychiatry 2023; 13:1063238. [PMID: 36733415 PMCID: PMC9887727 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyt.2022.1063238] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/06/2022] [Accepted: 12/16/2022] [Indexed: 01/12/2023] Open
Abstract
Introduction Threat processing, enabled by threat circuits, is supported by a remarkably conserved neural architecture across mammals. Threatening stimuli relevant for most species include the threat of being attacked by a predator or an aggressive conspecific and the threat of pain. Extensive studies in rodents have associated the threats of pain, predator attack and aggressive conspecific attack with distinct neural circuits in subregions of the amygdala, the hypothalamus and the periaqueductal gray. Bearing in mind the considerable conservation of both the anatomy of these regions and defensive behaviors across mammalian species, we hypothesized that distinct brain activity corresponding to the threats of pain, predator attack and aggressive conspecific attack would also exist in human subcortical brain regions. Methods Forty healthy female subjects underwent fMRI scanning during aversive classical conditioning. In close analogy to rodent studies, threat stimuli consisted of painful electric shocks, a short video clip of an attacking bear and a short video clip of an attacking man. Threat processing was conceptualized as the expectation of the aversive stimulus during the presentation of the conditioned stimulus. Results Our results demonstrate differential brain activations in the left and right amygdala as well as in the left hypothalamus for the threats of pain, predator attack and aggressive conspecific attack, for the first time showing distinct threat-related brain activity within the human subcortical brain. Specifically, the threat of pain showed an increase of activity in the left and right amygdala and the left hypothalamus compared to the threat of conspecific attack (pain > conspecific), and increased activity in the left amygdala compared to the threat of predator attack (pain > predator). Threat of conspecific attack revealed heightened activity in the right amygdala, both in comparison to threat of pain (conspecific > pain) and threat of predator attack (conspecific > predator). Finally, for the condition threat of predator attack we found increased activity in the bilateral amygdala and the hypothalamus when compared to threat of conspecific attack (predator > conspecific). No significant clusters were found for the contrast predator attack > pain. Conclusion Results suggest that threat type-specific circuits identified in rodents might be conserved in the human brain.
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Affiliation(s)
- Teresa Bertram
- Department of Neuroradiology, Klinikum Rechts der Isar, Technical University of Munich, Munich, Germany
- TUM-NIC Neuroimaging Center, Klinikum Rechts der Isar, Technical University of Munich, Munich, Germany
- Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Klinikum Rechts der Isar, Technical University of Munich, Munich, Germany
| | - Daniel Hoffmann Ayala
- Department of Neuroradiology, Klinikum Rechts der Isar, Technical University of Munich, Munich, Germany
- TUM-NIC Neuroimaging Center, Klinikum Rechts der Isar, Technical University of Munich, Munich, Germany
- Department of Neurosurgery, Klinikum Großhadern, Ludwig-Maximilians-University, Munich, Germany
| | - Maria Huber
- Department of Neuroradiology, Klinikum Rechts der Isar, Technical University of Munich, Munich, Germany
- TUM-NIC Neuroimaging Center, Klinikum Rechts der Isar, Technical University of Munich, Munich, Germany
| | - Felix Brandl
- Department of Neuroradiology, Klinikum Rechts der Isar, Technical University of Munich, Munich, Germany
- TUM-NIC Neuroimaging Center, Klinikum Rechts der Isar, Technical University of Munich, Munich, Germany
- Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Klinikum Rechts der Isar, Technical University of Munich, Munich, Germany
| | - Georg Starke
- Department of Neuroradiology, Klinikum Rechts der Isar, Technical University of Munich, Munich, Germany
- TUM-NIC Neuroimaging Center, Klinikum Rechts der Isar, Technical University of Munich, Munich, Germany
- College of Humanities, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland
| | - Christian Sorg
- Department of Neuroradiology, Klinikum Rechts der Isar, Technical University of Munich, Munich, Germany
- TUM-NIC Neuroimaging Center, Klinikum Rechts der Isar, Technical University of Munich, Munich, Germany
- Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Klinikum Rechts der Isar, Technical University of Munich, Munich, Germany
| | - Satja Mulej Bratec
- Department of Neuroradiology, Klinikum Rechts der Isar, Technical University of Munich, Munich, Germany
- TUM-NIC Neuroimaging Center, Klinikum Rechts der Isar, Technical University of Munich, Munich, Germany
- Department of Psychology, Faculty of Arts, University of Maribor, Maribor, Slovenia
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16
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Berhe O, Höflich A, Moessnang C, Reichert M, Kremer T, Gan G, Ma R, Braun U, Reininghaus U, Ebner-Priemer U, Meyer-Lindenberg A, Tost H. Reduced Real-life Affective Well-being and Amygdala Habituation in Unmedicated Community Individuals at Risk for Depression and Anxiety. BIOLOGICAL PSYCHIATRY. COGNITIVE NEUROSCIENCE AND NEUROIMAGING 2023; 8:111-120. [PMID: 35760353 DOI: 10.1016/j.bpsc.2022.06.009] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/24/2022] [Revised: 05/27/2022] [Accepted: 06/15/2022] [Indexed: 01/11/2023]
Abstract
BACKGROUND Early identification of risk for depression and anxiety disorders is important for prevention, but real-life affective well-being and its biological underpinnings in the population remain understudied. Here, we combined methods from epidemiology, psychology, ecological momentary assessment, and functional magnetic resonance imaging to study real-life and neural affective functions in individuals with subclinical anxiety and depression from a population-based cohort of young adults. METHODS We examined psychological measures, real-life affective valence, functional magnetic resonance imaging amygdala habituation to negative affective stimuli, and the relevance of neural readouts for daily-life affective function in 132 non-help-seeking community individuals. We compared psychological and ecological momentary assessment measures of 61 unmedicated individuals at clinical risk for depression and anxiety (operationalized as subthreshold depression and anxiety symptoms or a former mood or anxiety disorder) with those of 48 nonrisk individuals and 23 persons with a mood or anxiety disorder. We studied risk-associated functional magnetic resonance imaging signals in subsamples with balanced sociodemographic and image quality parameters (26 nonrisk, 26 at-risk persons). RESULTS Compared with nonrisk persons, at-risk individuals showed significantly decreased real-life affective valence (p = .038), reduced amygdala habituation (familywise error-corrected p = .024, region of interest corrected), and an intermediate psychological risk profile. Amygdala habituation predicted real-life affective valence in control subjects but not in participants at risk (familywise error-corrected p = .005, region of interest corrected). CONCLUSIONS Our data suggest real-life and neural markers for affective alterations in unmedicated community individuals at risk for depression and anxiety and highlight the significance of amygdala habituation measures for the momentary affective experience in real-world environments.
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Affiliation(s)
- Oksana Berhe
- Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Central Institute of Mental Health, Medical Faculty Mannheim, University of Heidelberg, Mannheim, Germany
| | - Anna Höflich
- Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Central Institute of Mental Health, Medical Faculty Mannheim, University of Heidelberg, Mannheim, Germany; Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria
| | - Carolin Moessnang
- Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Central Institute of Mental Health, Medical Faculty Mannheim, University of Heidelberg, Mannheim, Germany
| | - Markus Reichert
- Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Central Institute of Mental Health, Medical Faculty Mannheim, University of Heidelberg, Mannheim, Germany; Mental mHealth Lab, Department of Sport and Sport Science, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Karlsruhe, Germany; Department of eHealth and Sports Analytics, Ruhr-University Bochum, Bochum, Germany
| | - Thomas Kremer
- Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Central Institute of Mental Health, Medical Faculty Mannheim, University of Heidelberg, Mannheim, Germany
| | - Gabriela Gan
- Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Central Institute of Mental Health, Medical Faculty Mannheim, University of Heidelberg, Mannheim, Germany
| | - Ren Ma
- Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Central Institute of Mental Health, Medical Faculty Mannheim, University of Heidelberg, Mannheim, Germany
| | - Urs Braun
- Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Central Institute of Mental Health, Medical Faculty Mannheim, University of Heidelberg, Mannheim, Germany
| | - Ulrich Reininghaus
- Department of Public Mental Health, Central Institute of Mental Health, Medical Faculty Mannheim, University of Heidelberg, Mannheim, Germany; Centre for Epidemiology and Public Health, Health Service and Population Research Department, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, London, United Kingdom; ESRC Centre for Society and Mental Health, King's College London, London, United Kingdom
| | - Ulrich Ebner-Priemer
- Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Central Institute of Mental Health, Medical Faculty Mannheim, University of Heidelberg, Mannheim, Germany; Mental mHealth Lab, Department of Sport and Sport Science, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Karlsruhe, Germany
| | - Andreas Meyer-Lindenberg
- Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Central Institute of Mental Health, Medical Faculty Mannheim, University of Heidelberg, Mannheim, Germany
| | - Heike Tost
- Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Central Institute of Mental Health, Medical Faculty Mannheim, University of Heidelberg, Mannheim, Germany.
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17
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Gerhardt S, Berhe O, Moessnang C, Horning M, Kiefer F, Tost H, Vollstädt-Klein S. Lack of amygdala habituation to negative emotional faces in alcohol use disorder and the relation to adverse childhood experiences. Addict Biol 2023; 28:e13251. [PMID: 36577733 DOI: 10.1111/adb.13251] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/29/2022] [Revised: 10/13/2022] [Accepted: 10/21/2022] [Indexed: 11/17/2022]
Abstract
Aberrant limbic circuit reactivity to negative stimuli might be related to alterations in emotion processing and regulation in alcohol use disorder (AUD). The current study tested for the first time in AUD the hypothesis of aberrant amygdala habituation to repeated aversive stimuli-a robust and reliable neuroimaging marker for emotion processing. We explored the link between deficits in habituation to adverse childhood experience (ACE), a common risk factor for impaired emotion regulation and AUD. AUD individuals (N = 36) and healthy controls (HC; N = 26) participated in an observational case-control functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study. An established habituation index was used to investigate processing of aversive emotional faces of the amygdala. AUD individuals showed an overall deficit in amygdala habituation (right: t = 4.26, pFWE = 0.004; left: t = 4.79, pFWE ≤ 0.001). Amygdala habituation was significantly related to increased exposure to ACE in HC (t = 3.88, pFWE = 0.012), whereas this association was not observed in AUD individuals (T = 1.80, pFWE = 0.662). Further, a significant association between higher alcohol consumption and reduced amygdala habituation (right: R2 = -0.356, F = 8.736, p = 0.004; left: R2 = -0.309, F = 6.332, p = 0.015) was observed. We found novel evidence for neural alterations in emotion processing in AUD individuals, indexed by deficient amygdala habituation to negative emotional content. We replicated a prior report on a link between ACE and amygdala habituation, a well-established environmental risk factor for mental disorders and emotion dysregulation, in our control sample. Additionally, deficient amygdala habituation related to the amount of alcohol consumption in the overall sample might indicate a short-term substance effect.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sarah Gerhardt
- Department of Addictive Behaviour and Addiction Medicine, Central Institute of Mental Health, Medical Faculty Mannheim, Heidelberg University, Mannheim, Germany
| | - Oksana Berhe
- Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Central Institute of Mental Health, Medical Faculty Mannheim, Heidelberg University, Mannheim, Germany
| | - Carolin Moessnang
- Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Central Institute of Mental Health, Medical Faculty Mannheim, Heidelberg University, Mannheim, Germany.,SRH University Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany
| | - Maibritt Horning
- Department of Addictive Behaviour and Addiction Medicine, Central Institute of Mental Health, Medical Faculty Mannheim, Heidelberg University, Mannheim, Germany
| | - Falk Kiefer
- Department of Addictive Behaviour and Addiction Medicine, Central Institute of Mental Health, Medical Faculty Mannheim, Heidelberg University, Mannheim, Germany.,Mannheim Center for Translational Neurosciences (MCTN), Medical Faculty Mannheim, Heidelberg University, Mannheim, Germany.,Feuerlein Center on Translational Addiction Medicine, Heidelberg University, Heidelberg, Germany
| | - Heike Tost
- Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Central Institute of Mental Health, Medical Faculty Mannheim, Heidelberg University, Mannheim, Germany
| | - Sabine Vollstädt-Klein
- Department of Addictive Behaviour and Addiction Medicine, Central Institute of Mental Health, Medical Faculty Mannheim, Heidelberg University, Mannheim, Germany.,Mannheim Center for Translational Neurosciences (MCTN), Medical Faculty Mannheim, Heidelberg University, Mannheim, Germany
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18
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Ghobadi-Azbari P, Mahdavifar Khayati R, Ekhtiari H. Habituation or sensitization of brain response to food cues: Temporal dynamic analysis in an functional magnetic resonance imaging study. Front Hum Neurosci 2023; 17:1076711. [PMID: 36875231 PMCID: PMC9983367 DOI: 10.3389/fnhum.2023.1076711] [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: 10/21/2022] [Accepted: 01/30/2023] [Indexed: 02/19/2023] Open
Abstract
Introduction In the modern obesogenic environment, heightened reactivity to food-associated cues plays a major role in overconsumption by evoking appetitive responses. Accordingly, functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies have implicated regions of the salience and rewards processing in this dysfunctional food cue-reactivity, but the temporal dynamics of brain activation (sensitization or habituation over time) remain poorly understood. Methods Forty-nine obese or overweight adults were scanned in a single fMRI session to examine brain activation during the performance of a food cue-reactivity task. A general linear model (GLM) was used to validate the activation pattern of food cue reactivity in food > neutral contrast. The linear mixed effect models were used to examine the effect of time on the neuronal response during the paradigm of food cue reactivity. Neuro-behavioral relationships were investigated with Pearson's correlation tests and group factor analysis (GFA). Results A linear mixed-effect model revealed a trend for the time-by-condition interactions in the left medial amygdala [t(289) = 2.21, β = 0.1, P = 0.028], right lateral amygdala [t(289) = 2.01, β = 0.26, P = 0.045], right nucleus accumbens (NAc) [t(289) = 2.81, β = 0.13, P = 0.005] and left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) [t(289) = 2.58, β = 0.14, P = 0.01], as well as in the left superior temporal cortex [42 Area: t(289) = 2.53, β = 0.15, P = 0.012; TE1.0_TE1.2 Area: t(289) = 3.13, β = 0.27, P = 0.002]. Habituation of blood-oxygenation-level-dependent (BOLD) signal during exposure to food vs. neutral stimuli was evident in these regions. We have not found any area in the brain with significant increased response to food-related cues over time (sensitization). Our results elucidate the temporal dynamics of cue-reactivity in overweight and obese individuals with food-induced craving. Both subcortical areas involved in reward processing and cortical areas involved in inhibitory processing are getting habituated over time in response to food vs. neutral cues. There were significant bivariate correlations between self-report behavioral/psychological measures with individual habituation slopes for the regions with dynamic activity, but no robust cross-unit latent factors were identified between the behavioral, demographic, and self-report psychological groups. Discussion This work provides novel insights into dynamic neural circuit mechanisms supporting food cue reactivity, thereby suggesting pathways in biomarker development and cue-desensitization interventions.
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Affiliation(s)
| | | | - Hamed Ekhtiari
- Department of Psychiatry, University of Minnesota, Minnesota, MN, United States
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19
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Kiyar M, Kubre MA, Collet S, Van Den Eynde T, T'Sjoen G, Guillamon A, Mueller SC. Gender-affirming hormonal treatment changes neural processing of emotions in trans men: An fMRI study. Psychoneuroendocrinology 2022; 146:105928. [PMID: 36155318 DOI: 10.1016/j.psyneuen.2022.105928] [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: 04/14/2022] [Revised: 09/14/2022] [Accepted: 09/14/2022] [Indexed: 12/25/2022]
Abstract
BACKGROUND Some transgender people desire a transition through gender-affirming hormone treatment (GAHT). To date, it is unknown how GAHT changes emotion perception in transgender people. METHODS Thirty transgender men (TM), 30 cisgender men (CM), and 35 cisgender women (CW) underwent 3 Tesla functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) while passively viewing emotional faces (happy, angry, surprised faces) at two timepoints (T0 and T1). At T0 all participants were hormone-naïve, while TM immediately commenced testosterone supplementation at T0. The second scanning session (T1) occurred after 6-10 months of GAHT in TM. All 3 groups completed both T0 and T1 RESULTS: GAHT in TM shifted the neural profile whilst processing emotions from a sex-assigned at birth pattern at T0 (similar to CW) to a consistent with gender identity pattern at T1 (similar to CM). Overall, the brain patterns stayed the same for the cis people at T0 and T1. CONCLUSIONS These findings document the impact of hormone treatment, and testosterone supplementation specifically, on emotion perception in TM.
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Affiliation(s)
- Meltem Kiyar
- Department of Experimental Clinical and Health Psychology, Ghent University, Belgium.
| | - Mary-Ann Kubre
- Department of Experimental Clinical and Health Psychology, Ghent University, Belgium
| | - Sarah Collet
- Department of Endocrinology, Ghent University Hospital, Belgium
| | | | - Guy T'Sjoen
- Department of Endocrinology, Ghent University Hospital, Belgium
| | - Antonio Guillamon
- Department of Psychobiology, National Distance Education University, Madrid, Spain
| | - Sven C Mueller
- Department of Experimental Clinical and Health Psychology, Ghent University, Belgium
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20
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Regier PS, Gawrysiak MJ, Jagannathan K, Childress AR, Franklin TR, Wetherill RR. Trauma exposure among cannabis use disorder individuals was associated with a craving-correlated non-habituating amygdala response to aversive cues. DRUG AND ALCOHOL DEPENDENCE REPORTS 2022; 5:100098. [PMID: 36844163 PMCID: PMC9948813 DOI: 10.1016/j.dadr.2022.100098] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/13/2022] [Revised: 09/09/2022] [Accepted: 09/19/2022] [Indexed: 10/14/2022]
Abstract
The relationship of cannabis-use disorder and trauma exposure at the level of the brain is not well-understood. Cue-reactivity paradigms have largely focused on characterizing aberrant subcortical function by averaging across the entire task. However, changes across the task, including a non-habituating amygdala response (NHAR), may be a useful biomarker for relapse vulnerability and other pathology. This secondary analysis utilized existing fMRI data from a CUD population with (TR-Y, n = 18) or without trauma (TR-N, n = 15). Amygdala reactivity to novel and repeated aversive cues was examined between TR-Y vs. TR-N groups, using a repeated measures ANOVA. Analysis revealed a significant interaction between TR-Y vs. TR-N and amygdala response to novel vs. repeated cues in the amygdala (right: F (1,31) = 5.31, p = 0.028; left: F (1,31) = 7.42, p = 0.011). In the TR-Y group, a NHAR was evident, while the TR-N group exhibited amygdala habituation, resulting in a significant difference between groups of amygdala reactivity to repeated cues (right: p = 0.002; left: p < 0.001). The NHAR in the TR-Y (but not TR-N) group was significantly correlated with higher cannabis craving scores, yielding a significant group difference (z = 2.1, p = 0.018). Results suggest trauma interacts with the brain's sensitivity to aversive cues, offering a neural explanation for the relationship between trauma and CUD vulnerability. These findings suggest the importance of considering the temporal dynamics of cue reactivity and trauma history in future studies and treatment planning, as this distinction may help decrease relapse vulnerability.
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Affiliation(s)
- Paul S. Regier
- University of Pennsylvania, Perelman School of Medicine, 3535 Market Street, Philadelphia, PA, 19104, United States,Corresponding author.
| | - Michael J. Gawrysiak
- University of Pennsylvania, Perelman School of Medicine, 3535 Market Street, Philadelphia, PA, 19104, United States,West Chester University of Pennsylvania, 125 West Rosedale Avenue, 19383, United States
| | - Kanchana Jagannathan
- University of Pennsylvania, Perelman School of Medicine, 3535 Market Street, Philadelphia, PA, 19104, United States
| | - Anna Rose Childress
- University of Pennsylvania, Perelman School of Medicine, 3535 Market Street, Philadelphia, PA, 19104, United States
| | - Teresa R. Franklin
- University of Pennsylvania, Perelman School of Medicine, 3535 Market Street, Philadelphia, PA, 19104, United States
| | - Reagan R. Wetherill
- University of Pennsylvania, Perelman School of Medicine, 3535 Market Street, Philadelphia, PA, 19104, United States
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21
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Blok LER, Boon M, van Reijmersdal B, Höffler KD, Fenckova M, Schenck A. Genetics, molecular control and clinical relevance of habituation learning. Neurosci Biobehav Rev 2022; 143:104883. [PMID: 36152842 DOI: 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2022.104883] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/22/2022] [Revised: 08/08/2022] [Accepted: 08/30/2022] [Indexed: 11/29/2022]
Abstract
Habituation is the most fundamental form of learning. As a firewall that protects our brain from sensory overload, it is indispensable for cognitive processes. Studies in humans and animal models provide increasing evidence that habituation is affected in autism and related monogenic neurodevelopmental disorders (NDDs). An integrated application of habituation assessment in NDDs and their animal models has unexploited potential for neuroscience and medical care. With the aim to gain mechanistic insights, we systematically retrieved genes that have been demonstrated in the literature to underlie habituation. We identified 258 evolutionarily conserved genes across species, describe the biological processes they converge on, and highlight regulatory pathways and drugs that may alleviate habituation deficits. We also summarize current habituation paradigms and extract the most decisive arguments that support the crucial role of habituation for cognition in health and disease. We conclude that habituation is a conserved, quantitative, cognition- and disease-relevant process that can connect preclinical and clinical work, and hence is a powerful tool to advance research, diagnostics, and treatment of NDDs.
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Affiliation(s)
- Laura Elisabeth Rosalie Blok
- Department of Human Genetics, Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, Radboud University Medical Center, Geert Grooteplein Zuid 10, 6525GA, Nijmegen, the Netherlands.
| | - Marina Boon
- Department of Human Genetics, Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, Radboud University Medical Center, Geert Grooteplein Zuid 10, 6525GA, Nijmegen, the Netherlands.
| | - Boyd van Reijmersdal
- Department of Human Genetics, Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, Radboud University Medical Center, Geert Grooteplein Zuid 10, 6525GA, Nijmegen, the Netherlands.
| | - Kira Daniela Höffler
- Department of Human Genetics, Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, Radboud University Medical Center, Geert Grooteplein Zuid 10, 6525GA, Nijmegen, the Netherlands.
| | - Michaela Fenckova
- Department of Human Genetics, Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, Radboud University Medical Center, Geert Grooteplein Zuid 10, 6525GA, Nijmegen, the Netherlands; Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, Faculty of Science, University of South Bohemia in Ceske Budejovice, Branisovska 31, 37005, Ceske Budejovice, Czech Republic.
| | - Annette Schenck
- Department of Human Genetics, Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, Radboud University Medical Center, Geert Grooteplein Zuid 10, 6525GA, Nijmegen, the Netherlands.
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22
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Klugah-Brown B, Yu Y, Hu P, Agoalikum E, Liu C, Liu X, Yang X, Zeng Y, Zhou X, Yu X, Rypma B, Michael AM, Li X, Becker B, Biswal B. Effect of surgical mask on fMRI signals during task and rest. Commun Biol 2022; 5:1004. [PMID: 36130993 PMCID: PMC9491667 DOI: 10.1038/s42003-022-03908-6] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/12/2021] [Accepted: 08/29/2022] [Indexed: 11/09/2022] Open
Abstract
Wearing a face mask has become essential to contain the spread of COVID-19 and has become mandatory when collecting fMRI data at most research institutions. Here, we investigate the effects of wearing a surgical mask on fMRI data in n = 37 healthy participants. Activations during finger tapping, emotional face matching, working memory tasks, and rest were examined. Preliminary fMRI analyses show that despite the different mask states, resting-state signals and task activations were relatively similar. Resting-state functional connectivity showed negligible attenuation patterns in mask-on compared with mask-off. Task-based ROI analysis also demonstrated no significant difference between the two mask states under each contrast investigated. Notwithstanding the overall insignificant effects, these results indicate that wearing a face mask during fMRI has little to no significant effect on resting-state and task activations.
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Affiliation(s)
- Benjamin Klugah-Brown
- The Clinical Hospital of Chengdu Brain Science Institute, MOE Key Laboratory for Neuroinformation, Center for Information in Medicine, School of Life Science and Technology, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, No.2006, Xiyuan Avenue, West Hi-Tech Zone, Chengdu, Sichuan, 611731, China.
| | - Yue Yu
- The Clinical Hospital of Chengdu Brain Science Institute, MOE Key Laboratory for Neuroinformation, Center for Information in Medicine, School of Life Science and Technology, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, No.2006, Xiyuan Avenue, West Hi-Tech Zone, Chengdu, Sichuan, 611731, China
| | - Peng Hu
- The Clinical Hospital of Chengdu Brain Science Institute, MOE Key Laboratory for Neuroinformation, Center for Information in Medicine, School of Life Science and Technology, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, No.2006, Xiyuan Avenue, West Hi-Tech Zone, Chengdu, Sichuan, 611731, China
| | - Elijah Agoalikum
- The Clinical Hospital of Chengdu Brain Science Institute, MOE Key Laboratory for Neuroinformation, Center for Information in Medicine, School of Life Science and Technology, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, No.2006, Xiyuan Avenue, West Hi-Tech Zone, Chengdu, Sichuan, 611731, China
| | - Congcong Liu
- The Clinical Hospital of Chengdu Brain Science Institute, MOE Key Laboratory for Neuroinformation, Center for Information in Medicine, School of Life Science and Technology, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, No.2006, Xiyuan Avenue, West Hi-Tech Zone, Chengdu, Sichuan, 611731, China
| | - Xiqin Liu
- The Clinical Hospital of Chengdu Brain Science Institute, MOE Key Laboratory for Neuroinformation, Center for Information in Medicine, School of Life Science and Technology, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, No.2006, Xiyuan Avenue, West Hi-Tech Zone, Chengdu, Sichuan, 611731, China
| | - Xi Yang
- The Clinical Hospital of Chengdu Brain Science Institute, MOE Key Laboratory for Neuroinformation, Center for Information in Medicine, School of Life Science and Technology, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, No.2006, Xiyuan Avenue, West Hi-Tech Zone, Chengdu, Sichuan, 611731, China
| | - Yixu Zeng
- The Clinical Hospital of Chengdu Brain Science Institute, MOE Key Laboratory for Neuroinformation, Center for Information in Medicine, School of Life Science and Technology, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, No.2006, Xiyuan Avenue, West Hi-Tech Zone, Chengdu, Sichuan, 611731, China
| | - Xinqi Zhou
- The Clinical Hospital of Chengdu Brain Science Institute, MOE Key Laboratory for Neuroinformation, Center for Information in Medicine, School of Life Science and Technology, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, No.2006, Xiyuan Avenue, West Hi-Tech Zone, Chengdu, Sichuan, 611731, China
| | - Xin Yu
- Martimos Imaging Center, Harvard Medical School, Charlestown, MA, 02129, USA
| | - Bart Rypma
- The University of Texas at Dallas School of Behavioral and Brain Sciences, GR41800 W. Campbell Road, Richardson, TX, 75080-302, USA
| | - Andrew M Michael
- Duke Institute for Brain Sciences, Duke University, Durham, NC, USA
| | - Xiaobo Li
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, New Jersey Institute of Technology, Newark, NJ, USA
| | - Benjamin Becker
- The Clinical Hospital of Chengdu Brain Science Institute, MOE Key Laboratory for Neuroinformation, Center for Information in Medicine, School of Life Science and Technology, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, No.2006, Xiyuan Avenue, West Hi-Tech Zone, Chengdu, Sichuan, 611731, China
| | - Bharat Biswal
- The Clinical Hospital of Chengdu Brain Science Institute, MOE Key Laboratory for Neuroinformation, Center for Information in Medicine, School of Life Science and Technology, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, No.2006, Xiyuan Avenue, West Hi-Tech Zone, Chengdu, Sichuan, 611731, China.
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, New Jersey Institute of Technology, Newark, NJ, USA.
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23
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Klingelhöfer-Jens M, Ehlers MR, Kuhn M, Keyaniyan V, Lonsdorf TB. Robust group- but limited individual-level (longitudinal) reliability and insights into cross-phases response prediction of conditioned fear. eLife 2022; 11:e78717. [PMID: 36098500 PMCID: PMC9691022 DOI: 10.7554/elife.78717] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/17/2022] [Accepted: 09/12/2022] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Here, we follow the call to target measurement reliability as a key prerequisite for individual-level predictions in translational neuroscience by investigating (1) longitudinal reliability at the individual and (2) group level, (3) internal consistency and (4) response predictability across experimental phases. One hundred and twenty individuals performed a fear conditioning paradigm twice 6 months apart. Analyses of skin conductance responses, fear ratings and blood oxygen level dependent functional magnetic resonance imaging (BOLD fMRI) with different data transformations and included numbers of trials were conducted. While longitudinal reliability was rather limited at the individual level, it was comparatively higher for acquisition but not extinction at the group level. Internal consistency was satisfactory. Higher responding in preceding phases predicted higher responding in subsequent experimental phases at a weak to moderate level depending on data specifications. In sum, the results suggest that while individual-level predictions are meaningful for (very) short time frames, they also call for more attention to measurement properties in the field.
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Affiliation(s)
- Maren Klingelhöfer-Jens
- Institute for Systems Neuroscience, University Medical Center Hamburg-EppendorfHamburgGermany
| | - Mana R Ehlers
- Institute for Systems Neuroscience, University Medical Center Hamburg-EppendorfHamburgGermany
| | - Manuel Kuhn
- Institute for Systems Neuroscience, University Medical Center Hamburg-EppendorfHamburgGermany
- Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School, and Center for Depression, Anxiety and Stress Research, McLean HospitalBelmontUnited States
| | - Vincent Keyaniyan
- Institute for Systems Neuroscience, University Medical Center Hamburg-EppendorfHamburgGermany
| | - Tina B Lonsdorf
- Institute for Systems Neuroscience, University Medical Center Hamburg-EppendorfHamburgGermany
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24
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Matt E, Aslan T, Amini A, Sariçiçek K, Seidel S, Martin P, Wöber C, Beisteiner R. Avoid or seek light - a randomized crossover fMRI study investigating opposing treatment strategies for photophobia in migraine. J Headache Pain 2022; 23:99. [PMID: 35948966 PMCID: PMC9367056 DOI: 10.1186/s10194-022-01466-0] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/09/2022] [Accepted: 07/18/2022] [Indexed: 11/23/2022] Open
Abstract
Background Photophobia, the aberrantly increased sensitivity to light, is a common symptom in migraine patients and light discomfort is frequently found as a trigger for migraine attacks. In behavioral studies, planned exposure to light was found to reduce headache in migraine patients with photophobia, potentially by increasing habituation to this migraine trigger. Here, we aimed to elucidate neurophysiological mechanisms of light exposure versus light deprivation in migraine patients using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Methods Ten migraine patients (9 female, age = 28.70 ± 8.18 years) and 11 healthy controls (9 female, age = 23.73 ± 2.24 years) spent one hour on 7 consecutive days exposed to flashing light (Flash) or darkness (Dark) using a crossover design with a wash-out period of 3 months. Study participants kept a diary including items on interictal and ictal photophobia, presence and severity of headache 7 days before, during and 7 days after the interventions. One week before and one day after both interventions, fMRI using flickering light in a block design was applied. Functional activation was analyzed at whole-brain level and habituation of the visual cortex (V1) was modeled with the initial amplitude estimate and the corrected habituation slope. Results Mean interictal photophobia decreased after both interventions, but differences relative to the baseline did not survive correction for multiple comparisons. At baseline, flickering light induced activation in V1 was higher in the patients compared to the controls, but activation normalized after the Flash and the Dark interventions. V1 habituation indices correlated with headache frequency, headache severity and ictal photophobia. In the Flash condition, the individual change of headache frequency relative to the baseline corresponded almost perfectly to the change of the habituation slope compared to the baseline. Conclusions On average, light exposure did not lead to symptom relief, potentially due to the short duration of the intervention and the high variability of the patients’ responses to the intervention. However, the strong relationship between visual cortex habituation and headache symptoms and its modulation by light exposure might shed light on the neurophysiological basis of exposure treatment effects. Trial registration NCT05369910 (05/06/2022, retrospectively registered).
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Affiliation(s)
- Eva Matt
- Imaging-Based Functional Brain Diagnostics and Therapy, Department of Neurology, High Field Magnetic Resonance Centre, Medical University of Vienna, Spitalgasse 23, 1090, Vienna, Austria
| | - Tuna Aslan
- Imaging-Based Functional Brain Diagnostics and Therapy, Department of Neurology, High Field Magnetic Resonance Centre, Medical University of Vienna, Spitalgasse 23, 1090, Vienna, Austria
| | - Ahmad Amini
- Imaging-Based Functional Brain Diagnostics and Therapy, Department of Neurology, High Field Magnetic Resonance Centre, Medical University of Vienna, Spitalgasse 23, 1090, Vienna, Austria
| | - Kardelen Sariçiçek
- Imaging-Based Functional Brain Diagnostics and Therapy, Department of Neurology, High Field Magnetic Resonance Centre, Medical University of Vienna, Spitalgasse 23, 1090, Vienna, Austria
| | - Stefan Seidel
- Department of Neurology, Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria
| | - Paul Martin
- School of Applied Psychology, Griffith University, Southport, QLD, Australia.,Department of Psychiatry, Monash University, Victoria, Australia
| | - Christian Wöber
- Department of Neurology, Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria
| | - Roland Beisteiner
- Imaging-Based Functional Brain Diagnostics and Therapy, Department of Neurology, High Field Magnetic Resonance Centre, Medical University of Vienna, Spitalgasse 23, 1090, Vienna, Austria.
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25
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Bloom PA, VanTieghem M, Gabard‐Durnam L, Gee DG, Flannery J, Caldera C, Goff B, Telzer EH, Humphreys KL, Fareri DS, Shapiro M, Algharazi S, Bolger N, Aly M, Tottenham N. Age-related change in task-evoked amygdala-prefrontal circuitry: A multiverse approach with an accelerated longitudinal cohort aged 4-22 years. Hum Brain Mapp 2022; 43:3221-3244. [PMID: 35393752 PMCID: PMC9188973 DOI: 10.1002/hbm.25847] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/10/2021] [Revised: 02/20/2022] [Accepted: 03/15/2022] [Indexed: 12/22/2022] Open
Abstract
The amygdala and its connections with medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) play central roles in the development of emotional processes. While several studies have suggested that this circuitry exhibits functional changes across the first two decades of life, findings have been mixed - perhaps resulting from differences in analytic choices across studies. Here we used multiverse analyses to examine the robustness of task-based amygdala-mPFC function findings to analytic choices within the context of an accelerated longitudinal design (4-22 years-old; N = 98; 183 scans; 1-3 scans/participant). Participants recruited from the greater Los Angeles area completed an event-related emotional face (fear, neutral) task. Parallel analyses varying in preprocessing and modeling choices found that age-related change estimates for amygdala reactivity were more robust than task-evoked amygdala-mPFC functional connectivity to varied analytical choices. Specification curves indicated evidence for age-related decreases in amygdala reactivity to faces, though within-participant changes in amygdala reactivity could not be differentiated from between-participant differences. In contrast, amygdala-mPFC functional connectivity results varied across methods much more, and evidence for age-related change in amygdala-mPFC connectivity was not consistent. Generalized psychophysiological interaction (gPPI) measurements of connectivity were especially sensitive to whether a deconvolution step was applied. Our findings demonstrate the importance of assessing the robustness of findings to analysis choices, although the age-related changes in our current work cannot be overinterpreted given low test-retest reliability. Together, these findings highlight both the challenges in estimating developmental change in longitudinal cohorts and the value of multiverse approaches in developmental neuroimaging for assessing robustness of results.
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Affiliation(s)
| | | | | | - Dylan G. Gee
- Department of PsychologyYale UniversityNew HavenConnecticutUSA
| | | | - Christina Caldera
- Department of PsychologyUniversity of California Los AngelesLos AngelesCaliforniaUSA
| | - Bonnie Goff
- Department of PsychologyUniversity of California Los AngelesLos AngelesCaliforniaUSA
| | - Eva H. Telzer
- University of North Carolina at Chapel HillChapel HillNorth CarolinaUSA
| | | | | | | | - Sameah Algharazi
- Department of PsychologyCity College of New YorkNew YorkNew YorkUSA
| | - Niall Bolger
- Department of PsychologyColumbia UniversityNew YorkNew YorkUSA
| | - Mariam Aly
- Department of PsychologyColumbia UniversityNew YorkNew YorkUSA
| | - Nim Tottenham
- Department of PsychologyColumbia UniversityNew YorkNew YorkUSA
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26
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Kiyar M, Kubre MA, Collet S, Bhaduri S, T’Sjoen G, Guillamon A, Mueller SC. Minority Stress and the Effects on Emotion Processing in Transgender Men and Cisgender People: A Study Combining fMRI and 1H-MRS. Int J Neuropsychopharmacol 2022; 25:350-360. [PMID: 34878531 PMCID: PMC9154245 DOI: 10.1093/ijnp/pyab090] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/30/2021] [Revised: 11/12/2021] [Accepted: 12/06/2021] [Indexed: 11/14/2022] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND Minority stress via discrimination, stigmatization, and exposure to violence can lead to development of mood and anxiety disorders and underlying neurobiochemical changes. To date, the neural and neurochemical correlates of emotion processing in transgender people (and their interaction) are unknown. METHODS This study combined functional magnetic resonance imaging and magnetic resonance spectroscopy to uncover the effects of anxiety and perceived stress on the neural and neurochemical substrates, specifically choline, on emotion processing in transgender men. Thirty transgender men (TM), 30 cisgender men, and 35 cisgender women passively viewed angry, neutral, happy, and surprised faces in the functional magnetic resonance imaging scanner, underwent a magnetic resonance spectroscopy scan, and filled out mood- and anxiety-related questionnaires. RESULTS As predicted, choline levels modulated the relationship between anxiety and stress symptoms and the neural response to angry and surprised (but not happy faces) in the amygdala. This was the case only for TM but not cisgender comparisons. More generally, neural responses in the left amygdala, left middle frontal gyrus, and medial frontal gyrus to emotional faces in TM resembled that of cisgender women. CONCLUSIONS These results provide first evidence, to our knowledge, of a critical interaction between levels of analysis and that choline may influence neural processing of emotion in individuals prone to minority stress.
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Affiliation(s)
- Meltem Kiyar
- Department of Experimental Clinical and Health Psychology, Ghent University, Belgium
| | - Mary-Ann Kubre
- Department of Experimental Clinical and Health Psychology, Ghent University, Belgium
| | - Sarah Collet
- Department of Endocrinology, Ghent University Hospital, Belgium
| | - Sourav Bhaduri
- Department of Experimental Clinical and Health Psychology, Ghent University, Belgium
- Department of Molecular and Clinical Cancer Medicine, University of Liverpool, Liverpool, United Kingdom
| | - Guy T’Sjoen
- Department of Endocrinology, Ghent University Hospital, Belgium
| | - Antonio Guillamon
- Department of Psychobiology, National Distance Education University, Madrid, Spain
| | - Sven C Mueller
- Department of Experimental Clinical and Health Psychology, Ghent University, Belgium
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27
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Kennedy JT, Harms MP, Korucuoglu O, Astafiev SV, Barch DM, Thompson WK, Bjork JM, Anokhin AP. Reliability and stability challenges in ABCD task fMRI data. Neuroimage 2022; 252:119046. [PMID: 35245674 PMCID: PMC9017319 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2022.119046] [Citation(s) in RCA: 38] [Impact Index Per Article: 19.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/09/2021] [Revised: 02/25/2022] [Accepted: 02/28/2022] [Indexed: 01/23/2023] Open
Abstract
Trait stability of measures is an essential requirement for individual differences research. Functional MRI has been increasingly used in studies that rely on the assumption of trait stability, such as attempts to relate task related brain activation to individual differences in behavior and psychopathology. However, recent research using adult samples has questioned the trait stability of task-fMRI measures, as assessed by test-retest correlations. To date, little is known about trait stability of task fMRI in children. Here, we examined within-session reliability and long-term stability of individual differences in task-fMRI measures using fMRI measures of brain activation provided by the adolescent brain cognitive development (ABCD) Study Release v4.0 as an individual's average regional activity, using its tasks focused on reward processing, response inhibition, and working memory. We also evaluated the effects of factors potentially affecting reliability and stability. Reliability and stability (quantified as the ratio of non-scanner related stable variance to all variances) was poor in virtually all brain regions, with an average value of 0.088 and 0.072 for short term (within-session) reliability and long-term (between-session) stability, respectively, in regions of interest (ROIs) historically-recruited by the tasks. Only one reliability or stability value in ROIs exceeded the 'poor' cut-off of 0.4, and in fact rarely exceeded 0.2 (only 4.9%). Motion had a pronounced effect on estimated reliability/stability, with the lowest motion quartile of participants having a mean reliability/stability 2.5 times higher (albeit still 'poor') than the highest motion quartile. Poor reliability and stability of task-fMRI, particularly in children, diminishes potential utility of fMRI data due to a drastic reduction of effect sizes and, consequently, statistical power for the detection of brain-behavior associations. This essential issue urgently needs to be addressed through optimization of task design, scanning parameters, data acquisition protocols, preprocessing pipelines, and data denoising methods.
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Affiliation(s)
- James T Kennedy
- Department of Psychiatry, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO, United States.
| | - Michael P Harms
- Department of Psychiatry, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO, United States
| | - Ozlem Korucuoglu
- Department of Psychiatry, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO, United States
| | - Serguei V Astafiev
- Department of Psychiatry, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO, United States
| | - Deanna M Barch
- Department of Psychiatry, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO, United States
| | - Wesley K Thompson
- Division of Biostatistics and Department of Radiology, Population Neuroscience and Genetics Lab, University of California, San Diego, United States
| | - James M Bjork
- Department of Psychiatry, Virginia Commonwealth University, United States
| | - Andrey P Anokhin
- Department of Psychiatry, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO, United States
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28
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Heilicher M, Crombie KM, Cisler JM. Test-retest reliability of fMRI during an emotion processing task: Investigating the impact of analytical approaches on ICC values. FRONTIERS IN NEUROIMAGING 2022; 1:859792. [PMID: 35782991 PMCID: PMC9245148 DOI: 10.3389/fnimg.2022.859792] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/15/2023]
Abstract
Test-retest reliability of fMRI is often assessed using the intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC), a numerical representation of reliability. Reports of low reliability at the individual level may be attributed to analytical approaches and inherent bias/error in the measures used to calculate ICC. It is unclear whether low reliability at the individual level is related to methodological decisions or if fMRI is inherently unreliable. The purpose of this study was to investigate methodological considerations when calculating ICC to improve understanding of fMRI reliability. fMRI data were collected from adolescent females (N=23) at pre- and post-cognitive behavioral therapy. Participants completed an emotion processing task during fMRI. We calculated ICC values using contrasts and β coefficients separately from voxelwise and network (ICA) analyses of the task-based fMRI data. For both voxelwise analysis and ICA, ICC values were higher when calculated using β coefficients. This work provides support for the use of β coefficients over contrasts when assessing reliability of fMRI, and the use of contrasts may underlie low reliability estimates reported in the existing literature. Continued research in this area is warranted to establish fMRI as a reliable measure to draw conclusions and utilize fMRI in clinical settings.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mickela Heilicher
- Mental Health and Incarceration Laboratory, University of
Wisconsin-Madison, School of Medicine and Public Health, Psychiatry Department,
Madison, WI, USA
| | - Kevin M. Crombie
- Neurocircuitry of Trauma and PTSD Laboratory, The
University of Texas at Austin, Dell Medical School, Department of Psychiatry and
Behavioral Sciences, Austin, TX, USA
| | - Josh M. Cisler
- Neurocircuitry of Trauma and PTSD Laboratory, The
University of Texas at Austin, Dell Medical School, Department of Psychiatry and
Behavioral Sciences, Austin, TX, USA
- Institute for Early Life Adversity Research, The University
of Texas at Austin, Dell Medical School, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral
Sciences, Austin, TX, USA
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29
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Fisher PM, Ozenne B, Ganz M, Frokjaer VG, Dam VN, Penninx BW, Sankar A, Miskowiak K, Jensen PS, Knudsen GM, Jorgensen MB. Emotional faces processing in major depressive disorder and prediction of antidepressant treatment response: A NeuroPharm study. J Psychopharmacol 2022; 36:626-636. [PMID: 35549538 DOI: 10.1177/02698811221089035] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/17/2022]
Abstract
BACKGROUND Major depressive disorder (MDD) is a prevalent neuropsychiatric illness for which it is important to resolve underlying brain mechanisms. Current treatments are often unsuccessful, precipitating a need to identify predictive markers. AIM We evaluated (1) alterations in brain responses to an emotional faces functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) paradigm in individuals with MDD, compared to controls, (2) whether pretreatment brain responses predicted antidepressant treatment response, and (3) pre-post change in brain responses following treatment. METHODS Eighty-nine medication-free, depressed individuals and 115 healthy controls completed the fMRI paradigm. Depressed individuals completed a nonrandomized, open-label, 8-week treatment with escitalopram, including the option to switch to duloxetine after 4 weeks. We examined patient-control group differences in regional fMRI responses at baseline, whether baseline fMRI responses predicted treatment response at 8 weeks, including early life stress moderating effects, and change in fMRI responses in 36 depressed individuals rescanned following 8 weeks of treatment. RESULTS Task reaction time was 5% slower in patients. Multiple brain regions showed significant task-related responses, but we observed no statistically significant patient-control group differences (Cohen's d < 0.35). Patient pretreatment brain responses did not predict antidepressant treatment response (area under the curve of the receiver operator characteristic (AUC-ROC) < 0.6) and brain responses were not statistically significantly changed after treatment (Cohen's d < 0.33). CONCLUSION This represents the largest prediction study to date examining emotional faces fMRI features as predictors of antidepressant treatment response. Brain response to this fMRI emotional faces paradigm did not distinguish depressed individuals from healthy controls, nor was it predictive of antidepressant treatment response.Clinical Trial Registration: Site: https://clinicaltrials.gov, Trial Number: NCT02869035, Trial Title: Treatment Outcome in Major Depressive Disorder.
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Affiliation(s)
- Patrick M Fisher
- Neurobiology Research Unit, Copenhagen University Hospital Rigshospitalet, Copenhagen, Denmark.,NeuroPharm, Copenhagen University Hospital Rigshospitalet, Copenhagen, Denmark.,BrainDrugs, Copenhagen University Hospital Rigshospitalet, Copenhagen, Denmark
| | - Brice Ozenne
- Neurobiology Research Unit, Copenhagen University Hospital Rigshospitalet, Copenhagen, Denmark.,NeuroPharm, Copenhagen University Hospital Rigshospitalet, Copenhagen, Denmark.,BrainDrugs, Copenhagen University Hospital Rigshospitalet, Copenhagen, Denmark.,Department of Public Health, Section of Biostatistics, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark
| | - Melanie Ganz
- Neurobiology Research Unit, Copenhagen University Hospital Rigshospitalet, Copenhagen, Denmark.,BrainDrugs, Copenhagen University Hospital Rigshospitalet, Copenhagen, Denmark.,Department of Computer Science, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark
| | - Vibe G Frokjaer
- Neurobiology Research Unit, Copenhagen University Hospital Rigshospitalet, Copenhagen, Denmark.,NeuroPharm, Copenhagen University Hospital Rigshospitalet, Copenhagen, Denmark.,BrainDrugs, Copenhagen University Hospital Rigshospitalet, Copenhagen, Denmark.,Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark.,Psychiatric Center Copenhagen, Copenhagen University Hospital Rigshospitalet, Copenhagen, Denmark
| | - Vibeke Nh Dam
- Neurobiology Research Unit, Copenhagen University Hospital Rigshospitalet, Copenhagen, Denmark.,NeuroPharm, Copenhagen University Hospital Rigshospitalet, Copenhagen, Denmark.,BrainDrugs, Copenhagen University Hospital Rigshospitalet, Copenhagen, Denmark
| | - Brenda Wjh Penninx
- BrainDrugs, Copenhagen University Hospital Rigshospitalet, Copenhagen, Denmark.,Amsterdam UMC, Vrije Universiteit, Psychiatry, Amsterdam Public Health Research Institute, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
| | - Anajli Sankar
- Neurobiology Research Unit, Copenhagen University Hospital Rigshospitalet, Copenhagen, Denmark.,BrainDrugs, Copenhagen University Hospital Rigshospitalet, Copenhagen, Denmark
| | - Kamilla Miskowiak
- BrainDrugs, Copenhagen University Hospital Rigshospitalet, Copenhagen, Denmark.,Copenhagen Affective Disorder Research Centre (CADIC), Psychiatric Centre Copenhagen, Copenhagen University Hospital, Rigshospitalet, Copenhagen, Denmark.,Department of Psychology, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark
| | - Peter S Jensen
- Neurobiology Research Unit, Copenhagen University Hospital Rigshospitalet, Copenhagen, Denmark.,NeuroPharm, Copenhagen University Hospital Rigshospitalet, Copenhagen, Denmark.,BrainDrugs, Copenhagen University Hospital Rigshospitalet, Copenhagen, Denmark
| | - Gitte M Knudsen
- Neurobiology Research Unit, Copenhagen University Hospital Rigshospitalet, Copenhagen, Denmark.,NeuroPharm, Copenhagen University Hospital Rigshospitalet, Copenhagen, Denmark.,BrainDrugs, Copenhagen University Hospital Rigshospitalet, Copenhagen, Denmark.,Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark
| | - Martin B Jorgensen
- Neurobiology Research Unit, Copenhagen University Hospital Rigshospitalet, Copenhagen, Denmark.,NeuroPharm, Copenhagen University Hospital Rigshospitalet, Copenhagen, Denmark.,BrainDrugs, Copenhagen University Hospital Rigshospitalet, Copenhagen, Denmark.,Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark.,Psychiatric Center Copenhagen, Copenhagen University Hospital Rigshospitalet, Copenhagen, Denmark
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30
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Beckes L, Medina-DeVilliers SE, Gunderson EW, Coan JA. Mechanisms supporting the social regulation of neural threat responding with marital partners: A test of the opioid hypothesis. Psychophysiology 2022; 59:e14076. [PMID: 35438799 DOI: 10.1111/psyp.14076] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/10/2020] [Revised: 12/26/2021] [Accepted: 03/26/2022] [Indexed: 11/28/2022]
Abstract
Positive social contact predicts better health, but the mechanisms for this association remain debated. One way to explore this link is through the social regulation of emotion, particularly anticipatory anxiety. Previous research finds less neural threat response during partner handholding than when people are alone or stranger handholding. Various mechanistic accounts have been forwarded, including the hypothesis that this effect is mediated by endogenous opioid activity. This experiment critically tested the opioid hypothesis in 60 married participants and their partners. The study used a naltrexone opioid blockade in a double-blind placebo control with functional magnetic resonance imaging to determine whether endogenous opioids were necessary for handholding effects. Regulatory effects of supportive handholding manifested in threat network regions during opioid blockade, but not with placebo. Despite a surprising lack of effect in the placebo group, the overall study findings provide initial evidence that endogenous opioids may not be necessary for the social regulation of neural threat responding.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lane Beckes
- Department of Psychology, Bradley University, Peoria, Illinois, USA
| | | | - Erik W Gunderson
- Department of Psychiatry and Neurobehavioral Sciences, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia, USA
| | - James A Coan
- Department of Psychology, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia, USA
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31
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Temporally dynamic neural correlates of drug cue reactivity, response inhibition, and methamphetamine-related response inhibition in people with methamphetamine use disorder. Sci Rep 2022; 12:3567. [PMID: 35246553 PMCID: PMC8897423 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-022-05619-8] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/13/2021] [Accepted: 01/11/2022] [Indexed: 11/14/2022] Open
Abstract
Cue-induced drug craving and disinhibition are two essential components of continued drug use and relapse in substance use disorders. While these phenomena develop and interact across time, the temporal dynamics of their underlying neural activity remain under-investigated. To explore these dynamics, an analysis of time-varying activation was applied to fMRI data from 62 men with methamphetamine use disorder in their first weeks of recovery in an abstinence-based treatment program. Using a mixed block-event, factorial cue-reactivity/Go-NoGo task and a sliding window across the task duration, dynamically-activated regions were identified in three linear mixed effects models (LMEs). Habituation to drug cues across time was observed in the superior temporal gyri, amygdalae, left hippocampus, and right precuneus, while response inhibition was associated with the sensitization of temporally-dynamic activations across many regions of the inhibitory frontoparietal network. Methamphetamine-related response inhibition was associated with temporally-dynamic activity in the parahippocampal gyri and right precuneus (corrected p-value < 0.001), which show a declining cue-reactivity contrast and an increasing response inhibition contrast. Overall, the declining craving-related activations (habituation) and increasing inhibition-associated activations (sensitization) during the task duration suggest the gradual recruitment of response inhibitory processes and a concurrent habituation to drug cues in areas with temporally-dynamic methamphetamine-related response inhibition. Furthermore, temporally dynamic cue-reactivity and response inhibition were correlated with behavioral and clinical measures such as the severity of methamphetamine use and craving, impulsivity and inhibitory task performance. This exploratory study demonstrates the time-variance of the neural activations undergirding cue-reactivity, response inhibition, and response inhibition during exposure to drug cues, and suggests a method to assess this dynamic interplay. Analyses that can capture temporal fluctuations in the neural substrates of drug cue-reactivity and response inhibition may prove useful for biomarker development by revealing the rate and pattern of sensitization and habituation processes, and may inform mixed cue-exposure intervention paradigms which could promote habituation to drug cues and sensitization in inhibitory control regions.
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32
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Marquez-Legorreta E, Constantin L, Piber M, Favre-Bulle IA, Taylor MA, Blevins AS, Giacomotto J, Bassett DS, Vanwalleghem GC, Scott EK. Brain-wide visual habituation networks in wild type and fmr1 zebrafish. Nat Commun 2022; 13:895. [PMID: 35173170 PMCID: PMC8850451 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-022-28299-4] [Citation(s) in RCA: 16] [Impact Index Per Article: 8.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/11/2021] [Accepted: 01/12/2022] [Indexed: 11/09/2022] Open
Abstract
Habituation is a form of learning during which animals stop responding to repetitive stimuli, and deficits in habituation are characteristic of several psychiatric disorders. Due to technical challenges, the brain-wide networks mediating habituation are poorly understood. Here we report brain-wide calcium imaging during larval zebrafish habituation to repeated visual looming stimuli. We show that different functional categories of loom-sensitive neurons are located in characteristic locations throughout the brain, and that both the functional properties of their networks and the resulting behavior can be modulated by stimulus saliency and timing. Using graph theory, we identify a visual circuit that habituates minimally, a moderately habituating midbrain population proposed to mediate the sensorimotor transformation, and downstream circuit elements responsible for higher order representations and the delivery of behavior. Zebrafish larvae carrying a mutation in the fmr1 gene have a systematic shift toward sustained premotor activity in this network, and show slower behavioral habituation.
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Affiliation(s)
- Emmanuel Marquez-Legorreta
- The Queensland Brain Institute, The University of Queensland, St Lucia, QLD, 4072, Australia.,Janelia Research Campus, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Ashburn, VA, USA
| | - Lena Constantin
- The Queensland Brain Institute, The University of Queensland, St Lucia, QLD, 4072, Australia
| | - Marielle Piber
- School of Medicine, Medical Sciences, and Nutrition, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen, AB25 2ZD, UK
| | - Itia A Favre-Bulle
- The Queensland Brain Institute, The University of Queensland, St Lucia, QLD, 4072, Australia.,School of Mathematics and Physics, The University of Queensland, St Lucia, QLD, 4072, Australia
| | - Michael A Taylor
- Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology, The University of Queensland, St Lucia, QLD, 4072, Australia
| | - Ann S Blevins
- Department of Bioengineering, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, 19104, USA
| | - Jean Giacomotto
- The Queensland Brain Institute, The University of Queensland, St Lucia, QLD, 4072, Australia.,Queensland Centre for Mental Health Research, West Moreton Hospital and Health Service, Wacol, QLD, 4076, Australia.,Griffith Institute for Drug Discovery, School of Environment and Science, Griffith University, Brisbane, QLD, 4111, Australia.,Discovery Biology, Griffith University, Brisbane, QLD, 4111, Australia
| | - Dani S Bassett
- Department of Bioengineering, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, 19104, USA.,Departments of Electrical & Systems Engineering, Physics & Astronomy, Neurology, Psychiatry, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, 19104, USA.,Santa Fe Institute, Santa Fe, NM, 87501, USA
| | - Gilles C Vanwalleghem
- The Queensland Brain Institute, The University of Queensland, St Lucia, QLD, 4072, Australia. .,Danish Research Institute of Translational Neuroscience - DANDRITE, Nordic-EMBL Partnership for Molecular Medicine, Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark.
| | - Ethan K Scott
- The Queensland Brain Institute, The University of Queensland, St Lucia, QLD, 4072, Australia.
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33
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Schöne M, Seidenbecher S, Kaufmann J, Antonucci LA, Frodl T, Koutsouleris N, Schiltz K, Bogerts B. Appetitive aggression is associated with lateralized activation in nucleus accumbens. Psychiatry Res Neuroimaging 2022; 319:111425. [PMID: 34891023 DOI: 10.1016/j.pscychresns.2021.111425] [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: 07/27/2021] [Revised: 11/14/2021] [Accepted: 12/02/2021] [Indexed: 12/01/2022]
Abstract
Aggression can have a hedonistic aspect in predisposed individuals labeled as appetitive aggression. The present study investigates the neurobiological correlates of this appetitive type of aggression in non-clinical samples from community. Applying functional magnet resonance imaging (fMRI), we tested whether 20 martial artists compared to 26 controls had a higher activation in the nucleus accumbens (NAcc), a central part of the dopaminergic, mesolimbic reward system. Subjects had to watch violent vs. neutral pictures representing appetitive aggression. The affinity towards hedonistic violence was assessed by the Appetitive and Facilitative Aggression Scale (AFAS). Furthermore, the subjects rated all the pictures with regard to how pleasant and violent they were. The martial artists reported a higher AFAS-score and a more positive perception of violent pictures. On the neural level, across all subjects, there was a significant positive correlation between the AFAS-score and the activation in the left NAcc and an inverse association with the activation of the right NAcc when watching violent compared to neutral pictures. This lateralization effect indicates a different processing of hedonistic aspects of aggression in the two hemispheres.
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Affiliation(s)
- Maria Schöne
- Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Otto-von-Guericke University, Magdeburg, Germany; Salus Institute, Salus gGmbH, Magdeburg, Germany.
| | - Stephanie Seidenbecher
- Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Otto-von-Guericke University, Magdeburg, Germany; Salus Institute, Salus gGmbH, Magdeburg, Germany
| | - Jörn Kaufmann
- Department of Neurology, Otto-von-Guericke University, Magdeburg, Germany
| | - Linda Antonella Antonucci
- Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Ludwig-Maximilians-University, Munich, Germany; Department of Education, Psychology, Communication, University of Bari Aldo Moro, Bari, Italy
| | - Thomas Frodl
- Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Otto-von-Guericke University, Magdeburg, Germany; Department of Psychiatry and Institute of Neuroscience, Dublin, Ireland; Center for Behavioral Brain Sciences, Otto-von-Guericke University, Magdeburg, Germany; German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases, Otto-von-Guericke University, Magdeburg, Germany; Department of Psychiatry, Psychotherapy, and Psychosomatic, RWTH-University, Aachen, Germany
| | - Nikolaos Koutsouleris
- Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Ludwig-Maximilians-University, Munich, Germany
| | - Kolja Schiltz
- Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Otto-von-Guericke University, Magdeburg, Germany; Department of Forensic Psychiatry, Mental Hospital of the Ludwig-Maximilians-University, Munich, Germany
| | - Bernhard Bogerts
- Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Otto-von-Guericke University, Magdeburg, Germany; Salus Institute, Salus gGmbH, Magdeburg, Germany
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34
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Regier PS, Jagannathan K, Franklin TR, Wetherill RR, Langleben DD, Gawyrsiak M, Kampman KM, Childress AR. Sustained brain response to repeated drug cues is associated with poor drug-use outcomes. Addict Biol 2021; 26:e13028. [PMID: 33634928 PMCID: PMC9906797 DOI: 10.1111/adb.13028] [Citation(s) in RCA: 16] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/19/2020] [Revised: 02/08/2021] [Accepted: 02/14/2021] [Indexed: 12/12/2022]
Abstract
A threefold increase in fatal cocaine overdoses during the past decade highlights the critical lack of medications for cocaine use disorders. The brain response to drug cues can predict future drug use; however, results have been mixed. We present preliminary evidence that a sustained response to repeated cocaine cues within a single task is a significant predictor of drug-use outcomes. Seventy-three cocaine inpatients were administered a passive-viewing fMRI task, featuring 500 ms novel evocative (cocaine, sexual, aversive) and neutral comparator cues in the first half (Half1), which were then repeated in the second half (Half2). After the baseline scan, patients received eight outpatient treatment weeks with twice-weekly drug screens. Drug-use outcome groups were empirically defined based on cocaine-positive or missing urines averaged across the outpatient phase: GOOD (<40%), POOR (>85%), and Intermediate (INT, between 40% and 85%) outcomes. Differences of response to initial (Half1) and repeated (Half2) cues in a priori (cue-reactive) regions were tested between outcome groups (3 [Group] × 2 [Halves] ANOVA). An interaction was found in the brain response to drug (but not sex or aversive) cues, with a significant difference between the GOOD and POOR outcome groups in Half2, driven by a significant decrease in brain response by the GOOD outcome group and a sustained brain response by the POOR outcome group, to repeated cocaine cues. The brain response to repeated drug cues may be a useful predictor of future drug use, encouraging future intervention studies to restore a "healthy" (decreasing) response to the repeated presentation of drug cues.
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Affiliation(s)
- Paul S. Regier
- Perelman School of Medicine, Department of Psychiatry University of Pennsylvania Philadelphia Pennsylvania USA
| | - Kanchana Jagannathan
- Perelman School of Medicine, Department of Psychiatry University of Pennsylvania Philadelphia Pennsylvania USA
| | - Teresa R. Franklin
- Perelman School of Medicine, Department of Psychiatry University of Pennsylvania Philadelphia Pennsylvania USA
| | - Reagan R. Wetherill
- Perelman School of Medicine, Department of Psychiatry University of Pennsylvania Philadelphia Pennsylvania USA
| | - Daniel D. Langleben
- Perelman School of Medicine, Department of Psychiatry University of Pennsylvania Philadelphia Pennsylvania USA
| | - Michael Gawyrsiak
- Perelman School of Medicine, Department of Psychiatry University of Pennsylvania Philadelphia Pennsylvania USA
| | - Kyle M. Kampman
- Perelman School of Medicine, Department of Psychiatry University of Pennsylvania Philadelphia Pennsylvania USA
| | - Anna Rose Childress
- Perelman School of Medicine, Department of Psychiatry University of Pennsylvania Philadelphia Pennsylvania USA
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35
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Gianaros PJ, Kraynak TE, Kuan DCH, Gross JJ, McRae K, Hariri AR, Manuck SB, Rasero J, Verstynen TD. Affective brain patterns as multivariate neural correlates of cardiovascular disease risk. Soc Cogn Affect Neurosci 2021; 15:1034-1045. [PMID: 32301993 PMCID: PMC7657455 DOI: 10.1093/scan/nsaa050] [Citation(s) in RCA: 15] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/28/2019] [Revised: 03/18/2020] [Accepted: 04/06/2020] [Indexed: 01/27/2023] Open
Abstract
This study tested whether brain activity patterns evoked by affective stimuli relate to individual differences in an indicator of pre-clinical atherosclerosis: carotid artery intima-media thickness (CA-IMT). Adults (aged 30-54 years) completed functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) tasks that involved viewing three sets of affective stimuli. Two sets included facial expressions of emotion, and one set included neutral and unpleasant images from the International Affective Picture System (IAPS). Cross-validated, multivariate and machine learning models showed that individual differences in CA-IMT were partially predicted by brain activity patterns evoked by unpleasant IAPS images, even after accounting for age, sex and known cardiovascular disease risk factors. CA-IMT was also predicted by brain activity patterns evoked by angry and fearful faces from one of the two stimulus sets of facial expressions, but this predictive association did not persist after accounting for known cardiovascular risk factors. The reliability (internal consistency) of brain activity patterns evoked by affective stimuli may have constrained their prediction of CA-IMT. Distributed brain activity patterns could comprise affective neural correlates of pre-clinical atherosclerosis; however, the interpretation of such correlates may depend on their psychometric properties, as well as the influence of other cardiovascular risk factors and specific affective cues.
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Affiliation(s)
- Peter J Gianaros
- Department of Psychology, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA 15260, USA.,Center for the Neural Basis of Cognition, University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA 15213, USA
| | - Thomas E Kraynak
- Department of Psychology, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA 15260, USA.,Center for the Neural Basis of Cognition, University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA 15213, USA
| | - Dora C-H Kuan
- Department of Psychology, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA 15260, USA
| | - James J Gross
- Department of Psychology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, 94305, USA
| | - Kateri McRae
- Department of Psychology, University of Denver, Denver, CO, 80208, USA
| | - Ahmad R Hariri
- Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, Duke University, Durham, NC, 27708, USA
| | - Stephen B Manuck
- Center for the Neural Basis of Cognition, University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA 15213, USA
| | - Javier Rasero
- Department of Psychology, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA 15213, USA
| | - Timothy D Verstynen
- Center for the Neural Basis of Cognition, University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA 15213, USA.,Department of Psychology, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA 15213, USA
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Prichard A, Chhibber R, King J, Athanassiades K, Spivak M, Berns GS. Decoding Odor Mixtures in the Dog Brain: An Awake fMRI Study. Chem Senses 2021; 45:833-844. [PMID: 33179730 DOI: 10.1093/chemse/bjaa068] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
In working and practical contexts, dogs rely upon their ability to discriminate a target odor from distracting odors and other sensory stimuli. Using awake functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) in 18 dogs, we examined the neural mechanisms underlying odor discrimination between 2 odors and a mixture of the odors. Neural activation was measured during the presentation of a target odor (A) associated with a food reward, a distractor odor (B) associated with nothing, and a mixture of the two odors (A+B). Changes in neural activation during the presentations of the odor stimuli in individual dogs were measured over time within three regions known to be involved with odor processing: the caudate nucleus, the amygdala, and the olfactory bulbs. Average activation within the amygdala showed that dogs maximally differentiated between odor stimuli based on the stimulus-reward associations by the first run, while activation to the mixture (A+B) was most similar to the no-reward (B) stimulus. To clarify the neural representation of odor mixtures in the dog brain, we used a random forest classifier to compare multilabel (elemental) versus multiclass (configural) models. The multiclass model performed much better than the multilabel (weighted-F1 0.44 vs. 0.14), suggesting the odor mixture was processed configurally. Analysis of the subset of high-performing dogs' brain classification metrics revealed a network of olfactory information-carrying brain regions that included the amygdala, piriform cortex, and posterior cingulate. These results add further evidence for the configural processing of odor mixtures in dogs and suggest a novel way to identify high-performers based on brain classification metrics.
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Affiliation(s)
| | | | - Jon King
- Psychology Department, Emory University, Atlanta, GA, USA
| | | | - Mark Spivak
- Comprehensive Pet Therapy, Inc., Sandy Springs, GA, USA.,Dog Star Technologies, LLC, Sandy Springs, GA, USA
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Petro NM, Basyouni R, Neta M. Positivity effect in aging: evidence for the primacy of positive responses to emotional ambiguity. Neurobiol Aging 2021; 106:232-240. [PMID: 34311432 DOI: 10.1016/j.neurobiolaging.2021.06.015] [Citation(s) in RCA: 14] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/15/2020] [Revised: 06/09/2021] [Accepted: 06/15/2021] [Indexed: 11/15/2022]
Abstract
Older compared to younger adults show greater amygdala activity to positive emotions, and are more likely to interpret emotionally ambiguous stimuli (e.g., surprised faces) as positive. While some evidence suggests this positivity effect results from a top-down, effortful mechanism, others suggest it may emerge as the default or initial response. The amygdala is a key node in rapid, bottom-up processing and patterns of amygdala activity over time (e.g., habituation) can shed light on the mechanisms underlying the positivity effect. Younger and older adults passively viewed neutral and surprised faces in an MRI. Only in older adults, amygdala habituation was associated with the tendency to interpret surprised faces as positive or negative (valence bias), where a more positive bias was associated with greater habituation. Interestingly, although a positive bias in younger adults was associated with slower responses, consistent with an initial negativity hypothesis in younger adults, older adults showed faster categorizations of positivity. Together, we propose that there may be a switch to a primacy of positivity in aging.
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Affiliation(s)
- Nathan M Petro
- Department of Psychology, Center for Brain, Biology, and Behavior, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Lincoln, NE, USA.
| | - Ruby Basyouni
- Department of Psychology, Center for Brain, Biology, and Behavior, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Lincoln, NE, USA
| | - Maital Neta
- Department of Psychology, Center for Brain, Biology, and Behavior, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Lincoln, NE, USA
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Hein TC, Goetschius LG, McLoyd VC, Brooks-Gunn J, McLanahan SS, Mitchell C, Lopez-Duran NL, Hyde LW, Monk CS. Childhood violence exposure and social deprivation are linked to adolescent threat and reward neural function. Soc Cogn Affect Neurosci 2021; 15:1252-1259. [PMID: 33104799 PMCID: PMC7745142 DOI: 10.1093/scan/nsaa144] [Citation(s) in RCA: 23] [Impact Index Per Article: 7.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/14/2020] [Revised: 10/01/2020] [Accepted: 10/21/2020] [Indexed: 12/12/2022] Open
Abstract
Background Childhood adversity is, unfortunately, highly prevalent and strongly associated with later psychopathology. Recent theories posit that two dimensions of early adversity, threat and deprivation, have distinct effects on brain development. The current study evaluated whether violence exposure (threat) and social deprivation (deprivation) were associated with adolescent amygdala and ventral striatum activation, respectively, in a prospective, well-sampled, longitudinal cohort using a pre-registered, open science approach. Methods One hundred and sixty-seven adolescents from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study completed functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scanning. Prospective longitudinal data from ages 3, 5 and 9 years were used to create indices of childhood violence exposure and social deprivation. We evaluated whether these dimensions were associated with adolescent brain function in response to threatening and rewarding faces. Results Childhood violence exposure was associated with decreased amygdala habituation (i.e. more sustained activation) and activation to angry faces in adolescence, whereas childhood social deprivation was associated with decreased ventral striatum activation to happy faces in adolescence. These associations held when adjusting for the other dimension of adversity (e.g., adjusting for social deprivation when examining associations with violence exposure), the interaction of the two dimensions of adversity, gender, internalizing psychopathology, and current life stress. Conclusions Consistent with recent theories, different forms of early adversity were associated with region-specific differences in brain activation.
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Affiliation(s)
- Tyler C Hein
- Department of Psychology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1043, USA.,Serious Mental Illness Treatment Resource and Evaluation Center, Office of Mental Health and Suicide Prevention, Department of Veterans Affairs, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA
| | - Leigh G Goetschius
- Department of Psychology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1043, USA
| | - Vonnie C McLoyd
- Department of Psychology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1043, USA
| | | | - Sara S McLanahan
- Department of Sociology, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544, USA
| | - Colter Mitchell
- Survey Research Center of the Institute for Social Research, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48106-1248, USA.,Population Studies Center of the Institute for Social Research, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48106-1248, USA
| | | | - Luke W Hyde
- Department of Psychology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1043, USA.,Survey Research Center of the Institute for Social Research, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48106-1248, USA
| | - Christopher S Monk
- Department of Psychology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1043, USA.,Department of Sociology, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544, USA.,Neuroscience Graduate Program, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA.,Department of Psychiatry, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA
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It is never as good the second time around: Brain areas involved in salience processing habituate during repeated drug cue exposure in treatment engaged abstinent methamphetamine and opioid users. Neuroimage 2021; 238:118180. [PMID: 34020015 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2021.118180] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/31/2020] [Revised: 05/11/2021] [Accepted: 05/15/2021] [Indexed: 11/24/2022] Open
Abstract
The brain response to drug-related cues is an important marker in addiction-medicine. However, the temporal dynamics of this response in repeated exposure to cues are not well known. In an fMRI drug cue-reactivity task, the presence of rapid habituation or sensitization was investigated by modeling time and its interaction with condition (drug>neutral) using an initial discovery-sample. Replication of this temporal response was tested in two other clinical populations all abstinent during their early recovery (treatment). Sixty-five male participants (35.8 ± 8.4 years-old) with methamphetamine use disorder (MUD) were recruited as the discovery-sample from an abstinence-based residential treatment program. A linear mixed effects model was used to identify areas with a time-by-condition interaction in the discovery-sample. Replication of these effects was tested in two other samples (29 female with MUD from a different residential program and 22 male with opioid use disorder from the same residential program as the discovery sample). The second replication sample was re-tested within two weeks. In the discovery-sample, clusters within the VMPFC, amygdala and ventral striatum showed both a main effect of condition and a condition-by-time interaction, indicating a habituating response to drug-related but not neutral cues. The estimates for the main effects and interactions were generally consistent between the discovery and replication-samples across all clusters. The re-test data showed a consistent lack of drug > neutral and habituation response within all selected clusters in the second cue-exposure session. The VMPFC, amygdala and ventral striatum show habituation in response to drug-related cues which is consistent among different clinical populations. This habituated response in the first session of cue-exposure and lack of reactivity in the second session of exposure may be important for informing the development of cue-desensitization interventions.
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Holz NE, Häge A, Plichta MM, Boecker-Schlier R, Jennen-Steinmetz C, Baumeister S, Meyer-Lindenberg A, Laucht M, Banaschewski T, Brandeis D. Early Maternal Care and Amygdala Habituation to Emotional Stimuli in Adulthood. Soc Cogn Affect Neurosci 2021; 16:1100-1110. [PMID: 33963390 PMCID: PMC8483279 DOI: 10.1093/scan/nsab059] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/19/2020] [Revised: 03/25/2021] [Accepted: 05/07/2021] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Evidence suggests that maternal care constitutes a protective factor for psychopathology which may be conditional on the level of family adversity. Given that psychopathology is frequently linked with social deficits, and the amygdala with social functioning, we investigated the impact of early maternal care on amygdala function under high versus low familial risk for psychopathology. Amygdala activity and habituation during an emotional face-matching paradigm was analyzed in participants of an epidemiological cohort study followed since birth (N=172, 25 years). Early mother-infant interaction was assessed during a standardized nursing and play setting at the age of 3 months. Information on familial risk during the offspring's childhood and on the participants' lifetime psychopathology was obtained with diagnostic interviews. An interaction between maternal stimulation and familial risk was found on amygdala habituation but not on activation, with higher maternal stimulation predicting stronger amygdala habituation in the familial risk group only. Furthermore, amygdala habituation correlated inversely with ADHD diagnoses. The findings underline the long-term importance of early maternal care on the offspring´s socioemotional neurodevelopment and of interventions targeting maternal sensitivity early in life, particularly by increasing maternal interactive behavior in those with familial risk.
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Affiliation(s)
- Nathalie E Holz
- Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Central Institute of Mental Health, Mannheim, Baden-Württemberg, Germany
| | - Alexander Häge
- Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Central Institute of Mental Health, Mannheim, Baden-Württemberg, Germany
| | - Michael M Plichta
- Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Central Institute of Mental Health, Mannheim, Baden-Württemberg, Germany.,Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Central Institute of Mental Health, Mannheim, Baden-Württemberg, Germany.,Department of Psychiatry, Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychotherapy, Goethe-Universität Frankfurt am Main, Hoffmann-Str. 10, Frankfurt am Main 60528, Germany
| | - Regina Boecker-Schlier
- Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Central Institute of Mental Health, Mannheim, Baden-Württemberg, Germany
| | - Christine Jennen-Steinmetz
- Department of Biostatistics, Central Institute of Mental Health, Medical Faculty Mannheim/Heidelberg University, J5, Mannheim 68159, Germany
| | - Sarah Baumeister
- Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Central Institute of Mental Health, Mannheim, Baden-Württemberg, Germany
| | - Andreas Meyer-Lindenberg
- Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Central Institute of Mental Health, Mannheim, Baden-Württemberg, Germany
| | - Manfred Laucht
- Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Central Institute of Mental Health, Mannheim, Baden-Württemberg, Germany.,Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Psychiatric Hospital, University of Zurich, Neumünsterallee 9, Zurich 8032, Switzerland
| | - Tobias Banaschewski
- Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Central Institute of Mental Health, Mannheim, Baden-Württemberg, Germany
| | - Daniel Brandeis
- Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Central Institute of Mental Health, Mannheim, Baden-Württemberg, Germany.,Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Psychiatric Hospital, University of Zurich, Neumünsterallee 9, Zurich 8032, Switzerland.,Neuroscience Center Zurich, University of Zurich and ETH Zurich, Winterthurerstrasse 190, Zurich 8057, Switzerland.,Center for Integrative Human Physiology, Winterthurerstrasse 190, Zurich 8057, Switzerland
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Oxytocinergic Modulation of Threat-Specific Amygdala Sensitization in Humans Is Critically Mediated by Serotonergic Mechanisms. BIOLOGICAL PSYCHIATRY: COGNITIVE NEUROSCIENCE AND NEUROIMAGING 2021; 6:1081-1089. [PMID: 33894423 DOI: 10.1016/j.bpsc.2021.04.009] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/11/2020] [Revised: 03/21/2021] [Accepted: 04/12/2021] [Indexed: 11/20/2022]
Abstract
BACKGROUND Overarching conceptualizations propose that the complex social-emotional effects of oxytocin (OXT) in humans are partly mediated by interactions with other neurotransmitter systems. Recent animal models suggest that the anxiolytic effects of OXT are critically mediated by the serotonin (5-HT) system, yet direct evidence in humans is lacking. METHODS To determine the role of 5-HT in OXT-induced attenuation of amygdala threat reactivity and sensitization/desensitization, we conducted a parallel-group, randomized, placebo-controlled, double-blind experiment during which 121 healthy subjects underwent a transient decrease in 5-HT signaling via acute tryptophan depletion or the corresponding placebo-control protocol before the administration of intranasal OXT or placebo intranasal spray, respectively. Mean and repetition-dependent changes in threat-specific amygdala reactivity toward threatening stimuli (angry faces) as assessed by functional magnetic resonance imaging served as the primary outcome. RESULTS No main or interaction effects of treatment on amygdala threat reactivity were observed, yet OXT switched bilateral amygdala threat sensitization to desensitization, and this effect was significantly attenuated during decreased central 5-HT signaling via pretreatment with acute tryptophan depletion. CONCLUSIONS The present findings provide the first evidence for a role of OXT in threat-specific amygdala desensitization in humans and suggest that these effects are critically mediated by the 5-HT system. OXT may have a therapeutic potential to facilitate amygdala desensitization, and adjunct upregulation of 5-HT neurotransmission may facilitate OXT's anxiolytic potential.
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The NIMH Intramural Longitudinal Study of the Endocrine and Neurobiological Events Accompanying Puberty: Protocol and rationale for methods and measures. Neuroimage 2021; 234:117970. [PMID: 33771694 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2021.117970] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/23/2020] [Revised: 02/14/2021] [Accepted: 03/10/2021] [Indexed: 02/06/2023] Open
Abstract
Delineating the relationship between human neurodevelopment and the maturation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal (HPG) axis during puberty is critical for investigating the increase in vulnerability to neuropsychiatric disorders that is well documented during this period. Preclinical research demonstrates a clear association between gonadal production of sex steroids and neurodevelopment; however, identifying similar associations in humans has been complicated by confounding variables (such as age) and the coactivation of two additional endocrine systems (the adrenal androgenic system and the somatotropic growth axis) and requires further elucidation. In this paper, we present the design of, and preliminary observations from, the ongoing NIMH Intramural Longitudinal Study of the Endocrine and Neurobiological Events Accompanying Puberty. The aim of this study is to directly examine how the increase in sex steroid hormone production following activation of the HPG-axis (i.e., gonadarche) impacts neurodevelopment, and, additionally, to determine how gonadal development and maturation is associated with longitudinal changes in brain structure and function in boys and girls. To disentangle the effects of sex steroids from those of age and other endocrine events on brain development, our study design includes 1) selection criteria that establish a well-characterized baseline cohort of healthy 8-year-old children prior to the onset of puberty (e.g., prior to puberty-related sex steroid hormone production); 2) temporally dense longitudinal, repeated-measures sampling of typically developing children at 8-10 month intervals over a 10-year period between the ages of eight and 18; 3) contemporaneous collection of endocrine and other measures of gonadal, adrenal, and growth axis function at each timepoint; and 4) collection of multimodal neuroimaging measures at these same timepoints, including brain structure (gray and white matter volume, cortical thickness and area, white matter integrity, myelination) and function (reward processing, emotional processing, inhibition/impulsivity, working memory, resting-state network connectivity, regional cerebral blood flow). This report of our ongoing longitudinal study 1) provides a comprehensive review of the endocrine events of puberty; 2) details our overall study design; 3) presents our selection criteria for study entry (e.g., well-characterized prepubertal baseline) along with the endocrinological considerations and guiding principles that underlie these criteria; 4) describes our longitudinal outcome measures and how they specifically relate to investigating the effects of gonadal development on brain development; and 5) documents patterns of fMRI activation and resting-state networks from an early, representative subsample of our cohort of prepubertal 8-year-old children.
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Crane NA, Chang F, Kinney KL, Klumpp H. Individual differences in striatal and amygdala response to emotional faces are related to symptom severity in social anxiety disorder. NEUROIMAGE-CLINICAL 2021; 30:102615. [PMID: 33735785 PMCID: PMC7985697 DOI: 10.1016/j.nicl.2021.102615] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/08/2020] [Revised: 08/21/2020] [Accepted: 02/25/2021] [Indexed: 11/05/2022]
Abstract
Amygdala & striatal neural activity may underlie Social Anxiety Disorder (SAD). 80 individuals with SAD completed an emotion processing task during fMRI. Dorsal striatal & amygdala response to angry > happy related to illness severity. Activity in these regions may contribute to individual differences in SAD.
Social anxiety disorder (SAD) is a common heterogeneous disorder characterized by excessive fear and deficient positive experiences. Case-control emotion processing studies indicate that altered amygdala and striatum function may underlie SAD; however, links between these regions and symptomatology have yet to be established. Therefore, in the current study, 80 individuals diagnosed with SAD completed a validated emotion processing task during functional magnetic resonance imaging. Anatomy-based regions of interest were amygdala, caudate, putamen, and nucleus accumbens. Neural activity in response to angry > happy faces and fearful > happy faces in these regions were submitted to multiple linear regression analysis with bootstrapping. Additionally, multiple linear regression analysis was performed to explore clinical features of SAD. Results showed greater putamen activity and less amygdala activity in response to angry > happy faces were related to greater social anxiety severity. In the model consisting of caudate and amygdala activity in response to angry > happy faces, results were marginally related to social anxiety severity and the pattern of activity was similar to the regression model comprising putamen and amygdala. Nucleus accumbens activity was not related to social anxiety severity. There was no correspondence between brain activity in response to fearful > happy faces and social anxiety severity. Clinical variables revealed greater levels of anhedonia and general anxiety were related to social anxiety severity, however, neural activity was not related to these features of SAD. Neuroimaging findings suggest that variance in dorsal striatal and amygdala activity in response to certain social signals of threat contrasted with an approach/rewarding social signal may contribute to individual differences in SAD. Clinical findings indicate variance in anhedonia and general anxiety symptoms may contribute to individual differences in social anxiety severity.
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Affiliation(s)
- Natania A Crane
- Department of Psychiatry (NAC, FC, KLK, HK), University of Illinois at Chicago, 1601 W. Taylor St (M/C 912), Chicago, IL 60612, United States.
| | - Fini Chang
- Department of Psychiatry (NAC, FC, KLK, HK), University of Illinois at Chicago, 1601 W. Taylor St (M/C 912), Chicago, IL 60612, United States; Department of Psychology (FC, KLK, HK), University of Illinois at Chicago, 1007 W. Harrison St (M/C 285), Chicago, IL 60607, United States
| | - Kerry L Kinney
- Department of Psychiatry (NAC, FC, KLK, HK), University of Illinois at Chicago, 1601 W. Taylor St (M/C 912), Chicago, IL 60612, United States; Department of Psychology (FC, KLK, HK), University of Illinois at Chicago, 1007 W. Harrison St (M/C 285), Chicago, IL 60607, United States
| | - Heide Klumpp
- Department of Psychiatry (NAC, FC, KLK, HK), University of Illinois at Chicago, 1601 W. Taylor St (M/C 912), Chicago, IL 60612, United States; Department of Psychology (FC, KLK, HK), University of Illinois at Chicago, 1007 W. Harrison St (M/C 285), Chicago, IL 60607, United States
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Nord CL. Predicting Response to Brain Stimulation in Depression: a Roadmap for Biomarker Discovery. Curr Behav Neurosci Rep 2021; 8:11-19. [PMID: 33708470 PMCID: PMC7904553 DOI: 10.1007/s40473-021-00226-9] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 01/28/2021] [Indexed: 11/22/2022]
Abstract
PURPOSE OF REVIEW Clinical response to brain stimulation treatments for depression is highly variable. A major challenge for the field is predicting an individual patient's likelihood of response. This review synthesises recent developments in neural predictors of response to targeted brain stimulation in depression. It then proposes a framework to evaluate the clinical potential of putative 'biomarkers'. RECENT FINDINGS Largely, developments in identifying putative predictors emerge from two approaches: data-driven, including machine learning algorithms applied to resting state or structural neuroimaging data, and theory-driven, including task-based neuroimaging. Theory-driven approaches can also yield mechanistic insight into the cognitive processes altered by the intervention. SUMMARY A pragmatic framework for discovery and testing of biomarkers of brain stimulation response in depression is proposed, involving (1) identification of a cognitive-neural phenotype; (2) confirming its validity as putative biomarker, including out-of-sample replicability and within-subject reliability; (3) establishing the association between this phenotype and treatment response and/or its modifiability with particular brain stimulation interventions via an early-phase randomised controlled trial RCT; and (4) multi-site RCTs of one or more treatment types measuring the generalisability of the biomarker and confirming the superiority of biomarker-selected patients over randomly allocated groups.
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Affiliation(s)
- Camilla L. Nord
- MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit, University of Cambridge, 15 Chaucer Road, Cambridge, CB2 7EF UK
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45
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Avery SN, McHugo M, Armstrong K, Blackford JU, Woodward ND, Heckers S. Stable habituation deficits in the early stage of psychosis: a 2-year follow-up study. Transl Psychiatry 2021; 11:20. [PMID: 33414431 PMCID: PMC7791099 DOI: 10.1038/s41398-020-01167-9] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/28/2020] [Revised: 12/01/2020] [Accepted: 12/09/2020] [Indexed: 01/29/2023] Open
Abstract
Neural habituation, the decrease in brain response to repeated stimuli, is a fundamental, highly conserved mechanism that acts as an essential filter for our complex sensory environment. Convergent evidence indicates neural habituation is disrupted in both early and chronic stages of schizophrenia, with deficits co-occurring in brain regions that show inhibitory dysfunction. As inhibitory deficits have been proposed to contribute to the onset and progression of illness, habituation may be an important treatment target. However, a crucial first step is clarifying whether habituation deficits progress with illness. In the present study, we measured neural habituation in 138 participants (70 early psychosis patients (<2 years of illness), 68 healthy controls), with 108 participants assessed longitudinally at both baseline and 2-year follow-up. At follow-up, all early psychosis patients met criteria for a schizophrenia spectrum disorder (i.e., schizophreniform disorder, schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder). Habituation slopes (i.e., rate of fMRI signal change) to repeated images were computed for the anterior hippocampus, occipital cortex, and the fusiform face area. Habituation slopes were entered into a linear mixed model to test for effects of group and time by region. We found that early psychosis patients showed habituation deficits relative to healthy control participants across brain regions, and that these deficits were maintained, but did not worsen, over two years. These results suggest a stable period of habituation deficits in the early stage of schizophrenia.
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Affiliation(s)
- Suzanne N. Avery
- grid.412807.80000 0004 1936 9916Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN USA
| | - Maureen McHugo
- grid.412807.80000 0004 1936 9916Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN USA
| | - Kristan Armstrong
- grid.412807.80000 0004 1936 9916Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN USA
| | - Jennifer Urbano Blackford
- grid.412807.80000 0004 1936 9916Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN USA ,grid.413806.8Research Health Scientist, Research and Development, Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Nashville, TN USA
| | - Neil D. Woodward
- grid.412807.80000 0004 1936 9916Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN USA
| | - Stephan Heckers
- grid.412807.80000 0004 1936 9916Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN USA
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Seinfeld S, Zhan M, Poyo-Solanas M, Barsuola G, Vaessen M, Slater M, Sanchez-Vives MV, de Gelder B. Being the victim of virtual abuse changes default mode network responses to emotional expressions. Cortex 2020; 135:268-284. [PMID: 33418321 DOI: 10.1016/j.cortex.2020.11.018] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/13/2020] [Revised: 09/11/2020] [Accepted: 11/16/2020] [Indexed: 01/10/2023]
Abstract
Recent behavioural studies have provided evidence that virtual reality (VR) experiences have an impact on socio-affective processes, and a number of findings now underscore the potential of VR for therapeutic interventions. An interesting recent result is that when male offenders experience a violent situation as a female victim of domestic violence in VR, their sensitivity for recognition of fearful facial expressions improves. A timely question now concerns the underlying brain mechanisms of these behavioural effects as these are still largely unknown. The current study used fMRI to measure the impact of a VR intervention in which participants experienced a violent aggression from the specific vantage point of the victim. We compared brain processes related to facial and bodily emotion perception before and after the VR experience. Our results show that the virtual abuse experience led to an enhancement of Default Mode Network (DMN) activity, specifically associated with changes in the processing of ambiguous emotional stimuli. In contrast, DMN activity was decreased when observing fully fearful expressions. Finally, we observed increased variability in brain activity for male versus female facial expressions. Taken together, these results suggest that the first-person perspective of a virtual violent situation impacts emotion recognition through modifications in DMN activity. Our study contributes to a better understanding of the brain mechanisms associated with the behavioural effects of VR interventions in the context of a violent confrontation with the male participant embodied as a female victim. Furthermore, this research also consolidates the use of VR embodied perspective-taking interventions for addressing socio-affective impairments.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sofia Seinfeld
- Systems Neuroscience, Institut d'Investigacions Biomèdiques August Pi i Sunyer, Barcelona, Spain
| | - Minye Zhan
- Department of Cognitive Neuroscience, Faculty of Psychology and Neuroscience, Maastricht University, Maastricht, the Netherlands
| | - Marta Poyo-Solanas
- Department of Cognitive Neuroscience, Faculty of Psychology and Neuroscience, Maastricht University, Maastricht, the Netherlands
| | - Giulia Barsuola
- Department of Cognitive Neuroscience, Faculty of Psychology and Neuroscience, Maastricht University, Maastricht, the Netherlands
| | - Maarten Vaessen
- Department of Cognitive Neuroscience, Faculty of Psychology and Neuroscience, Maastricht University, Maastricht, the Netherlands
| | - Mel Slater
- Event Lab, Department of Clinical Psychology and Psychobiology, Faculty of Psychology, University of Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain; Institute of Neurosciences of the University of Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain
| | - Maria V Sanchez-Vives
- Systems Neuroscience, Institut d'Investigacions Biomèdiques August Pi i Sunyer, Barcelona, Spain; Department of Cognition, Development and Educational Psychology, Faculty of Psychology, University of Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain
| | - Beatrice de Gelder
- Department of Cognitive Neuroscience, Faculty of Psychology and Neuroscience, Maastricht University, Maastricht, the Netherlands; Department of Computer Science, University College London, London, UK.
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47
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Serotonin differentially modulates the temporal dynamics of the limbic response to facial emotions in male adults with and without autism spectrum disorder (ASD): a randomised placebo-controlled single-dose crossover trial. Neuropsychopharmacology 2020; 45:2248-2256. [PMID: 32388538 PMCID: PMC7784897 DOI: 10.1038/s41386-020-0693-0] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/13/2019] [Revised: 03/16/2020] [Accepted: 04/24/2020] [Indexed: 12/04/2022]
Abstract
Emotion processing-including signals from facial expressions-is often altered in individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The biological basis of this is poorly understood but may include neurochemically mediated differences in the responsivity of key 'limbic' regions (including amygdala, ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) and nucleus accumbens (NAc)). Emerging evidence also suggests that ASD may be a disorder of brain temporal dynamics. Moreover, serotonin (5-HT) has been shown to be a key regulator of both facial-emotion processing and brain dynamics, and 5-HT abnormalities have been consistently implicated in ASD. To date, however, no one has examined how 5-HT influences the dynamics of facial-emotion processing in ASD. Therefore, we compared the influence of 5-HT on the responsivity of brain dynamics during facial-emotion processing in individuals with and without ASD. Participants completed a facial-emotion processing fMRI task at least 8 days apart using a randomised double-blind crossover design. At each visit they received either a single 20-mg oral dose of the selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) citalopram or placebo. We found that citalopram (which increases levels of 5-HT) caused sustained activation in key limbic regions during processing of negative facial emotions in adults with ASD-but not in neurotypical adults. The neurotypical adults' limbic response reverted more rapidly to baseline following a 5-HT-challenge. Our results suggest that serotonergic homoeostatic control of the temporal dynamics in limbic regions is altered in adults with ASD, and provide a fresh perspective on the biology of ASD.
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48
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Jamal W, Cardinaux A, Haskins AJ, Kjelgaard M, Sinha P. Reduced Sensory Habituation in Autism and Its Correlation with Behavioral Measures. J Autism Dev Disord 2020; 51:3153-3164. [PMID: 33179147 DOI: 10.1007/s10803-020-04780-1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 24] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 11/03/2020] [Indexed: 11/29/2022]
Abstract
Autism is strongly associated with sensory processing difficulties. We investigate sensory habituation, given its relevance for understanding important phenotypic traits like hyper- and hypo-sensitivities. We collected electroencephalography data from 22 neuro-typical(NT) and 13 autistic(ASD) children during the presentation of visual and auditory sequences of repeated stimuli. Our data show that the ASD children have significantly reduced habituation relative to the NT children for both auditory and visual stimuli. These results point to impaired habituation as a modality-general phenomenon in ASD. Additionally, the rates of habituation are correlated with several clinical scores associated with competence along diverse phenotypic dimensions. These data suggest that the sensory difficulties in autism are likely to be associated with reduced habituation and are related to clinical symptomology.
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Affiliation(s)
- Wasifa Jamal
- Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA.
| | - Annie Cardinaux
- Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA
| | - Amanda J Haskins
- Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA.,Psychological and Brain Sciences, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH, USA
| | - Margaret Kjelgaard
- Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA.,Bridgewater State University, Bridgewater, MA, USA.,Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, Massachusetts General Hospital Institute of Health Professions, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Pawan Sinha
- Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA
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49
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Gandhi TK, Tsourides K, Singhal N, Cardinaux A, Jamal W, Pantazis D, Kjelgaard M, Sinha P. Autonomic and Electrophysiological Evidence for Reduced Auditory Habituation in Autism. J Autism Dev Disord 2020; 51:2218-2228. [PMID: 32926307 DOI: 10.1007/s10803-020-04636-8] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/24/2023]
Abstract
It is estimated that nearly 90% of children on the autism spectrum exhibit sensory atypicalities. What aspects of sensory processing are affected in autism? Although sensory processing can be studied along multiple dimensions, two of the most basic ones involve examining instantaneous sensory responses and how the responses change over time. These correspond to the dimensions of 'sensitivity' and 'habituation'. Results thus far have indicated that autistic individuals do not differ systematically from controls in sensory acuity/sensitivity. However, data from studies of habituation have been equivocal. We have studied habituation in autism using two measures: galvanic skin response (GSR) and magneto-encephalography (MEG). We report data from two independent studies. The first study, was conducted with 13 autistic and 13 age-matched neurotypical young adults and used GSR to assess response to an extended metronomic sequence. The second study involved 24 participants (12 with an ASD diagnosis), different from those in study 1, spanning the pre-adolescent to young adult age range, and used MEG. Both studies reveal consistent patterns of reduced habituation in autistic participants. These results suggest that autism, through mechanisms that are yet to be elucidated, compromises a fundamental aspect of sensory processing, at least in the auditory domain. We discuss the implications for understanding sensory hypersensitivities, a hallmark phenotypic feature of autism, recently proposed theoretical accounts, and potential relevance for early detection of risk for autism.
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Affiliation(s)
- Tapan K Gandhi
- Department of Electrical Engineering, India Institute of Technology, New Delhi, 110016, India.
- Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, 02139, USA.
| | - Kleovoulos Tsourides
- Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, 02139, USA
| | - Nidhi Singhal
- Open Doors School, Action for Autism, New Delhi, 110 054, India
| | - Annie Cardinaux
- Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, 02139, USA
| | - Wasifa Jamal
- Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, 02139, USA
| | - Dimitrios Pantazis
- Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, 02139, USA
| | - Margaret Kjelgaard
- Communication Sciences and Disorders, Bridgewater State University, Bridgewater, MA, 02325, USA
| | - Pawan Sinha
- Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, 02139, USA.
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50
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Avery SN, McHugo M, Armstrong K, Blackford JU, Vandekar S, Woodward ND, Heckers S. Habituation during encoding: A new approach to the evaluation of memory deficits in schizophrenia. Schizophr Res 2020; 223:179-185. [PMID: 32736836 PMCID: PMC7704891 DOI: 10.1016/j.schres.2020.07.007] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/31/2019] [Revised: 04/30/2020] [Accepted: 07/16/2020] [Indexed: 12/30/2022]
Abstract
BACKGROUND Memory is significantly impaired in schizophrenia. However, memory measures are often complex and confounded by additional impairments such as motivation and task comprehension, which can affect behavioral performance and obscure neural function during memory tasks. Neural signatures of memory encoding that are robust to potential confounds may shed additional light on neural deficits contributing to memory impairment in schizophrenia. METHODS Here, we investigate a potential neural signature of memory-habituation-and its relationship with healthy and impaired memory function. To limit potential confounds, we used a passive depth of encoding memory task designed to elicit neural responses associated with memory encoding while limiting other cognitive demands. To determine whether habituation during encoding was predictive of intact memory processing, we first compared neural habituation over repeated encoding exposures with subsequent explicit memory in healthy individuals. We then tested whether a similar relationship existed in patients with schizophrenia. RESULTS Explicit memory performance was impaired in patients with schizophrenia relative to healthy control subjects. In healthy participants, more habituation over repeated exposures during encoding was associated with greater repetition-related increases in accuracy during testing. However, in patients with schizophrenia, better performance was associated with less habituation, or a more sustained neural response during encoding. CONCLUSIONS These results suggest that sustained neural activity is required for normal repetition-related improvements in memory performance in schizophrenia, in line with a neural inefficiency model. Habituation may serve as a valuable index of neural processes that underlie behavioral memory performance.
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Affiliation(s)
- Suzanne N. Avery
- Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN
| | - Maureen McHugo
- Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN
| | - Kristan Armstrong
- Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN
| | - Jennifer U. Blackford
- Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN
| | - Simon Vandekar
- Department of Biostatistics, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN
| | - Neil D. Woodward
- Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN
| | - Stephan Heckers
- Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN
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