The resilient brain: psychological resilience mediates the effect of amplitude of low-frequency fluctuations in orbitofrontal cortex on subjective well-being in young healthy adults

The interaction effect of high social support and resilience on functional connectivity using seed-based resting-state assessed by 7-Tesla ultra-high field MRI

Recent resilience research has increasingly emphasized the importance of focusing on investigating the protective factors in mentally healthy populations, complementing the traditional focus on psychopathology. Social support has emerged as a crucial element within the complex interplay of individual and socio-environmental factors that shape resilience. However, the neural underpinnings of the relationship between social support and resilience, particularly in healthy subjects, remain largely unexplored. With advances in neuroimaging techniques, such as ultra-high field MRI at 7T and beyond, researchers can more effectively investigate the neural mechanisms underlying these factors. Thus, our study employed ultra-high field rs-fMRI to explore how social support moderates the relationship between psychological resilience and functional connectivity in a healthy cohort. We hypothesized that enhanced social support would amplify resilience-associated connectivity within neural circuits essential for emotional regulation, cognitive processing, and adaptive problem-solving, signifying a synergistic interaction where strong social networks bolster the neural underpinnings of resilience. (n = 30). Through seed-based functional connectivity analyses and interaction analysis, we aimed to uncover the neural correlates at the interplay of social support and resilience. Our findings indicate that perceived social support significantly (p<0.001) alters functional connectivity in the right and left FP, PCC, and left hippocampus, affirming the pivotal roles of these regions in the brain's resilience network. Moreover, we identified significant moderation effects of social support across various brain regions, each showing unique connectivity patterns. Specifically, the right FP demonstrated a significant interaction effect where high social support levels were linked to increased connectivity with regions involved in socio-cognitive processing, while low social support showed opposite effects. Similar patterns by social support levels were observed in the left FP, with connectivity changes in clusters associated with emotional regulation and cognitive functions. The PCC's connectivity was distinctly influenced by support levels, elucidating its role in emotional and social cognition. Interestingly, the connectivity of the left hippocampus was not significantly impacted by social support levels, indicating a unique pattern within this region. These insights highlight the importance of high social support levels in enhancing the neural foundations of resilience and fostering adaptive neurological responses to environmental challenges.

The influence of progeny-Parents family travel on the well-being of the elderly in filial piety culture

Grounded in the cultural context of Chinese filial piety, this study employs structural equation model to analyze survey data from elderly participants. It explores the effect and path of progeny-parents family travel on the elderly's sense of well-being and examines the mediating roles of generational interaction, optimistic emotion, and psychological resilience. The findings indicate that progeny-parents family travel positively influences the well-being of the elderly, with generational interaction, optimistic emotion, and psychological resilience serving as intermediary roles. Theoretically, this study enriches the localized perspective of family travel's psychological and behavioral impact on the elderly. It elucidates the spillover effects of family travel within the framework of filial piety culture, delineates the mechanisms by which family travel enhances elderly well-being, and offers theoretical insights for businesses to develop customized family travel products and services.

Sex differences in the relationship between brain gray matter volume and psychological resilience in late adolescence

Psychological resilience reflects an individual's ability to adapt and cope successfully in adverse environments and situations, making it a crucial trait in resisting stress-linked mental disorders and physical diseases. Although prior literature has consistently shown that males are more resilient than females, the sex-linked neuroanatomical correlates of psychological resilience are largely unknown. This study aims to explore the sex-specific relation between psychological resilience and brain gray matter volume (GMV) in adolescents via structural magnetic resonance imaging (s-MRI). A cohort of 231 healthy adolescents (121/110 females/males), aged 16 to 20 completed brain s-MRI scanning and Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale (CD-RISC) and other controlling behavioral tests. With s-MRI data, an optimized voxel-based morphometry method was used to estimate regional GMV, and a whole-brain condition-by-covariate interaction analysis was performed to identify the brain regions showing sex effects on the relation between psychological resilience and GMV. Male adolescents scored significantly higher than females on the CD-RISC. The association of psychological resilience with GMV differed between the two sex groups in the left ventrolateral prefrontal cortex extending to the adjacent anterior insula, with a positive correlation among males and a negative correlation among females. The sex-specific association between psychological resilience and GMV might be linked to sex differences in the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis and brain maturation during adolescence. This study may be novel in revealing the sex-linked neuroanatomical basis of psychological resilience, highlighting the need for a more thorough investigation of the role of sex in future studies of psychological resilience and stress-related illness.

Measuring resilience for Chinese-speaking populations: a systematic review of Chinese resilience scales

Introduction

Despite the rapid growth of interdisciplinary resilience research in Chinese contexts, no study has systematically reviewed individual-level measurement scales for Chinese-speaking populations. We report a systematic review of scales developed for or translated/adapted to Chinese-speaking contexts, where we assessed how widely used scales fare in terms of their psychometric qualities.

Methods

Studies included in this review must have been published in peer-reviewed English or Chinese journals between 2015-2020 and included self-reported resilience scales in Chinese-speaking populations. Searches were conducted in PsycINFO, CNKI (completed in May 2021), and PubMed (completed in January 2024). We developed coding schemes for extracting relevant data and adapted and applied an existing evaluation framework to assess the most frequently used resilience scales by seven methodological criteria.

Results

Analyses of 963 qualified studies suggested that Chinese resilience scales were used in a diverse range of study contexts. Among 85 unique kinds of resilience measures, we highlighted and evaluated the three most frequently used translated scales and three locally developed scales (nine scales in total including variations such as short forms). In short, resilience studies in Chinese contexts relied heavily on the translated 25-item Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale, which scored moderately on the overall quality. The locally developed Resilience Scale for Chinese Adolescents and Essential Resilience Scale received the best ratings but could use further development.

Discussion

We discussed how future work may advance widely used scales, and specified seven methodological recommendations for future resilience scale development with existing and new scales in and beyond the Chinese study contexts. We further addressed issues and challenges in measuring resilience as a process and called on researchers to further develop/evaluate process measures for Chinese-speaking populations.

Brain imaging studies of emotional well-being: a scoping review

This scoping review provides an overview of previous empirical studies that used brain imaging techniques to investigate the neural correlates of emotional well-being (EWB). We compiled evidence on this topic into one accessible and usable document as a foundation for future research into the relationship between EWB and the brain. PRISMA 2020 guidelines were followed. We located relevant articles by searching five electronic databases with 95 studies meeting our inclusion criteria. We explored EWB measures, brain imaging modalities, research designs, populations studied, and approaches that are currently in use to characterize and understand EWB across the literature. Of the key concepts related to EWB, the vast majority of studies investigated positive affect and life satisfaction, followed by sense of meaning, goal pursuit, and quality of life. The majority of studies used functional MRI, followed by EEG and event-related potential-based EEG to study the neural basis of EWB (predominantly experienced affect, affective perception, reward, and emotion regulation). It is notable that positive affect and life satisfaction have been studied significantly more often than the other three aspects of EWB (i.e., sense of meaning, goal pursuit, and quality of life). Our findings suggest that future studies should investigate EWB in more diverse samples, especially in children, individuals with clinical disorders, and individuals from various geographic locations. Future directions and theoretical implications are discussed, including the need for more longitudinal studies with ecologically valid measures that incorporate multi-level approaches allowing researchers to better investigate and evaluate the relationships among behavioral, environmental, and neural factors.

Systematic review registration

https://osf.io/t9cf6/.

Emotional intelligence mediates the protective role of the orbitofrontal cortex spontaneous activity measured by fALFF against depressive and anxious symptoms in late adolescence

As a stable personality construct, trait emotional intelligence (TEI) refers to a battery of perceived emotion-related skills that make individuals behave effectively to adapt to the environment and maintain well-being. Abundant evidence has consistently shown that TEI is important for the outcomes of many mental health issues, particularly depression and anxiety. However, the neural substrates involved in TEI and the underlying neurobehavioral mechanism of how TEI reduces depression and anxiety symptoms remain largely unknown. Herein, resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging and a group of behavioral measures were applied to examine these questions among a large sample comprising 231 general adolescent students aged 16-20 years (52% female). Whole-brain correlation analysis and prediction analysis demonstrated that TEI was negatively linked with spontaneous activity (measured with the fractional amplitude of low-frequency fluctuations) in the bilateral medial orbitofrontal cortex (OFC), a critical site implicated in emotion-related processes. Furthermore, structural equation modeling analysis found that TEI mediated the link of OFC spontaneous activity to depressive and anxious symptoms. Collectively, the current findings present new evidence for the neurofunctional bases of TEI and suggest a potential "brain-personality-symptom" pathway for alleviating depressive and anxious symptoms among students in late adolescence.

Well-being is associated with cortical thickness network topology of human brain

BACKGROUND

Living a happy and meaningful life is an eternal topic in positive psychology, which is crucial for individuals' physical and mental health as well as social functioning. Well-being can be subdivided into pleasure attainment related hedonic well-being or emotional well-being, and self-actualization related eudaimonic well-being or psychological well-being plus social well-being. Previous studies have mostly focused on human brain morphological and functional mechanisms underlying different dimensions of well-being, but no study explored brain network mechanisms of well-being, especially in terms of topological properties of human brain morphological similarity network.

METHODS

Therefore, in the study, we collected 65 datasets including magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and well-being data, and constructed human brain morphological network based on morphological distribution similarity of cortical thickness to explore the correlations between topological properties including network efficiency and centrality and different dimensions of well-being.

RESULTS

We found emotional well-being was negatively correlated with betweenness centrality in the visual network but positively correlated with eigenvector centrality in the precentral sulcus, while the total score of well-being was positively correlated with local efficiency in the posterior cingulate cortex of cortical thickness network.

CONCLUSIONS

Our findings demonstrated that different dimensions of well-being corresponded to different cortical hierarchies: hedonic well-being was involved in more preliminary cognitive processing stages including perceptual and attentional information processing, while hedonic and eudaimonic well-being might share common morphological similarity network mechanisms in the subsequent advanced cognitive processing stages.

Anxiety is not the right choice! Individual differences in trait anxiety modulate biases in pseudoneglect

Pseudoneglect, the tendency to display a leftward perceptual bias, is consistently observed in line bisection tasks. Some studies have shown that pseudoneglect is sensitive to emotions. This emotion-related modulation is likely related to valence-dependent hemispheric lateralization, although the results do not converge. A possible explanation for these inconsistencies could be individual differences in emotional tone. Considering that negative and positive emotions produce different basic activations of the two hemispheres, emotional characteristics of the subjects, such as trait anxiety, could in fact modulate the pseudoneglect phenomenon. To verify this, high- and low-anxiety participants were asked to centrally bisect horizontal lines delimited by neutral or emotional (happy and sad) faces. In line with previous studies, results here showed a decrease in the leftward bisection error in the presence of happy faces, indicating a greater involvement of the left hemisphere in processing positive emotional stimuli. In addition, trait anxiety influenced the magnitude of the visual bias. High-anxiety subjects, compared to low-anxiety subjects, showed a general bias in visual attention toward the left space as a function of emotional valence. Results are discussed within the framework of valence-dependent hemispheric specialization and the relative degree of activation. In sum, our data highlight the relevance of considering emotional individual differences in studying the pseudoneglect phenomenon.

Conceptualizing psychological resilience through resting-state functional MRI in a mentally healthy population: a systematic review

Conceptualizations and operational definitions of psychological resilience vary across resilience neuroimaging studies. Data on the neural features of resilience among healthy individuals has been scarce. Furthermore, findings from resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies were inconsistent across studies. This systematic review summarized resting-state fMRI findings in different modalities from various operationally defined resilience in a mentally healthy population. The PubMed and MEDLINE databases were searched. Articles that focused on resting-state fMRI in relation to resilience, and published before 2022, were targeted. Orbitofrontal cortex, anterior cingulate cortex, insula and amygdala, were reported the most from the 19 included studies. Regions in emotional network was reported the most from the included studies. The involvement of regions like amygdala and orbitofrontal cortex indicated the relationships between emotional processing and resilience. No common brain regions or neural pathways were identified across studies. The emotional network appears to be studied the most in association with resilience. Matching fMRI modalities and operational definitions of resilience across studies are essential for meta-analysis.

Methods for assessing change in brain plasticity at night and psychological resilience during daytime between repeated long-duration space missions

This study was designed to examine the feasibility of analyzing heart rate variability (HRV) data from repeat-flier astronauts at matching days on two separate missions to assess any effect of repeated missions on brain plasticity and psychological resilience, as conjectured by Demertzi. As an example, on the second mission of a healthy astronaut studied about 20 days after launch, sleep duration lengthened, sleep quality improved, and spectral power (ms²) co-varying with activity of the salience network (SN) increased at night. HF-component (0.15-0.50 Hz) increased by 61.55%, and HF-band (0.30-0.40 Hz) by 92.60%. Spectral power of HRV indices during daytime, which correlate negatively with psychological resilience, decreased, HF-component by 22.18% and HF-band by 37.26%. LF-component and LF-band, reflecting activity of the default mode network, did not change significantly. During the second mission, 24-h acrophases of HRV endpoints did not change but the 12-h acrophase of TF-HRV did (P < 0.0001), perhaps consolidating the circadian system to help adapt to space by taking advantage of brain plasticity at night and psychological resilience during daytime. While this N-of-1 study prevents drawing definitive conclusions, the methodology used herein to monitor markers of brain plasticity could pave the way for further studies that could add to the present results.

New horizons in emotional well-being and brain aging: Potential lessons from cross-species research

Emotional wellbeing (EWB) is a multi-faceted concept of immediate relevance to human health. NIH recently initiated a series of research networks to advance understanding of EWB. Our network (NEW Brain Aging) focuses on mechanistic understanding of EWB in relation to brain aging. Here, by synthesizing the literature on emotional processing and the underlying brain circuit mechanisms in human and non-human animals, we propose a reactivity and reappraisal model for understanding EWB and its age-related changes. This model emphasizes the dynamic interactions between affective stimuli, behavioral/physiological responses, brain emotional states, and subjective feelings. It also aims to integrate the unique emotional processes involved in explaining EWB in aging humans with the emerging mechanistic insight of topologically conserved emotional brain networks from cross-species studies. We also highlight the research opportunities and challenges in EWB and brain aging research and the potential application of the model in addressing these issues.

Trait Depression and Subjective Well-Being: The Chain Mediating Role of Community Feeling and Self-Compassion

Although subjective well-being has been widely discussed as being one of the important indicators of clinical depression, few studies have explored how it relates to trait depression. In particular, increasing the number of positive experiences has long been a potential goal for depression-related clinical interventions, but the mechanisms by which such interventions work in countering depression have been poorly studied. Grounded in the cognitive theory of depression, the current study aimed to address this specific gap by testing the mediating effects of community feeling and self-compassion between trait depression and subjective well-being. A survey of 783 college students found that trait depression was not only able to directly and negatively predict individual subjective well-being but also indirectly predict individual subjective well-being through the mediating role of community feeling and self-compassion alone and through the chain mediating role of self-compassion from community feeling. These findings reveal the internal mechanisms of trait depression that, to some extent, impede subjective well-being and offer certain guiding significance for the self-regulation of interventions for clinical and non-clinical individuals with trait depression.

Celebrating 50 years of microbial granulation technologies: From canonical wastewater management to bio-product recovery

Microbial granulation technologies (MGT) in wastewater management are widely practised for more than fifty years. MGT can be considered a fine example of human innovativeness-driven nature wherein the manmade forces applied during operational controls in the biological process of wastewater treatment drive the microbial communities to modify their biofilms into granules. Mankind, over the past half a century, has been refining the knowledge of triggering biofilm into granules with some definite success. This review captures the journey of MGT from inception to maturation providing meaningful insights into the process development of MGT-based wastewater management. The full-scale application of MGT-based wastewater management is discussed with an understanding of functional microbial interactions within the granule. The molecular mechanism of granulation through the secretion of extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) and signal molecules is also highlighted in detail. The recent research interest in the recovery of useful bioproducts from the granular EPS is also emphasized.

Appropriate Circadian-Circasemidian Coupling Protects Blood Pressure from Morning Surge and Promotes Human Resilience and Wellbeing

Background

Blood pressure (BP) variability is involved in the appraisal of threat and safety, and can serve as a potential marker of psychological resilience against stress. The relationship between biological rhythms of BP and resilience was cross-sectionally assessed by 7-day/24-hour chronobiologic screening in a rural Japanese community (Tosa), with focus on the 12-hour component and the "circadian-circasemidian coupling" of systolic (S) BP.

Subjects and Methods

Tosa residents (N = 239, 147 women, 23-74 years), free of anti-hypertensive medication, completed 7-day/24-hour ambulatory BP monitoring. The circadian-circasemidian coupling was determined individually by computing the difference between the circadian phase and the circasemidian morning-phase of SBP. Participants were classified into three groups: those with a short coupling interval of about 4.5 hours (Group A), those with an intermediate coupling interval of about 6.0 hours (Group B), and those with a long coupling interval of about 8.0 hours (Group C).

Results

Residents of Group B who showed optimal circadian-circasemidian coordination had less pronounced morning and evening SBP surges, as compared to residents of Group A (10.82 vs 14.29 mmHg, P < 0.0001) and Group C (11.86 vs 15.21 mmHg, P < 0.0001), respectively. The incidence of morning or evening SBP surge was less in Group B than in Group A (P < 0.0001) or Group C (P < 0.0001). Group B residents showed highest measures of wellbeing and psychological resilience, assessed by good relation with friends (P < 0.05), life satisfaction (P < 0.05), and subjective happiness (P < 0.05). A disturbed circadian-circasemidian coupling was associated with elevated BP, dyslipidemia, arteriosclerosis and a depressive mood.

Conclusion

The circadian-circasemidian coupling of SBP could serve as a new biomarker in clinical practice to guide precision medicine interventions aimed at achieving properly timed rhythms, and thereby resilience and wellbeing.

Family Functioning as an Explanatory Factor of Empathic Behavior in Argentine Medical Students

Empathy is a relevant competence in the study and practice of medicine whose development could depend on the functioning style of each family. This study aims to compare the distribution of empathy levels, about functionality or dysfunction, and the three styles, which can be derived from family functioning in the families of Argentine medical students. Previously providing evidence of the validity of the family functioning measure. As well as provide evidence of the validity of the measure of family functioning.

METHODS

Ex post facto design: 306 Argentine medical students who had already taken the Jefferson Scale of Empathy-Spanish Edition (JSE-S) and the abbreviated Spanish Family Adaptability and Cohesion Evaluation Scale (FACES-20). A gender-weighted linear regression analysis was made, establishing an ANOVA and multiple comparisons via DMS to determine the effect of functional and dysfunctional families' balanced, intermediate and extreme functioning styles concerning empathy.

RESULTS

Students who presented dysfunction in familial cohesion and adaptability showed measures of empathy greater than those classified as functional. Differences of cohesion were statistically significant in compassionate care, perspective taking and general empathy. These components were significantly higher in students from families classified as extreme than balanced ones. Students classified within families with either extreme or dysfunctional styles showed greater levels of empathy than more adaptive and functional ones, except in the 'walking in patient's shoes' component where differences were not observed.

CONCLUSIONS

Individual resilience as an intervening variable in the presence of empathy is discussed.

IMPLICATIONS

The study of empathy, its associated variables, and the conditions of its development remains a central theme in relation to students and professionals of the health sciences. To achieve an effective professional practice, it is necessary to develop human capacities such as empathy and personal resilience.

Neural correlates of neuroticism: A coordinate-based meta-analysis of resting-state functional brain imaging studies

Neuroticism is one of the most robust higher-order personality traits associated with negative emotionality and risk of mental disorders. Many studies have investigated relationships between neuroticism and the brain, but the results have been inconsistent. We conducted a meta-analysis of whole-brain resting-state functional neuroimaging studies to identify the most stable neurofunctional substrates of neuroticism. We found stable significant positive correlations between neuroticism and resting-state brain activity in the left middle temporal gyrus (MTG), left striatum, and right hippocampus. In contrast, resting-state brain activity in the left superior temporal gyrus (STG) and right supramarginal gyrus (SMG) was negatively associated with neuroticism. Additionally, meta-regression analysis revealed brain regions in which sex and age moderated the link of spontaneous activity with neuroticism. This is the first study to provide a comprehensive understanding of resting-state brain activity correlates of neuroticism, and the findings may be useful for the targeting of specific brain regions for interventions to decrease the risks of mental health problems.

A systematic review of the neural correlates of well-being reveals no consistent associations

Findings from behavioral and genetic studies indicate a potential role for the involvement of brain structures and brain functioning in well-being. We performed a systematic review on the association between brain structures or brain functioning and well-being, including 56 studies. The 11 electroencephalography (EEG) studies suggest a larger alpha asymmetry (more left than right brain activation) to be related to higher well-being. The 18 Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) studies, 26 resting-state functional MRI studies and two functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) studies identified a wide range of brain regions involved in well-being, but replication across studies was scarce, both in direction and strength of the associations. The inconsistency could result from small sample sizes of most studies and a possible wide-spread network of brain regions with small effects involved in well-being. Future directions include well-powered brain-wide association studies and innovative methods to more reliably measure brain activity in daily life.

Elevated integration within the reward network underlies vulnerability to distress

Distress tolerance (DT), the capability to persist under negative circumstances, underlies a range of psychopathologies. It has been proposed that DT may originate from the activity and connectivity in diverse neural networks integrated by the reward system. To test this hypothesis, we examined the link between DT and integration and segregation in the reward network as derived from resting-state functional connectivity data. DT was measured in 147 participants from a large community sample using the Behavioral Indicator of Resiliency to Distress task. Prior to DT evaluation, participants underwent a resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging scan. For each participant, we constructed a whole-brain functional connectivity network and calculated the degree of reward network integration and segregation based on the extent to which reward network nodes showed functional connections within and outside their network. We found that distress-intolerant participants demonstrated heightened reward network integration relative to the distress-tolerant participants. In addition, these differences in integration were higher relative to the rest of the brain and, more specifically, the somatomotor network, which has been implicated in impulsive behavior. These findings support the notion that increased integration in large-scale brain networks may constitute a risk for distress intolerance and its psychopathological correlates.

Effectiveness of yoga training programs to reduce depression and improve resilience of single mothers

Single mothers are vulnerable to mental health such as depression, but emotional support is insufficient. Yoga is known to be effective in reducing negative emotions and promoting resilience. This study was conducted in order to verify the effectiveness of yoga training programs in reducing depression and improving the resilience of single mothers. Participants in the study included 20 single mothers who belonged to the Single Mothers Association, who were randomly assigned to training (n=10) and nontraining (n=10) groups. The yoga training program for single mothers consisted of Asana yoga, meditation, and mind expression through expert meetings; a total of eight sessions were conducted once a week for 120 min. Testing for depression and resilience was performed before and after the program in order to verify the effectiveness of the program. According to the results of the study, depression in single mothers who participated in the yoga training program was significantly decreased, and resilience was significantly increased. Therefore, the effectiveness of the yoga training program in lowering the depression of single mothers and improving resilience was confirmed. In the future conduct of many studies will be required in order to help the mental health of single mothers.

Grey matter covariation and the role of emotion reappraisal in mental wellbeing and resilience after early life stress exposure

Resilience is a process of adaptive recovery crucial in maintaining mental wellbeing after stress exposure. A psychological factor known to buffer stress and promote positive wellbeing outcomes is the ability to regulate emotions. However, the neural networks underlying resilience, and the possible mediating role of emotion regulation, remain largely unknown. Here, we examined the association between resilience and grey matter covariation (GMC) in healthy adults with and without early life stress (ELS) exposure, and whether emotion regulation mediated this brain-resilience association. Source-based morphometry was used to identify spatial patterns of common GMC in 242 healthy participants. Wellbeing was measured using the COMPAS-W Wellbeing Scale. Linear mixed models were run to establish associations between GMC and wellbeing scores. Moderated mediation models were used to examine a conditional mediating effect of emotion regulation on the brain-wellbeing relationship, moderated by ELS exposure. Distinct ELS-related morphometric patterns were found in association with resilience. In participants without ELS exposure, decreased GMC in the temporo-parietal regions was associated with wellbeing. In participants with ELS exposure, we observed increased patterns of covariation in regions related to the salience and executive control networks, and decreased GMC in temporo-parietal areas, which were associated with resilience. Cognitive reappraisal mediated the brain-wellbeing relationship in ELS-exposed participants only. Patterns of stronger GMC in regions associated with emotional and cognitive functioning in ELS-exposed participants with high levels of wellbeing may indicate possible neural signatures of resilience. This may be further heightened by utilising an adaptive form of emotion regulation.

Identifying resting state differences salient for resilience to chronic pain based on machine learning multivariate pattern analysis

Studies have documented behavior differences between more versus less resilient adults with chronic pain (CP), but the presence and nature of underlying neurophysiological differences have received scant attention. In this study, we attempted to identify regions of interest (ROIs) in which resting state (Rs) brain activity discriminated more from less resilient CP subgroups based on multiple kernel learning (MKL). More and less resilient community-dwellers with chronic musculoskeletal pain (70 women, 39 men) engaged in structural and functional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans, wherein MKL assessed Rs activity based on amplitude of low frequency fluctuations (ALFF), fractional amplitudes of low frequency fluctuations (fALFF), and regional homogeneity (ReHo) modalities to identify ROIs most salient for discriminating more versus less resilient subgroups. Compared to classification based on single modalities, multi-modal classification based on combined fALFF and ReHo features achieved a substantially higher classification accuracy rate (79%). Brain regions with the best discriminative power included those implicated in pain processing, reward, executive function, goal-directed action, emotion regulation and resilience to mood disorders though variation trends were not consistent between more and less resilient subgroups. Results revealed patterns of Rs activity that serve as possible biomarkers for resilience to chronic musculoskeletal pain.

High Thought Control Ability, High Resilience: The Effect of Temporal Cortex and Insula Connectivity

Psychological resilience is always portrayed as the ability to rebound from adversity, which is essential for human mental health. Whereas thought control ability (TCA) is a reliable indicator of perceptual cognitive control and has a predictive effect on psychopathology. Whether and how resilience correlates with thought control are still unclear. The current study explored the whole-brain functional connectivity underlying resilience and its role in the association between resilience and TCA using resting-state fMRI. Results reveled a significant positive correlation between resilience and the functional connectivity of temporal cortex-insula, suggesting that individuals with high resilient ability exhibit flexible interaction between these two regions to facilitate emotional information processing. More importantly, a significant positive correlation between TCA and resilience was observed, and the functional connectivity of temporal cortex-insula has a significant mediation effect on the association between TCA and psychological resilience, revealing that individuals with high TCA show high levels of resilience ability through robust cognitive control on unwanted thoughts. In short, these results extended previous findings by shedding novel insights into the close relationship between resilience and TCA and the underlying neural mechanism.

Neurostructural correlates of hope: dispositional hope mediates the impact of the SMA gray matter volume on subjective well-being in late adolescence

There has been increasing interest in identifying factors to predict subjective well-being in the emerging field of positive psychology over the past two decades. Dispositional hope, which reflects one’s goal-directed tendencies, including both pathway thinking (planning to meet goals) and agency thinking (goal-directed determination), has emerged as a stable predictor for subjective well-being. However, the neurobiological substrates of dispositional hope and the brain-hope mechanism for predicting subjective well-being remain unclear. Here, we examined these issues in 231 high school graduates within the same grade by estimating cortical gray matter volume (GMV) utilizing a voxel-based morphometry method based on structural magnetic resonance imaging. Whole-brain regression analyses and prediction analyses showed that higher dispositional hope was stably associated with greater GMV in the left supplementary motor area (SMA). Furthermore, mediation analyses revealed that dispositional hope mediated the relation between left SMA volume and subjective well-being. Critically, our results were obtained after adjusting for age, sex, family socioeconomic status and total GMV. Altogether, our study presents novel evidence for the neuroanatomical basis of dispositional hope and suggests an underlying indirect effect of dispositional hope on the link between brain gray matter structure and subjective well-being.

Intranasal vasopressin modulates resting state brain activity across multiple neural systems: Evidence from a brain imaging machine learning study

Arginine vasopressin (AVP), a neuropeptide with widespread receptors in brain regions important for socioemotional processing, is critical in regulating various mammalian social behavior and emotion. Although a growing body of task-based brain imaging studies have revealed the effects of AVP on brain activity associated with emotion processing, social cognition and behaviors, the potential modulations of AVP on resting-state brain activity remain largely unknown. Here, the current study addressed this issue by adopting a machine learning approach to distinguish administration of AVP and placebo, employing the amplitude of low-frequency fluctuation (ALFF) as a measure of resting-state brain activity. The brain regions contributing to the classification were then subjected to functional connectivity and decoding analyses, allowing for a data-driven quantitative inference on psychophysiological functions. Our results indicated that ALFF across multiple neural systems were sufficient to distinguish between AVP and placebo at individual level, with the contributing regions distributed across the social cognition network, sensorimotor regions and emotional processing network. These findings suggest that the role of AVP in socioemotional functioning recruits multiple brain networks distributed across the whole brain rather than specific localized neural pathways. Beyond these findings, the current data-driven approach also opens a novel avenue to delineate neural underpinnings of various neuropeptides or hormones.

Manic and euthymic states in pediatric bipolar disorder patients during an emotional Go/Nogo task: A functional magnetic resonance imaging study

BACKGROUND

Neural abnormalities in emotional response inhibition still exist in the euthymic phase of bipolar disorder (BD). Few studies on comparisons of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) manifestations between different mood phases of pediatric bipolar disorder (PBD) have ever been published. The goal of this study was to explore the differences in neural activities between manic and euthymic PBD during emotional response inhibition.

METHODS

Simultaneous imaging of neural activity was recorded during an emotional Go/Nogo paradigm and the effect of emotional response inhibition was analyzed. Neural activities were compared between the three groups.

RESULTS

In the presence of emotional versus neutral distractors, both manic and euthymic PBD subjects similarly showed widespreadly increased activities in the cognitive and emotional regulation circuits compared with healthy individuals. Compared with euthymic PBD patients, those with manic PBD exhibited increased activities in the left superior frontal gyrus. Hyperactivity in the left superior frontal, left middle frontal and right inferior frontal gyrus in manic PBD was positively associated with false response errors.

CONCLUSION

Increased activity in the left superior frontal gyrus may be characteristic of manic episodes in PBD patients, and such a disparity between manic and euthymic phrases may attribute to more severe emotional dysregulation.

Resilience, pain, and the brain: Relationships differ by sociodemographics

Chronic musculoskeletal (MSK) pain is disabling to individuals and burdensome to society. A relationship between telomere length and resilience was reported in individuals with consideration for chronic pain intensity. While chronic pain associates with brain changes, little is known regarding the neurobiological interface of resilience. In a group of individuals with chronic MSK pain, we examined the relationships between a previously investigated resilience index, clinical pain and functioning measures, and pain-related brain structures, with consideration for sex and ethnicity/race. A cross-sectional analysis of 166 non-Hispanic Black and non-Hispanic White adults, 45-85 years of age with pain ≥ 1 body site (s) over the past 3 months was completed. Measures of clinical pain and functioning, biobehavioral and psychosocial resilience, and structural MRI were completed. Our findings indicate higher levels of resilience associate with lower levels of clinical pain and functional limitations. Significant associations between resilience, ethnicity/race, and/or sex, and pain-related brain gray matter structure were demonstrated in the right amygdaloid complex, bilateral thalamus, and postcentral gyrus. Our findings provide compelling evidence that in order to decipher the neurobiological code of chronic pain and related protective factors, it will be important to improve how chronic pain is phenotyped; to include an equal representation of females in studies including analyses stratifying by sex, and to consider other sociodemographic factors.

Multimodal Imaging Analysis Reveals Frontal-Associated Networks in Relation to Individual Resilience Strength

Psychological resilience is regarded as a critical protective factor for preventing the development of mental illness from experienced adverse events. Personal strength is one key element of resilience that reflects an individual's reactions to negative life events and is crucial for successful adaptation. Previous studies have linked unimodal imaging measures with resilience. However, applying multimodal imaging measures could provide comprehensive organization information at the system level to examine whether an individual's resilience strength is reflected in the brain's structural and functional network. In this study, MRI was used to acquire multimodal imaging properties and subscales of personal strength in terms of resilience from 109 participants (48 females and 61 males). We employed a method of fusion independent component analysis to link the association between multimodal imaging components and personal strength of psychological resilience. The results reveal that a fusion component involving multimodal frontal networks in connecting with the parietal, occipital, and temporal regions is associated with the resilience score for personal strength. A multiple regression model further explains the predictive role of frontal-associated regions that cover a visual-related network regulating cognition and emotion to discern the perceived adverse experience. Overall, this study suggests that frontal-associated regions are related to individual resilience strength.

An analysis of the brain structures underlying the link between pathological Internet use and anxiety

Pathological Internet use (PIU) is associated with various maladaptive problems and is becoming increasingly common among adolescents. Anxiety has been discovered as an important predictor of PIU, with the neural basis underlying the link between these two variables remaining unclear. In this study, PIU variations, individual anxiety levels, and T1-weighted structural magnetic resonance images (MRI) were collected from 95 healthy male adolescents. Voxel-based morphometry (VBM) was then applied to identify the brain regions related to individual variations in PIU, with mediation analyses being conducted to explore the relationship between brain structure, anxiety, and PIU. The results revealed that the PIU tendency is positively correlated with regional grey matter density (rGMD) in the right inferior parietal lobe (IPL), which is known to be involved in inhibitory control. Furthermore, the mediation analysis revealed that the rGMD in the right IPL mediates the association between anxiety and PIU, which is consistent with the mood enhancement theory and the Interaction of Person-Affect-Cognition-Execution (I-PACE) model. This mediation model suggests that individuals with higher anxiety might be more likely to use the Internet, with the rGMD in the right IPL being where the underlying cognitive mechanism of the relationship between these two variables lies. This study's findings possess implications for society's understandings of the correlations between anxiety and PIU from a brain structural perspective, which may then help in preventing the progression of PIU among adolescents.

Severe childhood and adulthood stress associates with neocortical layer-specific reductions of mature spines in psychiatric disorders

Severe stress exposure causes the loss of dendritic spines on cortical pyramidal neurons and induces psychiatric-like symptoms in rodent models. These effects are strongest following early-life stress and are most persistent on apical dendrites. However, the long-term impacts and temporal effects of stress exposure on the human brain remain poorly understood. Using a novel postmortem cohort of psychiatric cases with severe stress experienced in childhood, adulthood, or no severe stress, and matched controls, we aimed to determine the impact of stress timing on pyramidal neuron structure in the human orbitofrontal cortex (OFC). We performed Golgi Cox staining and manually measured the morphology and density of over 22,000 dendritic spines on layer-specific pyramidal neuron apical dendrites. We also quantified glucocorticoid receptor mRNA and protein as a marker of stress dysregulation. Both childhood and adulthood stress were associated with large reductions in mature mushroom spine density (up to 56% loss) in both the superficial (II/III) and deeper layers (V) of the OFC. However, childhood stress caused more substantial reductions to both total and mature mushroom spines. No difference in glucocorticoid receptor mRNA and protein were seen between groups, although both negatively correlated with total spine density within the whole cohort. These findings indicate that severe stress, especially when experienced during childhood, persistently affects the fine morphological properties of neurons in the human OFC. This may impact on cell connectivity in this brain area, and at least partly explain the social and emotional symptoms that originate in the OFC in psychiatric disorders.

Intrinsic functional connectivity of blue and red brains: neurobiological evidence of different stress resilience between political attitudes

Conservatives are more sensitive to threatening/anxious situations in perceptual and cognitive levels, experiencing emotional responses and stress, while liberals are more responsive to but tolerant of ambiguous and uncertain information. Interestingly, conservatives have greater psychological well-being and are more satisfied with their lives than liberals despite their psychological vulnerability to stress caused by threat and anxiety sensitivities. We investigated whether conservatives have greater resilience and self-regulation capacity, which are suggested to be psychological buffers that enhance psychological well-being, than liberals and moderates. We also explored associations between intrinsic functional brain organization and these psychological resources to expand our neurobiological understanding of self-regulatory processes in neuropolitics. We found that conservatives, compared to liberals and moderates, had greater psychological resilience and self-regulation capacity that were attributable to greater impulse control and causal reasoning. Stronger intrinsic connectivities between the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) and precuneus and between the insula and frontal pole/OFC in conservatives were correlated with greater resilience and self-regulation capacity. These results suggest the neural underpinnings that may allow conservatives to manage the psychological stress and achieve greater life satisfaction. This study provides neuroscientific evidence for the different responses of liberals and conservatives to politically relevant social issues.

Reward Functioning Abnormalities in Adolescents at High Familial Risk for Depressive Disorders

BACKGROUND

A parental history of major depressive disorder (MDD) is an established risk factor for MDD in youth, and clarifying the mechanisms related to familial risk transmission is critical. Aberrant reward processing is a promising biomarker of MDD risk; accordingly, the aim of this study was to test behavioral measures of reward responsiveness and underlying frontostriatal resting activity in healthy adolescents both with (high-risk) and without (low-risk) a maternal history of MDD.

METHODS

Low-risk and high-risk 12- to 14-year-old adolescents completed a probabilistic reward task (n = 74 low-risk, n = 27 high-risk) and a resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging scan (n = 61 low-risk, n = 25 high-risk). Group differences in response bias toward reward and resting ventral striatal and medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) fractional amplitude of low-frequency fluctuations (fALFFs) were examined. Computational modeling was applied to dissociate reward sensitivity from learning rate.

RESULTS

High-risk adolescents showed a blunted response bias compared with low-risk adolescents. Computational modeling analyses revealed that relative to low-risk adolescents, high-risk adolescents exhibited reduced reward sensitivity but similar learning rate. Although there were no group differences in ventral striatal and mPFC fALFFs, groups differed in their relationships between mPFC fALFFs and response bias. Specifically, among high-risk adolescents, higher mPFC fALFFs correlated with a blunted response bias, whereas there was no fALFFs-response bias relationship among low-risk youths.

CONCLUSIONS

High-risk adolescents exhibit reward functioning impairments, which are associated with mPFC fALFFs. The blunted response bias-mPFC fALFFs association may reflect an excessive mPFC-mediated suppression of reward-driven behavior, which may potentiate MDD risk.

Sex-linked neurofunctional basis of psychological resilience in late adolescence: a resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging study

Psychological resilience refers to the ability to adapt effectively in the face of adversity, which is closely related to an individual's psychological and physical health and well-being. Although previous behavioural studies have shown sex differences in psychological resilience, little is known about the neural basis of sex differences in psychological resilience. Here, we measured amplitude of low-frequency fluctuations (ALFF) via resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging to investigate the sex-linked neurofunctional basis of psychological resilience in 231 healthy adolescents. At the behavioural level, we replicated previous findings indicating that males are more resilient than females. At the neural level, we found sex differences in the relationship between psychological resilience and ALFF in the right orbitofrontal cortex (OFC). Specifically, males showed a positive correlation between psychological resilience and ALFF in the right OFC, while females showed a negative correlation in this region. The sex-specific association between psychological resilience and spontaneous brain activity might be dependent on differences in hormonal systems and brain development between male and female adolescents. Taken together, the results of our study might provide the first evidence of sex-specific neurofunctional substrates of psychological resilience in adolescents, emphasizing the vital role of sex effects in future psychological resilience-related studies.

Conscientiousness mediates the link between brain structure and consideration of future consequence

The individual difference in valuing immediate and future outcomes is referred to as consideration of future consequences (CFC, including CFC-Future [CFC-F] and CFC-Immediate [CFC-I]), which significantly influences daily behaviour. Although CFC is believed to be affected by brain features and personalities, the relational model of brain correlates, personalities and CFC has yet to be determined. This study was designed to explore the brain structure related to CFC-F and CFC-I and the mediating role of conscientiousness. We adopted a voxel-based morphometry study and used grey matter density (GMD) as an indication of brain structure. The results showed that GMD in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (VMPFC) was positively associated with CFC-F; however, we did not find relevant regions affecting CFC-I. Furthermore, conscientiousness was found to mediate the relationship between GMD in the VMPFC and CFC-F. This study provides initial evidence concerning the neural basis of CFC-F and argues that the features of brain structure could be associated with CFC-F through related high-order personality traits. Additionally, the distinction between CFC-F and CFC-I may be based on differences in brain structure.

Neural correlates of social well-being: gray matter density in the orbitofrontal cortex predicts social well-being in emerging adulthood

Social well-being reflects the perception of one’s social functioning, which plays an important role in physical and psychological health. However, the exact neuroanatomical substrate for social well-being remains unclear. To address the issue, we employed the voxel-based morphometry method to probe the neuroanatomical basis of individual variation in social well-being in young healthy adults (n = 136). The results revealed a significant negative association between social well-being and regional gray matter density (rGMD) in an anatomical cluster that mainly includes the left orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) that has been involved in emotion regulation and social cognition. Furthermore, a balanced 4-fold cross-validation using the machine learning approach revealed that rGMD in the left OFC could be reliably related to social well-being. More importantly, the multiple mediation analysis revealed that neuroticism and dispositional forgiveness independently mediated the association between rGMD in the left OFC and social well-being. In addition, all these results remained stable when subjective socioeconomic status was controlled. Together, our results provide the initial evidence that the OFC is a neuroanatomical substrate for social well-being and demonstrate that the OFC is a crucial neural site linking neuroticism and dispositional forgiveness to social well-being.

Modelling resilience in adolescence and adversity: a novel framework to inform research and practice

Recent conceptualisations of resilience have advanced the notion that it is a dynamic and multifaceted construct. However, its adaptive components, especially those forged by adversity, have not been fully realised, and its neurobiological and psychosocial underpinnings are yet to be meaningfully integrated. In part, this is because a developmental perspective is often neglected in the formulation of resilience. In this review, we consider the findings of resilience research, with a specific emphasis on the developmental period of adolescence. To bridge the gaps in our current understanding, we propose a model of resilience that is predicated on experiencing adversity. Specifically, our model provides a sophisticated insight into the components of resilience, which, together with intrinsic features, involves facilitation of, and skill acquisition via strengthening processes we term tempering and fortification. The model also points to the potential trajectories of adversity-driven resilience and forms the basis of a framework that allows for individual variance in resilience, and the identification of both neurobiological and psychosocial targets for prevention and therapeutic interventions.

Stress and the brain: Perceived stress mediates the impact of the superior frontal gyrus spontaneous activity on depressive symptoms in late adolescence

Identifying factors for the prediction of depression is a long-standing research topic in psychiatry and psychology. Perceived stress, which reflects the tendency to appraise one's life situations as stressful and overwhelming, has emerged as a stable predictor for depressive symptoms. However, the neurobiological bases of perceived stress and how perceived stress influences depressive symptoms in the healthy brain remain largely unknown. Here, we investigated these issues in 217 healthy adolescents by estimating the fractional amplitude of low-frequency fluctuations (fALFFs) via resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging. A whole-brain correlation analysis showed that higher levels of perceived stress were associated with greater fALFF in the left superior frontal gyrus (SFG), which is a core brain region for cognitive control and emotion regulation-related processes. Mediation analysis further indicated that perceived stress mediated the link between the fALFF in the left SFG and depressive symptoms. Importantly, our results remained significant even when excluding the influences of head motion, anxiety, SFG gray matter structure, and school environment. Altogether, our findings suggested that the fALFF in the left SFG is a neurofunctional marker of perceived stress in adolescents and revealed a potential indirect effect of perceived stress on the association between the SFG spontaneous activity and depressive symptoms.

Psychological Resilience Enhances the Orbitofrontal Network in the Elderly With Mild Cognitive Impairment

Background: It has been suggested that maintaining the efficient organization of the brain's functional connectivity (FC) supports neuroflexibility under neurogenerative stress. This study examined psychological resilience-related FC in 112 older adults with mild cognitive impairment (MCI). Methods: Using a resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) approach, we investigated reorganization of the orbitofrontal gyrus (OFG)/amygdala (AMG)/hippocampus (HP)/parahippocampal gyrus (PHG) FC according to the different levels of resilience scale. Results: Compared with the low resilient group, the high resilient group had greater connectivity strengths between the left inferior OFG and right superior OFG (P < 0.05, Bonferroni corrected), between the right inferior OFG and left PHG (P < 0.05, Bonferroni corrected), and between the right middle OFG and left PHG (false discovery rate < 0.05). Conclusion: Psychological resilience may be associated with enhancement of the orbitofrontal network in the elderly with MCI.