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Sato W, Usui N, Kondo A, Kubota Y, Toichi M, Inoue Y. Impairment of unconscious emotional processing after unilateral medial temporal structure resection. Sci Rep 2024; 14:4269. [PMID: 38383855 PMCID: PMC10881984 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-024-54868-2] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/31/2023] [Accepted: 02/17/2024] [Indexed: 02/23/2024] Open
Abstract
The role of the amygdala in unconscious emotional processing remains a topic of debate. Past lesion studies have indicated that amygdala damage leads to impaired electrodermal activity in response to subliminally presented emotional stimuli. However, electrodermal activity can reflect both emotional and nonemotional processes. To provide behavioral evidence highlighting the critical role of the amygdala in unconscious emotional processing, we examined patients (n = 16) who had undergone unilateral resection of medial temporal lobe structures, including the amygdala. We utilized the subliminal affective priming paradigm in conjunction with unilateral visual presentation. Fearful or happy dynamic facial expressions were presented in unilateral visual fields for 30 ms, serving as negative or positive primes. Subsequently, neutral target faces were displayed, and participants were tasked with rating the valence of these targets. Positive primes, compared to negative ones, enhanced valence ratings of the target to a greater extent when they stimulated the intact hemisphere (i.e., were presented in the contralateral visual field of the intact hemisphere) than when they stimulated the resected hemisphere (i.e., were presented in the contralateral visual field of the resected hemisphere). These results suggest that the amygdala is causally involved in unconscious emotional processing.
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Affiliation(s)
- Wataru Sato
- Psychological Process Research Team, Guardian Robot Project, RIKEN, 2-2-2 Hikaridai, Seika-cho, Soraku-gun, Kyoto, 619-0288, Japan.
| | - Naotaka Usui
- National Epilepsy Center, Shizuoka Institute of Epilepsy and Neurological Disorders, Urushiyama 886, Shizuoka, 420-8688, Japan.
| | - Akihiko Kondo
- National Epilepsy Center, Shizuoka Institute of Epilepsy and Neurological Disorders, Urushiyama 886, Shizuoka, 420-8688, Japan
| | - Yasutaka Kubota
- Health and Medical Services Center, Shiga University, 1-1-1 Baba, Hikone, Shiga, 522-8522, Japan
| | - Motomi Toichi
- Graduate School of Medicine, Kyoto University, 53 Shogoin-Kawaharacho, Sakyo, Kyoto, 606-8507, Japan
| | - Yushi Inoue
- National Epilepsy Center, Shizuoka Institute of Epilepsy and Neurological Disorders, Urushiyama 886, Shizuoka, 420-8688, Japan
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2
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Wei Z, Chen Y, Zhao Q, Ren J, Piao Y, Zhang P, Zha R, Qiu B, Zhang D, Bi Y, Han S, Li C, Zhang X. Separable amygdala activation patterns in the evaluations of robots. Cereb Cortex 2024; 34:bhae011. [PMID: 38383721 DOI: 10.1093/cercor/bhae011] [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: 11/27/2023] [Revised: 12/27/2023] [Accepted: 12/29/2023] [Indexed: 02/23/2024] Open
Abstract
Given the increasing presence of robots in everyday environments and the significant challenge posed by social interactions with robots, it is crucial to gain a deeper understanding into the social evaluations of robots. One potentially effective approach to comprehend the fundamental processes underlying controlled and automatic evaluations of robots is to probe brain response to different perception levels of robot-related stimuli. Here, we investigate controlled and automatic evaluations of robots based on brain responses during viewing of suprathreshold (duration: 200 ms) and subthreshold (duration: 17 ms) humanoid robot stimuli. Our behavioral analysis revealed that despite participants' self-reported positive attitudes, they held negative implicit attitudes toward humanoid robots. Neuroimaging analysis indicated that subthreshold presentation of humanoid robot stimuli elicited significant activation in the left amygdala, which was associated with negative implicit attitudes. Conversely, no significant left amygdala activation was observed during suprathreshold presentation. Following successful attenuation of negative attitudes, the left amygdala response to subthreshold presentation of humanoid robot stimuli decreased, and this decrease correlated positively with the reduction in negative attitudes. These findings provide evidence for separable patterns of amygdala activation between controlled and automatic processing of robots, suggesting that controlled evaluations may influence automatic evaluations of robots.
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Affiliation(s)
- Zhengde Wei
- Department of Psychology, School of Humanities & Social Science, University of Science & Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui 230026, China
- Key Laboratory of Brain-Machine Intelligence for Information Behavior-Ministry of Education, Shanghai International Studies University, Shanghai 201620, China
| | - Ying Chen
- Department of Psychology, School of Humanities & Social Science, University of Science & Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui 230026, China
| | - Qian Zhao
- School of Life Science, Division of Life Science and Medicine, University of Science & Technology of China, Hefei 230027, China
| | - Jiecheng Ren
- School of Life Science, Division of Life Science and Medicine, University of Science & Technology of China, Hefei 230027, China
| | - Yi Piao
- Institute of Health and Medicine, Hefei Comprehensive Science Center, Hefei, 230071, China
| | - Pengyu Zhang
- School of Life Science, Division of Life Science and Medicine, University of Science & Technology of China, Hefei 230027, China
| | - Rujing Zha
- Department of Psychology, School of Humanities & Social Science, University of Science & Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui 230026, China
| | - Bensheng Qiu
- Centers for Biomedical Engineering, School of Information Science and Technology, University of Science & Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui 230027, China
| | - Daren Zhang
- Department of Psychology, School of Humanities & Social Science, University of Science & Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui 230026, China
- School of Life Science, Division of Life Science and Medicine, University of Science & Technology of China, Hefei 230027, China
| | - Yanchao Bi
- State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China
| | - Shihui Han
- School of Psychological and Cognitive Sciences, PKU-IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Beijing Key Laboratory of Behavior and Mental Health, Peking University, Beijing, 100091, China
| | - Chunbo Li
- Shanghai Key Laboratory of Psychotic Disorders, Shanghai Mental Health Center, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai 200030, China
| | - Xiaochu Zhang
- Department of Psychology, School of Humanities & Social Science, University of Science & Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui 230026, China
- Key Laboratory of Brain-Machine Intelligence for Information Behavior-Ministry of Education, Shanghai International Studies University, Shanghai 201620, China
- Institute of Health and Medicine, Hefei Comprehensive Science Center, Hefei, 230071, China
- School of Mental Health, Bengbu Medical College, Bengbu, Anhui 233030, China
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3
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Benzait A, Krenz V, Wegrzyn M, Doll A, Woermann F, Labudda K, Bien CG, Kissler J. Hemodynamic correlates of emotion regulation in frontal lobe epilepsy patients and healthy participants. Hum Brain Mapp 2023; 44:1456-1475. [PMID: 36366744 PMCID: PMC9921231 DOI: 10.1002/hbm.26133] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/10/2022] [Revised: 09/15/2022] [Accepted: 10/11/2022] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
The ability to regulate emotions is indispensable for maintaining psychological health. It heavily relies on frontal lobe functions which are disrupted in frontal lobe epilepsy. Accordingly, emotional dysregulation and use of maladaptive emotion regulation strategies have been reported in frontal lobe epilepsy patients. Therefore, it is of clinical and scientific interest to investigate emotion regulation in frontal lobe epilepsy. We studied neural correlates of upregulating and downregulating emotions toward aversive pictures through reappraisal in 18 frontal lobe epilepsy patients and 17 healthy controls using functional magnetic resonance imaging. Patients tended to report more difficulties with impulse control than controls. On the neural level, patients had diminished activity during upregulation in distributed left-sided regions, including ventrolateral and dorsomedial prefrontal cortex, angular gyrus and anterior temporal gyrus. Patients also showed less activity than controls in the left precuneus for upregulation compared to downregulation. Unlike controls, they displayed no task-related activity changes in the left amygdala, whereas the right amygdala showed task-related modulations in both groups. Upregulation-related activity changes in the left inferior frontal gyrus, insula, orbitofrontal cortex, anterior and posterior cingulate cortex, and precuneus were correlated with questionnaire data on habitual emotion regulation. Our results show that structural or functional impairments in the frontal lobes disrupt neural mechanisms underlying emotion regulation through reappraisal throughout the brain, including posterior regions involved in semantic control. Findings on the amygdala as a major target of emotion regulation are in line with the view that specifically the left amygdala is connected with semantic processing networks.
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Affiliation(s)
- Anissa Benzait
- Department of Psychology, Bielefeld University, Bielefeld, Germany
| | - Valentina Krenz
- Department of Psychology, University of Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany
| | - Martin Wegrzyn
- Department of Psychology, Bielefeld University, Bielefeld, Germany
| | - Anna Doll
- Department of Psychology, Bielefeld University, Bielefeld, Germany.,Department of Epileptology (Mara Hospital), Medical School, Bielefeld University, Bielefeld, Germany
| | - Friedrich Woermann
- Department of Epileptology (Mara Hospital), Medical School, Bielefeld University, Bielefeld, Germany
| | - Kirsten Labudda
- Department of Psychology, Bielefeld University, Bielefeld, Germany
| | - Christian G Bien
- Department of Epileptology (Mara Hospital), Medical School, Bielefeld University, Bielefeld, Germany
| | - Johanna Kissler
- Department of Psychology, Bielefeld University, Bielefeld, Germany.,Center of Excellence Cognitive Interaction Technology (CITEC), Bielefeld University, Bielefeld, Germany
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4
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Jones G, Lipson J, Wang E. Examining associations between MDMA/ecstasy and classic psychedelic use and impairments in social functioning in a U.S. adult sample. Sci Rep 2023; 13:2466. [PMID: 36774449 PMCID: PMC9922292 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-023-29763-x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/29/2022] [Accepted: 02/09/2023] [Indexed: 02/13/2023] Open
Abstract
Impairment in social functioning is a common source of morbidity across many mental health disorders, yet there is a dearth of effective and easily implemented interventions to support social functioning. MDMA/ecstasy and classic psychedelics (psilocybin, LSD, peyote, mescaline) represent two potential treatments for impairments in social functioning, as evidence suggests these compounds may be supportive for alleviating social difficulties. Using a nationally representative sample of U.S. adults from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health (2015-2019) (N = 214,505), we used survey-weighted multivariable ordinal and logistic regression to examine the associations between lifetime use of the aforementioned compounds and impairments in social functioning in the past year. Lifetime MDMA/ecstasy use was associated with lowered odds of three of our four social impairment outcomes: difficulty dealing with strangers (aOR 0.92), difficulty participating in social activities (aOR 0.90), and being prevented from participating in social activities (aOR 0.84). Lifetime mescaline use was also associated with lowered odds of difficulty dealing with strangers (aOR 0.85). All other substances either shared no relationship with impairments in social functioning or conferred increased odds of our outcomes. Future experimental studies can assess whether these relationships are causal.
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Affiliation(s)
- Grant Jones
- Department of Psychology, Harvard University, 33 Kirkland St, Cambridge, MA, 02138, USA.
| | - Joshua Lipson
- Teachers College, Columbia University, New York, USA
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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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6
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Neta M, Kim MJ. Surprise as an Emotion: A Response to Ortony. PERSPECTIVES ON PSYCHOLOGICAL SCIENCE 2022:17456916221132789. [PMID: 36356055 PMCID: PMC10169535 DOI: 10.1177/17456916221132789] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/12/2022]
Abstract
We write in response to an article published in this journal by Andrew Ortony titled “Are All ‘Basic Emotions’ Emotions? A Problem for the (Basic) Emotions Construct.” The author claimed that “for all its elevated status as a basic emotion, surprise fails to satisfy the minimal requirements that [he] proposed for something to be an emotion, and if it is not an emotion, it cannot possibly be a basic emotion.” Although we acknowledge the concerns brought forth by Ortony, we respectfully disagree with his conclusion about surprise. To make a case against the assertion that surprise is valence-free, we summarize an extensive body of work showing that surprise is indeed valenced—in a specific manner (i.e., ambiguously valenced)—and that it meets all of Ortony’s criteria for an emotion. In other words, rather than being described as neither positive nor negative, this emotion is either positive or negative. We consider the data with respect to surprise as a basic emotion, and we dispute the definitions of basic emotions as “widely divergent.” Future work is needed to continue defining an emotion, and a basic emotion, but we believe this is a worthy effort toward shaping a still evolving field.
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Affiliation(s)
- Maital Neta
- Department of Psychology, University of Nebraska–Lincoln
- Center for Brain, Biology and Behavior, University of Nebraska–Lincoln
| | - M. Justin Kim
- Department of Psychology, Sungkyunkwan University
- Center for Neuroscience Imaging Research, Institute for Basic Science, Suwon, South Korea
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7
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Ozawa S, Nakatani H, Miyauchi CM, Hiraki K, Okanoya K. Synergistic effects of disgust and anger on amygdala activation while recalling memories of interpersonal stress: An fMRI study. Int J Psychophysiol 2022; 182:39-46. [PMID: 36167180 DOI: 10.1016/j.ijpsycho.2022.09.008] [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: 06/15/2022] [Revised: 09/11/2022] [Accepted: 09/21/2022] [Indexed: 10/14/2022]
Abstract
Occurrence of an unpleasant interpersonal event in daily life may cause an individual to experience unpleasant emotions and recall memories regarding it. These emotions, manifesting in daily social interactions, are often complex and mixed. In the laboratory, autobiographical recall is frequently used to induce emotions; however, it often involves recalling memories associated with a specific discrete emotion (e.g., sadness). To examine the neural activity of emotions similar to real-life experiences, we examined neural activity while recalling memories of stressful interpersonal events in daily life, without specifying a discrete emotion. Of the 23 university students recruited, 21 were analyzed and asked to freely recall memories and answer a series of questions on a monitor concerning their recalled memories while their neural activity was measured with functional magnetic resonance imaging. Amygdala activity increased while receiving the instructions, followed by a decrease in activity. This indicates that the participants' arousal and vigilance initially increased in response to a novel stimulus, and then decreased by habituation. Disgust and anger, which frequently occur as negative interpersonal feelings, were most prominently produced with strong associations with each other. More importantly, activation of the right amygdala while responding to questions regarding the recalled memories was positively correlated with disgust or anger only when not controlling for anger or disgust, respectively. These results indicate that responding to questions facilitated the generation of a mixed emotional response compared to during free recall alone. Furthermore, disgust and anger as a mixed emotion can synergistically activate amygdala.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sachiyo Ozawa
- Division of First-Year Education, Komaba Organization for Educational Experience, College of Arts and Sciences, The University of Tokyo, 3-8-1 Komaba, Meguro-ku, Tokyo 153-8902, Japan; UTokyo Center for Integrative Science of Human Behavior (CiSHuB), Evolutionary Cognitive Sciences, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, The University of Tokyo, 3-8-1 Komaba, Meguro-ku, Tokyo 153-8902, Japan.
| | - Hironori Nakatani
- School of Information and Telecommunication Engineering, Tokai University, 2-3-23 Takanawa, Minato-ku, Tokyo 108-8619, Japan
| | - Carlos Makoto Miyauchi
- Smart Hospital Promotion Office, Tohoku University Hospital, 1-1 Seiryo-machi, Aoba-ku, Sendai, Miyagi 980-8574, Japan
| | - Kazuo Hiraki
- Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, The University of Tokyo, 3-8-1 Komaba, Meguro-ku, Tokyo 153-8902, Japan
| | - Kazuo Okanoya
- UTokyo Center for Integrative Science of Human Behavior (CiSHuB), Evolutionary Cognitive Sciences, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, The University of Tokyo, 3-8-1 Komaba, Meguro-ku, Tokyo 153-8902, Japan; Advanced Comprehensive Research Organization, Teikyo University, 2-21-1, Kaga, Itabashi-ku, Tokyo 173-0003, Japan
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8
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Bierbrauer A, Fellner MC, Heinen R, Wolf OT, Axmacher N. The memory trace of a stressful episode. Curr Biol 2021; 31:5204-5213.e8. [PMID: 34653359 DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2021.09.044] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/06/2021] [Revised: 08/27/2021] [Accepted: 09/16/2021] [Indexed: 11/25/2022]
Abstract
Stress influences episodic memory formation via noradrenaline and glucocorticoid effects on amygdala and hippocampus. A common finding is the improvement of memory for central aspects of a stressful episode. This is putatively related to changes in the neural representations of specific experiences, i.e., their memory traces. Here we show that the memory improvement for objects that were encountered in a stressful episode relates to differences in the neural representations of these objects in the amygdala. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging, we found that stress specifically altered the representations of central objects: compared to control objects, they became more similar to one another and more distinct from objects that were not part of this episode. Furthermore, higher similarity of central objects to the main stressor-the faces of the stress-inducing committee members-predicted better memory. This suggests that the central objects were closely integrated into a stressor-centered memory representation. Our findings provide mechanistic insights into how stress shapes the memory trace and have profound implications for neurocognitive models of stressful and emotional memory.
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Affiliation(s)
- Anne Bierbrauer
- Department of Neuropsychology, Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, Faculty of Psychology, Ruhr University Bochum, Universitätsstraße 150, 44801 Bochum, Germany.
| | - Marie-Christin Fellner
- Department of Neuropsychology, Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, Faculty of Psychology, Ruhr University Bochum, Universitätsstraße 150, 44801 Bochum, Germany
| | - Rebekka Heinen
- Department of Neuropsychology, Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, Faculty of Psychology, Ruhr University Bochum, Universitätsstraße 150, 44801 Bochum, Germany
| | - Oliver T Wolf
- Department of Cognitive Psychology, Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, Faculty of Psychology, Ruhr University Bochum, Universitätsstraße 150, 44801 Bochum, Germany.
| | - Nikolai Axmacher
- Department of Neuropsychology, Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, Faculty of Psychology, Ruhr University Bochum, Universitätsstraße 150, 44801 Bochum, Germany; State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning and IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Beijing Normal University, Xinjiekouwai Street 19, Beijing 100875, China.
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9
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Right Hemisphere Dominance for Unconscious Emotionally Salient Stimuli. Brain Sci 2021; 11:brainsci11070823. [PMID: 34206214 PMCID: PMC8301990 DOI: 10.3390/brainsci11070823] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/12/2021] [Revised: 06/13/2021] [Accepted: 06/18/2021] [Indexed: 12/30/2022] Open
Abstract
The present review will focus on evidence demonstrating the prioritization in visual processing of fear-related signals in the absence of awareness. Evidence in hemianopic patients without any form of blindsight or affective blindsight in classical terms will be presented, demonstrating that fearful faces, via a subcortical colliculo-pulvinar-amygdala pathway, have a privileged unconscious visual processing and facilitate responses towards visual stimuli in the intact visual field. Interestingly, this fear-specific implicit visual processing in hemianopics has only been observed after lesions to the visual cortices in the left hemisphere, while no effect was found in patients with damage to the right hemisphere. This suggests that the subcortical route for emotional processing in the right hemisphere might provide a pivotal contribution to the implicit processing of fear, in line with evidence showing enhanced right amygdala activity and increased connectivity in the right colliculo-pulvinar-amygdala pathway for unconscious fear-conditioned stimuli and subliminal fearful faces. These findings will be discussed within a theoretical framework that considers the amygdala as an integral component of a constant and continuous vigilance system, which is preferentially invoked with stimuli signaling ambiguous environmental situations of biological relevance, such as fearful faces.
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10
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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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11
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Sequeira SL, Silk JS, Edershile EA, Jones NP, Hanson JL, Forbes EE, Ladouceur CD. From scanners to cell phones: neural and real-world responses to social evaluation in adolescent girls. Soc Cogn Affect Neurosci 2021; 16:657-669. [PMID: 33769521 PMCID: PMC8259290 DOI: 10.1093/scan/nsab038] [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: 04/24/2020] [Revised: 03/12/2021] [Accepted: 03/25/2021] [Indexed: 12/31/2022] Open
Abstract
While expanded use of neuroimaging seemed promising to elucidate typical and atypical elements of social sensitivity, in many ways progress in this space has stalled. This is in part due to a disconnection between neurobiological measurements and behavior outside of the laboratory. The present study uses a developmentally salient fMRI computer task and novel ecological momentary assessment protocol to examine whether early adolescent females (n = 76; ages 11–13) with greater neural reactivity to social rejection actually report greater emotional reactivity following negative interactions with peers in daily life. As hypothesized, associations were found between reactivity to perceived social threat in daily life and neural activity in threat-related brain regions, including the left amygdala and bilateral insula, to peer rejection relative to a control condition. Additionally, daily life reactivity to perceived social threat was associated with functional connectivity between the left amygdala and dorsomedial prefrontal cortex during rejection feedback. Unexpectedly, daily life social threat reactivity was also related to heightened amygdala and insula activation to peer acceptance relative to a control condition. These findings may inform key brain–behavior associations supporting sensitivity to social evaluation in adolescence.
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Affiliation(s)
- Stefanie L Sequeira
- Department of Psychology, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA 15213, USA
| | - Jennifer S Silk
- Department of Psychology, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA 15213, USA
| | | | - Neil P Jones
- Department of Psychiatry, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA 15213, USA
| | - Jamie L Hanson
- Department of Psychology, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA 15213, USA
| | - Erika E Forbes
- Department of Psychiatry, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA 15213, USA
| | - Cecile D Ladouceur
- Department of Psychiatry, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA 15213, USA
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12
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Bilek E, Itz ML, Stößel G, Ma R, Berhe O, Clement L, Zang Z, Robnik L, Plichta MM, Neukel C, Schmahl C, Kirsch P, Meyer-Lindenberg A, Tost H. Deficient Amygdala Habituation to Threatening Stimuli in Borderline Personality Disorder Relates to Adverse Childhood Experiences. Biol Psychiatry 2019; 86:930-938. [PMID: 31366446 DOI: 10.1016/j.biopsych.2019.06.008] [Citation(s) in RCA: 27] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/20/2019] [Revised: 05/20/2019] [Accepted: 06/09/2019] [Indexed: 11/16/2022]
Abstract
BACKGROUND Heightened amygdala response to threatening cues has been repeatedly observed in borderline personality disorder (BPD). A previous report linked hyperactivation to deficient amygdala habituation to repeated stimuli, but the biological underpinnings are incompletely understood. METHODS We examined a sample of 120 patients with BPD and 115 healthy control subjects with a well-established functional magnetic resonance imaging emotional face processing task to replicate the previously reported amygdala habituation deficit in BPD and probed this neural phenotype for associations with symptom severity and early social risk exposure. RESULTS Our results confirm a significant reduction in amygdala habituation to repeated negative stimuli in BPD (pFWE = .015, peak-level familywise error [FWE] corrected for region of interest). Post hoc comparison and regression analysis did not suggest a role for BPD clinical state (pFWE > .56) or symptom severity (pFWE > .45) for this phenotype. Furthermore, deficient amygdala habituation was significantly related to increased exposure to adverse childhood experiences (pFWE = .013, region of interest corrected). CONCLUSIONS Our data replicate a prior report on deficient amygdala habituation in BPD and link this neural phenotype to early adversity, a well-established social environmental risk factor for emotion dysregulation and psychiatric illness.
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Affiliation(s)
- Edda Bilek
- Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Central Institute of Mental Health, Medical Faculty Mannheim, Heidelburg University, Mannheim, Germany.
| | - Marlena L Itz
- Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Central Institute of Mental Health, Medical Faculty Mannheim, Heidelburg University, Mannheim, Germany
| | - Gabriela Stößel
- Department of Clinical Psychology, Central Institute of Mental Health, Medical Faculty Mannheim, Heidelburg University, Mannheim, Germany
| | - Ren Ma
- Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Central Institute of Mental Health, Medical Faculty Mannheim, Heidelburg University, Mannheim, Germany
| | - Oksana Berhe
- Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Central Institute of Mental Health, Medical Faculty Mannheim, Heidelburg University, Mannheim, Germany
| | - Laura Clement
- Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Central Institute of Mental Health, Medical Faculty Mannheim, Heidelburg University, Mannheim, Germany
| | - Zhenxiang Zang
- Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Central Institute of Mental Health, Medical Faculty Mannheim, Heidelburg University, Mannheim, Germany
| | - Lydia Robnik
- Department of Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychotherapy, Central Institute of Mental Health, Medical Faculty Mannheim, Heidelburg University, Mannheim, Germany
| | - Michael M Plichta
- Department of Psychiatry, Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychotherapy, University Hospital Frankfurt, Frankfurt am Main, Germany
| | - Corinne Neukel
- Department of Psychosocial Medicine, Heidelberg University, Heidelberg, Germany
| | - Christian Schmahl
- Department of Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychotherapy, Central Institute of Mental Health, Medical Faculty Mannheim, Heidelburg University, Mannheim, Germany
| | - Peter Kirsch
- Department of Clinical Psychology, Central Institute of Mental Health, Medical Faculty Mannheim, Heidelburg University, Mannheim, Germany
| | - Andreas Meyer-Lindenberg
- Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Central Institute of Mental Health, Medical Faculty Mannheim, Heidelburg University, Mannheim, Germany
| | - Heike Tost
- Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Central Institute of Mental Health, Medical Faculty Mannheim, Heidelburg University, Mannheim, Germany
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13
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Manno FAM, Lau C, Fernandez-Ruiz J, Manno SHC, Cheng SH, Barrios FA. The human amygdala disconnecting from auditory cortex preferentially discriminates musical sound of uncertain emotion by altering hemispheric weighting. Sci Rep 2019; 9:14787. [PMID: 31615998 PMCID: PMC6794305 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-019-50042-1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/15/2019] [Accepted: 08/24/2019] [Indexed: 02/06/2023] Open
Abstract
How do humans discriminate emotion from non-emotion? The specific psychophysical cues and neural responses involved with resolving emotional information in sound are unknown. In this study we used a discrimination psychophysical-fMRI sparse sampling paradigm to locate threshold responses to happy and sad acoustic stimuli. The fine structure and envelope of auditory signals were covaried to vary emotional certainty. We report that emotion identification at threshold in music utilizes fine structure cues. The auditory cortex was activated but did not vary with emotional uncertainty. Amygdala activation was modulated by emotion identification and was absent when emotional stimuli were chance identifiable, especially in the left hemisphere. The right hemisphere amygdala was considerably more deactivated in response to uncertain emotion. The threshold of emotion was signified by a right amygdala deactivation and change of left amygdala greater than right amygdala activation. Functional sex differences were noted during binaural uncertain emotional stimuli presentations, where the right amygdala showed larger activation in females. Negative control (silent stimuli) experiments investigated sparse sampling of silence to ensure modulation effects were inherent to emotional resolvability. No functional modulation of Heschl's gyrus occurred during silence; however, during rest the amygdala baseline state was asymmetrically lateralized. The evidence indicates changing hemispheric activation and deactivation patterns between the left and right amygdala is a hallmark feature of discriminating emotion from non-emotion in music.
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Affiliation(s)
- Francis A M Manno
- School of Biomedical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, The University of Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.
- Department of Physics, City University of Hong Kong, HKSAR, China.
| | - Condon Lau
- Department of Physics, City University of Hong Kong, HKSAR, China.
| | - Juan Fernandez-Ruiz
- Departamento de Fisiología, Facultad de Medicina, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, México City, 04510, Mexico
| | | | - Shuk Han Cheng
- Department of Biomedical Sciences, City University of Hong Kong, HKSAR, China
| | - Fernando A Barrios
- Instituto de Neurobiología, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Juriquilla, Querétaro, Mexico.
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14
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Grisendi T, Reynaud O, Clarke S, Da Costa S. Processing pathways for emotional vocalizations. Brain Struct Funct 2019; 224:2487-2504. [DOI: 10.1007/s00429-019-01912-x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/03/2019] [Accepted: 06/12/2019] [Indexed: 01/06/2023]
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15
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Trait neuroticism and emotion neurocircuitry: Functional magnetic resonance imaging evidence for a failure in emotion regulation. Dev Psychopathol 2019; 31:1085-1099. [PMID: 31156078 DOI: 10.1017/s0954579419000610] [Citation(s) in RCA: 21] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/21/2022]
Abstract
Though theory suggests that individual differences in neuroticism (a tendency to experience negative emotions) would be associated with altered functioning of the amygdala (which has been linked with emotionality and emotion dysregulation in childhood, adolescence, and adulthood), results of functional neuroimaging studies have been contradictory and inconclusive. We aimed to clarify the relationship between neuroticism and three hypothesized neural markers derived from functional magnetic resonance imaging during negative emotion face processing: amygdala activation, amygdala habituation, and amygdala-prefrontal connectivity, each of which plays an important role in the experience and regulation of emotions. We used general linear models to examine the relationship between trait neuroticism and the hypothesized neural markers in a large sample of over 500 young adults. Although neuroticism was not significantly associated with magnitude of amygdala activation or amygdala habituation, it was associated with amygdala-ventromedial prefrontal cortex connectivity, which has been implicated in emotion regulation. Results suggest that trait neuroticism may represent a failure in top-down control and regulation of emotional reactions, rather than overactive emotion generation processes, per se. These findings suggest that neuroticism, which has been associated with increased rates of transdiagnostic psychopathology, may represent a failure in the inhibitory neurocircuitry associated with emotion regulation.
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16
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Petro NM, Tong TT, Henley DJ, Neta M. Individual differences in valence bias: fMRI evidence of the initial negativity hypothesis. Soc Cogn Affect Neurosci 2018; 13:687-698. [PMID: 29931375 PMCID: PMC6121148 DOI: 10.1093/scan/nsy049] [Citation(s) in RCA: 24] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/09/2018] [Revised: 06/06/2018] [Accepted: 06/18/2018] [Indexed: 12/30/2022] Open
Abstract
Facial expressions offer an ecologically valid model for examining individual differences in affective decision-making. They convey an emotional signal from a social agent and provide important predictive information about one's environment (presence of potential rewards or threats). Although some expressions provide clear predictive information (angry, happy), others (surprised) are ambiguous in that they predict both positive and negative outcomes. Thus, surprised faces can delineate an individual's valence bias, or the tendency to interpret ambiguity as positive or negative. Our initial negativity hypothesis suggests that the initial response to ambiguity is negative, and that positivity relies on emotion regulation. We tested this hypothesis by comparing brain activity during explicit emotion regulation (reappraisal) and while freely viewing facial expressions, and measuring the relationship between brain activity and valence bias. Brain regions recruited during reappraisal showed greater activity for surprise in individuals with an increasingly positive valence bias. Additionally, we linked amygdala activity with an initial negativity, revealing a pattern similarity in individuals with negative bias between viewing surprised faces and maintaining negativity. Finally, these individuals failed to show normal habituation to clear negativity. These results support the initial negativity hypothesis, and are consistent with emotion research in both children and adult populations.
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Affiliation(s)
- Nathan M Petro
- Center for Brain, Biology, and Behavior, University of Nebraska – Lincoln, Lincoln, NE, USA
| | - Tien T Tong
- Interdisciplinary Graduate Program in Neuroscience, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA, USA
| | - Daniel J Henley
- Department of Advertising and Public Relations, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, USA
| | - Maital Neta
- Center for Brain, Biology, and Behavior, University of Nebraska – Lincoln, Lincoln, NE, USA
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17
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Schümann D, Sommer T. Dissociable contributions of the amygdala to the immediate and delayed effects of emotional arousal on memory. ACTA ACUST UNITED AC 2018; 25:283-293. [PMID: 29764974 PMCID: PMC5959227 DOI: 10.1101/lm.047282.117] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/22/2017] [Accepted: 04/04/2018] [Indexed: 12/15/2022]
Abstract
Emotional arousal enhances memory encoding and consolidation leading to better immediate and delayed memory. Although the central noradrenergic system and the amygdala play critical roles in both effects of emotional arousal, we have recently shown that these effects are at least partly independent of each other, suggesting distinct underlying neural mechanisms. Here we aim to dissociate the neural substrates of both effects in 70 female participants using an emotional memory paradigm to investigate how neural activity, as measured by fMRI, and a polymorphism in the α2B-noradrenoceptor vary for these effects. To also test whether the immediate and delayed effects of emotional arousal on memory are stable traits, we invited back participants who were a part of a large-scale behavioral memory study ∼3.5 yr ago. We replicated the low correlation of the immediate and delayed emotional enhancement of memory across participants (r = 0.16) and observed, moreover, that only the delayed effect was, to some degree, stable over time (r = 0.23). Bilateral amygdala activity, as well as its coupling with the visual cortex and the fusiform gyrus, was related to the preferential encoding of emotional stimuli, which is consistent with affect-biased attention. Moreover, the adrenoceptor genotype modulated the bilateral amygdala activity associated with this effect. The left amygdala and its coupling with the hippocampus was specifically associated with the more efficient consolidation of emotional stimuli, which is consistent with amygdalar modulation of hippocampal consolidation.
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Affiliation(s)
- Dirk Schümann
- Institute for Systems Neuroscience, Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Hamburg, Germany
| | - Tobias Sommer
- Institute for Systems Neuroscience, Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Hamburg, Germany
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18
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Amygdala Adaptation and Temporal Dynamics of the Salience Network in Conditioned Fear: A Single-Trial fMRI Study. eNeuro 2018; 5:eN-NWR-0445-17. [PMID: 29497705 PMCID: PMC5830351 DOI: 10.1523/eneuro.0445-17.2018] [Citation(s) in RCA: 22] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/20/2017] [Revised: 02/01/2018] [Accepted: 02/05/2018] [Indexed: 12/18/2022] Open
Abstract
Research in rodents has established the role of the amygdaloid complex in defensive responses to conditioned threat. In human imaging studies, however, activation of the amygdala by conditioned threat cues is often not observed. One hypothesis states that this finding reflects adaptation of amygdaloid responses over time. We tested this hypothesis by estimating single-trial neural responses over a large number of conditioning trials. Functional MRI (fMRI) was recorded from 18 participants during classical differential fear conditioning: Participants viewed oriented grayscale grating stimuli (45° or 135°) presented centrally in random order. In the acquisition block, one grating (the CS+) was paired with a noxious noise, the unconditioned stimulus (US), on 25% of trials. The other grating, denoted CS–, was never paired with the US. Consistent with previous reports, BOLD in dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC) and insula, but not the amygdala, was heightened when viewing CS+ stimuli that were not paired with US compared to CS– stimuli. Trial-by-trial analysis showed that over the course of acquisition, activity in the amygdala attenuated. Interestingly, activity in the dACC and insula also declined. Representational similarity analysis (RSA) corroborated these results, indicating that the voxel patterns evoked by CS+ and CS– in these brain regions became less distinguishable over time. Together, the present findings support the hypothesis that the lack of BOLD differences in the amygdaloid complex in many studies of classical conditioning is due to adaptation, and the adaptation effects may reflect changes in large-scale networks mediating aversive conditioning, particularly the salience network.
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19
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Koller K, Rafal RD, Platt A, Mitchell ND. Orienting toward threat: Contributions of a subcortical pathway transmitting retinal afferents to the amygdala via the superior colliculus and pulvinar. Neuropsychologia 2018; 128:78-86. [PMID: 29410291 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2018.01.027] [Citation(s) in RCA: 21] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/01/2017] [Revised: 01/18/2018] [Accepted: 01/18/2018] [Indexed: 10/18/2022]
Abstract
Probabilistic diffusion tractography was used to provide the first direct evidence for a subcortical pathway from the retina to the amygdala, via the superior colliculus and pulvinar, that transmits visual stimuli signaling threat. A bias to orient toward threat was measured in a temporal order judgement saccade decision task, under monocular viewing, in a group of 19 healthy participants who also underwent diffusion weighted MR imaging. On each trial of the behavioural task a picture depicting threat was presented in one visual field and a competing non-threatening stimulus in the other. The onset interval between the two pictures was randomly varied and participants made a saccade toward the stimulus that they judged to have appeared first. The bias to orient toward threat was stronger when the threatening stimulus was in the temporal visual hemifield, suggesting that afferents via the retinotectal tract contributed to the bias. Probabalistic tractography was used to virtually dissect connections between the superior colliculus and the amygdala traversing the pulvinar. Individual differences in microstructure (fractional anisotropy) of the streamline predicted the magnitude of the bias to orient toward threat, providing supporting evidence for a functional role of the subcortical SC-amygdala pathway in processing threat in healthy humans.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kristin Koller
- Wolfson Centre for Clinical and Cognitive Neuroscience, School of Psychology, Bangor University, Bangor, Gwynedd, United Kingdom; Cardiff University Brain Research Imaging Centre (CUBRIC), Cardiff University, Cardiff, United Kingdom.
| | - Robert D Rafal
- Wolfson Centre for Clinical and Cognitive Neuroscience, School of Psychology, Bangor University, Bangor, Gwynedd, United Kingdom; Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, University of Delaware, Delaware, United States
| | - Adam Platt
- Wolfson Centre for Clinical and Cognitive Neuroscience, School of Psychology, Bangor University, Bangor, Gwynedd, United Kingdom; Department of Psychiatry, University of Cambridge, Douglas House, 18b Trumpington Road, Cambridge CB2 8AH, UK
| | - Nicholas D Mitchell
- Wolfson Centre for Clinical and Cognitive Neuroscience, School of Psychology, Bangor University, Bangor, Gwynedd, United Kingdom
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20
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Sebastian CL, McCrory EJ, De Brito SA, Viding E. Modulation of amygdala response to task-irrelevant emotion. Soc Cogn Affect Neurosci 2018; 12:643-650. [PMID: 28119506 PMCID: PMC5390695 DOI: 10.1093/scan/nsw174] [Citation(s) in RCA: 18] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/22/2016] [Accepted: 11/24/2016] [Indexed: 11/15/2022] Open
Abstract
It has been shown that as cognitive demands of a non-emotional task increase, amygdala response to task-irrelevant emotional stimuli is reduced. However, it remains unclear whether effects are due to altered task demands, or altered perceptual input associated with task demands. Here, we present fMRI data from 20 adult males during a novel cognitive conflict task in which the requirement to scan emotional information was necessary for task performance and held constant across levels of cognitive conflict. Response to fearful facial expressions was attenuated under high (vs low) conflict conditions, as indexed by both slower reaction times and reduced right amygdala response. Psychophysiological interaction analysis showed that increased amygdala response to fear in the low conflict condition was accompanied by increased functional coupling with middle frontal gyrus, a prefrontal region previously associated with emotion regulation during cognitive task performance. These data suggest that amygdala response to emotion is modulated as a function of task demands, even when perceptual inputs are closely matched across load conditions. PPI data also show that, in particular emotional contexts, increased functional coupling of amygdala with prefrontal cortex can paradoxically occur when executive demands are lower.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Eamon J McCrory
- Educational and Health Psychology, University College London, London, UK
| | | | - Essi Viding
- Educational and Health Psychology, University College London, London, UK
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21
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Clark DL, Konduru N, Kemp A, Bray S, Brown EC, Goodyear B, Ramasubbu R. The impact of age of onset on amygdala intrinsic connectivity in major depression. Neuropsychiatr Dis Treat 2018; 14:343-352. [PMID: 29403280 PMCID: PMC5784751 DOI: 10.2147/ndt.s145042] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/27/2022] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND Early-onset major depressive disorder (EO-MDD), beginning during childhood and adolescence, is associated with more illness burden and a worse prognosis than adult-onset MDD (AO-MDD), but little is known about the neural features distinguishing these subgroup phenotypes. Functional abnormalities of the amygdala are central to major depressive disorder (MDD) neurobiology; therefore, we examined whether amygdala intrinsic connectivity (IC) can differentiate EO-MDD from AO-MDD in a cohort of adult MDD patients. SUBJECTS AND METHODS Twenty-one EO-MDD (age of onset ≤18 years), 31 AO-MDD patients (age of onset ≥19 years), and 19 healthy controls (HCs) underwent resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (7 minutes). Amygdala seed-based resting-state functional connectivity was compared between groups. RESULTS AO-MDD patients showed loss of inverse left amygdala-left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex IC and increased inverse left amygdala-left inferior parietal IC, compared to both HCs and EO-MDD. EO-MDD showed a switch from inverse to positive IC with right dorsomedial prefrontal cortex, compared to HCs and AO-MDD. This effect was removed when we controlled for illness burden. CONCLUSION Alterations in amygdala IC with the default-mode network were specifically related to EO-MDD, whereas amygdala IC with executive cognitive control regions was preferentially disrupted in AO-MDD. Increased illness burden, an important clinical marker of EO-MDD, accounted for its specific effects on amygdala IC. Brain imaging has the potential for validation of clinical subtypes and can provide markers of prognostic value in MDD patients.
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Affiliation(s)
- Darren L Clark
- Department of Psychiatry.,Department of Clinical Neuroscience.,Mathison Centre for Mental Health Research and Education.,Hotchkiss Brain Institute, University of Calgary, Calgary
| | | | - Anne Kemp
- School of Medicine, University of Alberta, Edmonton
| | - Signe Bray
- Department of Radiology.,Department of Pediatrics, University of Calgary.,Child and Adolescent Imaging Research Program, Alberta Children's Hospital, Calgary, AB, Canada
| | - Elliot C Brown
- Department of Psychiatry.,Department of Clinical Neuroscience.,Mathison Centre for Mental Health Research and Education.,Hotchkiss Brain Institute, University of Calgary, Calgary
| | - Bradley Goodyear
- Department of Psychiatry.,Department of Clinical Neuroscience.,Hotchkiss Brain Institute, University of Calgary, Calgary.,Department of Radiology
| | - Rajamannar Ramasubbu
- Department of Psychiatry.,Department of Clinical Neuroscience.,Mathison Centre for Mental Health Research and Education.,Hotchkiss Brain Institute, University of Calgary, Calgary
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22
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Bhattacharyya S, Egerton A, Kim E, Rosso L, Riano Barros D, Hammers A, Brammer M, Turkheimer FE, Howes OD, McGuire P. Acute induction of anxiety in humans by delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol related to amygdalar cannabinoid-1 (CB1) receptors. Sci Rep 2017; 7:15025. [PMID: 29101333 PMCID: PMC5670208 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-017-14203-4] [Citation(s) in RCA: 46] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/17/2017] [Accepted: 10/04/2017] [Indexed: 12/19/2022] Open
Abstract
Use of Cannabis, the most widely used illicit drug worldwide, is associated with acute anxiety, and anxiety disorders following regular use. The precise neural and receptor basis of these effects have not been tested in man. Employing a combination of functional MRI (fMRI) and positron emission tomography (PET), we investigated whether the effects of delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (delta-9-THC), the main psychoactive ingredient of cannabis, on anxiety and on amygdala response while processing fearful stimuli were related to local availability of its main central molecular target, cannabinoid-1 (CB1) receptors in man. Fourteen healthy males were studied with fMRI twice, one month apart, following an oral dose of either delta-9-THC (10 mg) or placebo, while they performed a fear-processing task. Baseline availability of the CB1 receptor was studied using PET with [11C]MePPEP, a CB1 inverse agonist radioligand. Relative to the placebo condition, delta-9-THC induced anxiety and modulated right amygdala activation while processing fear. Both these effects were positively correlated with CB1 receptor availability in the right amygdala. These results suggest that the acute effects of cannabis on anxiety in males are mediated by the modulation of amygdalar function by delta-9-THC and the extent of these effects are related to local availability of CB1 receptors.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sagnik Bhattacharyya
- Department of Psychosis Studies, King's College London, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience, De Crespigny Park, London, SE5 8AF, UK.
| | - Alice Egerton
- Department of Psychosis Studies, King's College London, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience, De Crespigny Park, London, SE5 8AF, UK
| | - Euitae Kim
- Department of Psychiatry, Seoul National University College of Medicine, Seoul, Republic of Korea
| | - Lula Rosso
- Medical Research Council Clinical Sciences Centre, Hammersmith Hospital, London, UK
| | | | - Alexander Hammers
- King's College London & Guy's and St Thomas' PET Centre, School of Biomedical Engineering and Imaging Sciences, Faculty of Life Sciences and Medicine, King's College London, 4th floor Lambeth Wing, St Thomas' Hospital, Westminster Bridge Road, London, SE1 7EH, UK
| | - Michael Brammer
- Department of Neuroimaging, Centre for Neuroimaging Sciences, PO Box 089, King's College London, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience, De Crespigny Park, London, SE5 8AF, UK
| | - Federico E Turkheimer
- Department of Neuroimaging, Centre for Neuroimaging Sciences, PO Box 089, King's College London, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience, De Crespigny Park, London, SE5 8AF, UK
| | - Oliver D Howes
- Department of Psychosis Studies, King's College London, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience, De Crespigny Park, London, SE5 8AF, UK
- Medical Research Council Clinical Sciences Centre, Hammersmith Hospital, London, UK
| | - Philip McGuire
- Department of Psychosis Studies, King's College London, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience, De Crespigny Park, London, SE5 8AF, UK
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23
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Tam FI, King JA, Geisler D, Korb FM, Sareng J, Ritschel F, Steding J, Albertowski KU, Roessner V, Ehrlich S. Altered behavioral and amygdala habituation in high-functioning adults with autism spectrum disorder: an fMRI study. Sci Rep 2017; 7:13611. [PMID: 29051601 PMCID: PMC5648793 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-017-14097-2] [Citation(s) in RCA: 18] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/09/2017] [Accepted: 09/25/2017] [Indexed: 12/05/2022] Open
Abstract
Habituation to repeatedly presented stimuli is an important adaptive property of the nervous system. Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) has been associated with reduced neural habituation, for example in the amygdala, which may be related to social impairments. The main focus of this study was to investigate habituation effects on the level of behavioral responses as well as amygdala responses in adults with ASD during a working memory task flanked by task-irrelevant face stimuli. Twenty-two patients with high-functioning autism and 24 healthy controls (HC) were included in this functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study. We employed an established habituation index to investigate habituation effects. Suggestive of altered habituation, the habituation index showed a decrement of reaction time over the course of the experiment in the HC but not in the ASD group. Similarly, an expected pattern of habituation was evident in amygdala activation in HC but absent in ASD participants. These results provide evidence that habituation may be altered not only on a neural, but also on a behavioral level in ASD. While more research is needed to develop a better understanding of the underlying mechanisms, the current findings support the possibility that deficient habituation may be a biomarker of ASD.
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Affiliation(s)
- Friederike I Tam
- Division of Psychological and Social Medicine and Developmental Neurosciences, Faculty of Medicine, Technische Universität Dresden, Fetscherstraße 74, 01307, Dresden, Germany.,Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine, University Hospital C. G. Carus, Technische Universität Dresden, Fetscherstraße 74, 01307, Dresden, Germany
| | - Joseph A King
- Division of Psychological and Social Medicine and Developmental Neurosciences, Faculty of Medicine, Technische Universität Dresden, Fetscherstraße 74, 01307, Dresden, Germany
| | - Daniel Geisler
- Division of Psychological and Social Medicine and Developmental Neurosciences, Faculty of Medicine, Technische Universität Dresden, Fetscherstraße 74, 01307, Dresden, Germany
| | - Franziska M Korb
- Department of Psychology, Technische Universität Dresden, Zellescher Weg 17, 01069, Dresden, Germany
| | - Juliane Sareng
- Division of Psychological and Social Medicine and Developmental Neurosciences, Faculty of Medicine, Technische Universität Dresden, Fetscherstraße 74, 01307, Dresden, Germany.,Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine, University Hospital C. G. Carus, Technische Universität Dresden, Fetscherstraße 74, 01307, Dresden, Germany
| | - Franziska Ritschel
- Division of Psychological and Social Medicine and Developmental Neurosciences, Faculty of Medicine, Technische Universität Dresden, Fetscherstraße 74, 01307, Dresden, Germany.,Translational Developmental Neuroscience Section, Eating Disorder Research and Treatment Center at the Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine, Technische Universität Dresden, Fetscherstraße 74, 01307, Dresden, Germany
| | - Julius Steding
- Division of Psychological and Social Medicine and Developmental Neurosciences, Faculty of Medicine, Technische Universität Dresden, Fetscherstraße 74, 01307, Dresden, Germany
| | - Katja U Albertowski
- Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine, University Hospital C. G. Carus, Technische Universität Dresden, Fetscherstraße 74, 01307, Dresden, Germany
| | - Veit Roessner
- Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine, University Hospital C. G. Carus, Technische Universität Dresden, Fetscherstraße 74, 01307, Dresden, Germany
| | - Stefan Ehrlich
- Division of Psychological and Social Medicine and Developmental Neurosciences, Faculty of Medicine, Technische Universität Dresden, Fetscherstraße 74, 01307, Dresden, Germany. .,Translational Developmental Neuroscience Section, Eating Disorder Research and Treatment Center at the Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine, Technische Universität Dresden, Fetscherstraße 74, 01307, Dresden, Germany.
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Young LR, Yu W, Holloway M, Rodgers BN, Chapman SB, Krawczyk DC. Amygdala activation as a marker for selective attention toward neutral faces in a chronic traumatic brain injury population. Neuropsychologia 2017; 104:214-222. [PMID: 28844425 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2017.08.026] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/24/2016] [Revised: 08/18/2017] [Accepted: 08/23/2017] [Indexed: 11/26/2022]
Abstract
There has been great interest in characterizing the response of the amygdala to emotional faces, especially in the context of social cognition. Although amygdala activation is most often associated with fearful or angry stimuli, there is considerable evidence that the response of the amygdala to neutral faces is both robust and reliable. This characteristic of amygdala function is of particular interest in the context of assessing populations with executive function deficits, such as traumatic brain injuries, which can be evaluated using fMRI attention modulation tasks that evaluate prefrontal control over representations, notably faces. The current study tested the hypothesis that the amygdala may serve as a marker of selective attention to neutral faces. Using fMRI, we gathered data within a chronic traumatic brain injury population. Blood Oxygenation Level Dependent (BOLD) signal change within the left and right amygdalae and fusiform face areas was measured while participants viewed neutral faces and scenes, under conditions requiring participants to (1) categorize pictures of faces and scenes, (2) selectively attend to either faces or scenes, or (3) attend to both faces and scenes. Findings revealed that the amygdala is an effective marker for selective attention to neutral faces and, furthermore, it was more face-specific than the fusiform face area.
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Affiliation(s)
- Leanne R Young
- University of Texas at Dallas Center for Brain Health, 2200 Mockingbird Lane, Dallas, TX 75235, United States.
| | - Weikei Yu
- University of Texas at Dallas Center for Brain Health, 2200 Mockingbird Lane, Dallas, TX 75235, United States.
| | - Michael Holloway
- University of Texas at Dallas Center for Brain Health, 2200 Mockingbird Lane, Dallas, TX 75235, United States.
| | - Barry N Rodgers
- University of Texas at Dallas Center for Brain Health, 2200 Mockingbird Lane, Dallas, TX 75235, United States.
| | - Sandra B Chapman
- University of Texas at Dallas Center for Brain Health, 2200 Mockingbird Lane, Dallas, TX 75235, United States.
| | - Daniel C Krawczyk
- University of Texas at Dallas Center for Brain Health, 2200 Mockingbird Lane, Dallas, TX 75235, United States.
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25
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Sheth C, McGlade E, Yurgelun-Todd D. Chronic Stress in Adolescents and Its Neurobiological and Psychopathological Consequences: An RDoC Perspective. ACTA ACUST UNITED AC 2017. [PMID: 29527590 PMCID: PMC5841253 DOI: 10.1177/2470547017715645] [Citation(s) in RCA: 53] [Impact Index Per Article: 7.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/21/2022]
Abstract
The Research Domain Criteria (RDoC) initiative provides a strategy for classifying psychopathology based on behavioral dimensions and neurobiological measures. Neurodevelopment is an orthogonal dimension in the current RDoC framework; however, it has not yet been fully incorporated into the RDoC approach. A combination of both a neurodevelopmental and RDoC approach offers a multidimensional perspective for understanding the emergence of psychopathology during development. Environmental influence (e.g., stress) has a profound impact on the risk for development of psychiatric illnesses. It has been shown that chronic stress interacts with the developing brain, producing significant changes in neural circuits that eventually increase the susceptibility for development of psychiatric disorders. This review highlights effects of chronic stress on the adolescent brain, as adolescence is a period characterized by a combination of significant brain alterations, high levels of stress, and emergence of psychopathology. The literature synthesized in this review suggests that chronic stress-induced changes in neurobiology and behavioral constructs underlie the shared vulnerability across a number of disorders in adolescence. The review particularly focuses on depression and substance use disorders; however, a similar argument can also be made for other psychopathologies, including anxiety disorders. The summarized findings underscore the need for a framework to integrate neurobiological findings from disparate psychiatric disorders and to target transdiagnostic mechanisms across disorders.
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Affiliation(s)
- Chandni Sheth
- Department of Psychiatry, University of Utah School of Medicine, Salt Lake City, UT, USA.,Diagnostic Neuroimaging, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, USA
| | - Erin McGlade
- Department of Psychiatry, University of Utah School of Medicine, Salt Lake City, UT, USA.,Diagnostic Neuroimaging, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, USA.,George E. Wahlen Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center, VA VISN 19 Mental Illness Research, Education and Clinical Center (MIRREC), Salt Lake City, UT, USA
| | - Deborah Yurgelun-Todd
- Department of Psychiatry, University of Utah School of Medicine, Salt Lake City, UT, USA.,Diagnostic Neuroimaging, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, USA.,George E. Wahlen Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center, VA VISN 19 Mental Illness Research, Education and Clinical Center (MIRREC), Salt Lake City, UT, USA
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Alcalá-López D, Smallwood J, Jefferies E, Van Overwalle F, Vogeley K, Mars RB, Turetsky BI, Laird AR, Fox PT, Eickhoff SB, Bzdok D. Computing the Social Brain Connectome Across Systems and States. Cereb Cortex 2017; 28:2207-2232. [DOI: 10.1093/cercor/bhx121] [Citation(s) in RCA: 99] [Impact Index Per Article: 14.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/15/2016] [Accepted: 04/27/2017] [Indexed: 11/14/2022] Open
Affiliation(s)
- Daniel Alcalá-López
- Department of Psychiatry, Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics, RWTH Aachen University, Aachen, Germany
| | - Jonathan Smallwood
- Department of Psychology, York Neuroimaging Centre, University of York, Hesslington, York, UK
| | - Elizabeth Jefferies
- Department of Psychology, York Neuroimaging Centre, University of York, Hesslington, York, UK
| | | | - Kai Vogeley
- Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University Hospital Cologne, Cologne, Germany
| | - Rogier B Mars
- Centre for Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging of the Brain (FMRIB), Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences, John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford, UK
- Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, Radboud University Nijmegen, 6525 EZ Nijmegen, The Netherlands
| | - Bruce I Turetsky
- Department of Psychiatry, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA
| | - Angela R Laird
- Department of Physics, Florida International University, Miami, FL, USA
| | - Peter T Fox
- Research Imaging Institute, University of Texas Health Science Center, San Antonio, TX, USA
| | - Simon B Eickhoff
- Medical Faculty, Institute for Systems Neuroscience, Heinrich-Heine University, Düsseldorf, Germany
- Institute for Neuroscience and Medicine (INM-7, Brain & Behavior), Research Center Jülich, Jülich, Germany
| | - Danilo Bzdok
- Department of Psychiatry, Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics, RWTH Aachen University, Aachen, Germany
- Parietal Team, INRIA, Neurospin, bat 145, CEA Saclay, Gif-sur-Yvette, France
- JARA, Translational Brain Medicine, Aachen, Germany
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27
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Unreliability of putative fMRI biomarkers during emotional face processing. Neuroimage 2017; 156:119-127. [PMID: 28506872 PMCID: PMC5553850 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2017.05.024] [Citation(s) in RCA: 48] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/26/2016] [Revised: 05/08/2017] [Accepted: 05/11/2017] [Indexed: 10/31/2022] Open
Abstract
There is considerable need to develop tailored approaches to psychiatric treatment. Numerous researchers have proposed using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) biomarkers to predict therapeutic response, in particular by measuring task-evoked subgenual anterior cingulate (sgACC) and amygdala activation in mood and anxiety disorders. Translating this to the clinic relies on the assumption that blood-oxygen-level dependent (BOLD) responses in these regions are stable within individuals. To test this assumption, we scanned a group of 29 volunteers twice (mean test-retest interval=14.3 days) and calculated the within-subject reliability of the amplitude of the amygdalae and sgACC BOLD responses to emotional faces using three paradigms: emotion identification; emotion matching; and gender classification. We also calculated the reliability of activation in a control region, the right fusiform face area (FFA). All three tasks elicited robust group activations in the amygdalae and sgACC (which changed little on average over scanning sessions), but within-subject reliability was surprisingly low, despite excellent reliability in the control right FFA region. Our findings demonstrate low statistical reliability of two important putative treatment biomarkers in mood and anxiety disorders.
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Acute effects of LSD on amygdala activity during processing of fearful stimuli in healthy subjects. Transl Psychiatry 2017; 7:e1084. [PMID: 28375205 PMCID: PMC5416695 DOI: 10.1038/tp.2017.54] [Citation(s) in RCA: 75] [Impact Index Per Article: 10.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/22/2016] [Revised: 01/30/2017] [Accepted: 02/14/2017] [Indexed: 12/20/2022] Open
Abstract
Lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) induces profound changes in various mental domains, including perception, self-awareness and emotions. We used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to investigate the acute effects of LSD on the neural substrate of emotional processing in humans. Using a double-blind, randomised, cross-over study design, placebo or 100 μg LSD were orally administered to 20 healthy subjects before the fMRI scan, taking into account the subjective and pharmacological peak effects of LSD. The plasma levels of LSD were determined immediately before and after the scan. The study (including the a priori-defined study end point) was registered at ClinicalTrials.gov before study start (NCT02308969). The administration of LSD reduced reactivity of the left amygdala and the right medial prefrontal cortex relative to placebo during the presentation of fearful faces (P<0.05, family-wise error). Notably, there was a significant negative correlation between LSD-induced amygdala response to fearful stimuli and the LSD-induced subjective drug effects (P<0.05). These data suggest that acute administration of LSD modulates the engagement of brain regions that mediate emotional processing.
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29
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Rotenberg VS. Sexual Disorders Caused by Antidepressants: Considerations in the Context of Brain Hemisphere Functions. ACTA ACUST UNITED AC 2017. [DOI: 10.1007/bf03379566] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/20/2022]
Abstract
Abstract
All phases of normal sexual activity are under the control of the right hemisphere coupled with limbic structures, and depression is characterized by the functional insufficiency of this system. At the same time, those modern antidepressants that cause sexual disorders are activating the left hemisphere and determine its domination on the expense of the right one and disturb free and spontaneous emotional interrelationships, sexual behavior and pleasure. Those antidepressants that do not cause sexual dysfunction are not activating predominantly the left hemisphere structures and activate the limbic brain zones responsible for reward, reinforcement and emotional excitement.
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Altered time course of amygdala activation during speech anticipation in social anxiety disorder. J Affect Disord 2017; 209:23-29. [PMID: 27870942 PMCID: PMC5191910 DOI: 10.1016/j.jad.2016.11.014] [Citation(s) in RCA: 14] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/26/2016] [Accepted: 11/14/2016] [Indexed: 12/31/2022]
Abstract
BACKGROUND Exaggerated anticipatory anxiety is common in social anxiety disorder (SAD). Neuroimaging studies have revealed altered neural activity in response to social stimuli in SAD, but fewer studies have examined neural activity during anticipation of feared social stimuli in SAD. The current study examined the time course and magnitude of activity in threat processing brain regions during speech anticipation in socially anxious individuals and healthy controls (HC). METHOD Participants (SAD n=58; HC n=16) underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) during which they completed a 90s control anticipation task and 90s speech anticipation task. Repeated measures multi-level modeling analyses were used to examine group differences in time course activity during speech vs. control anticipation for regions of interest, including bilateral amygdala, insula, ventral striatum, and dorsal anterior cingulate cortex. RESULTS The time course of amygdala activity was more prolonged and less variable throughout speech anticipation in SAD participants compared to HCs, whereas the overall magnitude of amygdala response did not differ between groups. Magnitude and time course of activity was largely similar between groups across other regions of interest. LIMITATIONS Analyses were restricted to regions of interest and task order was the same across participants due to the nature of deception instructions. CONCLUSIONS Sustained amygdala time course during anticipation may uniquely reflect heightened detection of threat or deficits in emotion regulation in socially anxious individuals. Findings highlight the importance of examining temporal dynamics of amygdala responding.
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31
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Ewbank MP, Pell PJ, Powell TE, von dem Hagen EAH, Baron-Cohen S, Calder AJ. Repetition Suppression and Memory for Faces is Reduced in Adults with Autism Spectrum Conditions. Cereb Cortex 2017; 27:92-103. [PMID: 27909005 PMCID: PMC6044360 DOI: 10.1093/cercor/bhw373] [Citation(s) in RCA: 25] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/14/2016] [Revised: 10/18/2016] [Indexed: 01/20/2023] Open
Abstract
Autism spectrum conditions (ASC) are associated with a number of atypicalities in face processing, including difficulties in face memory. However, the neural mechanisms underlying this difficulty are unclear. In neurotypical individuals, repeated presentation of the same face is associated with a reduction in activity, known as repetition suppression (RS), in the fusiform face area (FFA). However, to date, no studies have investigated RS to faces in individuals with ASC, or the relationship between RS and face memory. Here, we measured RS to faces and geometric shapes in individuals with a clinical diagnosis of an ASC and in age and IQ matched controls. Relative to controls, the ASC group showed reduced RS to faces in bilateral FFA and reduced performance on a standardized test of face memory. By contrast, RS to shapes in object-selective regions and object memory did not differ between groups. Individual variation in face-memory performance was positively correlated with RS in regions of left parietal and prefrontal cortex. These findings suggest difficulties in face memory in ASC may be a consequence of differences in the way faces are stored and/or maintained across a network of regions involved in both visual perception and short-term/working memory.
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Affiliation(s)
- Michael P. Ewbank
- Medical Research Council, Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit, CB2 7EF Cambridge, UK
| | - Philip J. Pell
- Medical Research Council, Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit, CB2 7EF Cambridge, UK
| | - Thomas E. Powell
- Medical Research Council, Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit, CB2 7EF Cambridge, UK
| | - Elisabeth A. H. von dem Hagen
- Medical Research Council, Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit, CB2 7EF Cambridge, UK
- School of Psychology, Cardiff University, CB2 8AH Cardiff, UK
| | - Simon Baron-Cohen
- Medical Research Council, Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit, CB2 7EF Cambridge, UK
- Department of Psychiatry, Autism Research Centre, University of Cambridge, CF10 3AT Cambridge, UK
| | - Andrew J. Calder
- Medical Research Council, Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit, CB2 7EF Cambridge, UK
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32
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Fournier JC, Chase HW, Almeida J, Phillips ML. Within- and Between-Session Changes in Neural Activity During Emotion Processing in Unipolar and Bipolar Depression. BIOLOGICAL PSYCHIATRY. COGNITIVE NEUROSCIENCE AND NEUROIMAGING 2016; 1:518-527. [PMID: 28083566 PMCID: PMC5220672 DOI: 10.1016/j.bpsc.2016.03.005] [Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/17/2022]
Abstract
BACKGROUND Bipolar disorder (BD) and unipolar depression (UD) can be difficult to distinguish clinically, particularly during episodes of depression. In this study we test for differences between BD, UD, and healthy control (HC) adults regarding within- and between-session changes in BOLD response during implicit emotional processing. METHODS During fMRI, HC adults (N=19) and depressed adults with UD (N=19) and BD (N=16) performed an implicit emotion-processing task. Each participant was scanned twice, separated by 6-months, resulting in 108 scans. BOLD response and linear change in BOLD response were examined within and between sessions. RESULTS We observed within-session linear decreases in BOLD signal (irrespective of group, condition, or session) in the left amygdala, a right-sided temporo-parietal region, and a right-sided fronto-insular region. Furthermore, we observed group differences in within-session BOLD signal change (p<0.05, FWE corrected) in a left-sided striatal-insular-thalamic region. Individuals with BD demonstrated a linear decrease in BOLD signal compared to HC (p<0.008, FWE corrected) across this region and compared to UD in the posterior insula portion of the region (p<0.008, FWE corrected). Finally, we observed main effects of emotional valence in bilateral visuo-spatial processing regions as well as in the left and right amygdala. CONCLUSIONS Individuals with BD demonstrated linear attenuation of BOLD response to emotional stimuli within left-sided striatal-insular-thalamic regions. Individuals with BD may either have experienced abnormal habituation in this region or disengaged quickly from processing the emotional stimuli, despite comparable task performance. This pattern may represent an underlying pathophysiological process associated with BD that differs from UD.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jay C Fournier
- Department of Psychiatry, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Pittsburgh, PA, USA
| | - Henry W Chase
- Department of Psychiatry, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Pittsburgh, PA, USA
| | - Jorge Almeida
- Department of Psychiatry and Human Behavior, The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University, Providence, RI, USA
| | - Mary L Phillips
- Department of Psychiatry, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Pittsburgh, PA, USA
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Abstract
Social cognitive neuroscience is a rapidly emerging field that utilizes cognitive neuroscientific techniques (e.g., lesion studies, neuroimaging) to address concepts traditionally in the social psychological realm (e.g., attitudes, stereotypes). The purpose of this article is to review published neuroscientific and neuropsychological research into social cognition. The author focuses on the role of the prefrontal cortex in social behavior and presents a framework that provides cohesion of this research. The article proposes that this framework will be useful in guiding future social cognitive neuroscientific research.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jacqueline N. Wood
- National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD
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34
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Keedwell PA, Doidge AN, Meyer M, Lawrence N, Lawrence AD, Jones DK. Subgenual Cingulum Microstructure Supports Control of Emotional Conflict. Cereb Cortex 2016; 26:2850-62. [PMID: 27048427 PMCID: PMC4869815 DOI: 10.1093/cercor/bhw030] [Citation(s) in RCA: 24] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/27/2022] Open
Abstract
Major depressive disorder (MDD) is associated with specific difficulties in attentional disengagement from negatively valenced material. Diffusion MRI studies have demonstrated altered white matter microstructure in the subgenual cingulum bundle (CB) in individuals with MDD, though the functional significance of these alterations has not been examined formally. This study explored whether individual differences in selective attention to negatively valenced stimuli are related to interindividual differences in subgenual CB microstructure. Forty-six individuals (21 with remitted MDD, 25 never depressed) completed an emotional Stroop task, using happy and angry distractor faces overlaid by pleasant or unpleasant target words and a control gender-based Stroop task. CBs were reconstructed in 38 individuals using diffusion-weighted imaging and tractography, and mean fractional anisotropy (FA) computed for the subgenual, retrosplenial, and parahippocampal subdivisions. No significant correlations were found between FA and performance in the control gender-based Stroop task in any CB region. However, the degree of interference produced by angry face distractors on time to identify pleasant words (emotional conflict) correlated selectively with FA in the subgenual CB (r = -0.53; P = 0.01). Higher FA was associated with reduced interference, irrespective of a diagnosis of MDD, suggesting that subgenual CB microstructure is functionally relevant for regulating attentional bias toward negative interpersonal stimuli.
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Affiliation(s)
- Paul A Keedwell
- MRC Centre for Psychiatric Genetics and Genomics Neuroscience and Mental Health Research Institute Centre for Affective Disorders, Institute of Psychiatry, London SE5 8AF, UK
| | - Amie N Doidge
- Neuroscience and Mental Health Research Institute School of Psychology and Cardiff University Brain Research Imaging Centre (CUBRIC), Cardiff University, Cardiff, UK School of Psychology, University of Exeter, Devon, UK
| | - Marcel Meyer
- School of Psychology and Cardiff University Brain Research Imaging Centre (CUBRIC), Cardiff University, Cardiff, UK Experimental Psychology and Methods, Faculty of Psychology, Ruhr University Bochum, Bochum, Germany
| | | | - Andrew D Lawrence
- Neuroscience and Mental Health Research Institute School of Psychology and Cardiff University Brain Research Imaging Centre (CUBRIC), Cardiff University, Cardiff, UK
| | - Derek K Jones
- Neuroscience and Mental Health Research Institute School of Psychology and Cardiff University Brain Research Imaging Centre (CUBRIC), Cardiff University, Cardiff, UK
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Maron E, Wall M, Norbury R, Godlewska B, Terbeck S, Cowen P, Matthews P, Nutt DJ. Effect of short-term escitalopram treatment on neural activation during emotional processing. J Psychopharmacol 2016; 30:33-9. [PMID: 26645207 DOI: 10.1177/0269881115620462] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/16/2022]
Abstract
Recent functional magnetic resonance (fMRI) imaging studies have revealed that subchronic medication with escitalopram leads to significant reduction in both amygdala and medial frontal gyrus reactivity during processing of emotional faces, suggesting that escitalopram may have a distinguishable modulatory effect on neural activation as compared with other serotonin-selective antidepressants. In this fMRI study we aimed to explore whether short-term medication with escitalopram in healthy volunteers is associated with reduced neural response to emotional processing, and whether this effect is predicted by drug plasma concentration. The neural response to fearful and happy faces was measured before and on day 7 of treatment with escitalopram (10mg) in 15 healthy volunteers and compared with those in a control unmedicated group (n=14). Significantly reduced activation to fearful, but not to happy facial expressions was observed in the bilateral amygdala, cingulate and right medial frontal gyrus following escitalopram medication. This effect was not correlated with plasma drug concentration. In accordance with previous data, we showed that escitalopram exerts its rapid direct effect on emotional processing via attenuation of neural activation in pathways involving medial frontal gyrus and amygdala, an effect that seems to be distinguishable from that of other SSRIs.
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Affiliation(s)
- Eduard Maron
- Research and Development Service, and Department of Psychiatry, North Estonia Medical Centre, Tallinn, Estonia Department of Psychiatry, University of Tartu, Tartu, Estonia Faculty of Medicine, Division of Brain Sciences, Imperial College London, London, UK
| | - Matt Wall
- Faculty of Medicine, Division of Brain Sciences, Imperial College London, London, UK
| | - Ray Norbury
- University of Roehampton, Whitelands College, London, UK
| | - Beata Godlewska
- Department of Psychiatry, University of Oxford, Warneford Hospital, Oxford, UK
| | - Sylvia Terbeck
- Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK
| | - Philip Cowen
- Department of Psychiatry, University of Oxford, Warneford Hospital, Oxford, UK
| | - Paul Matthews
- Faculty of Medicine, Division of Brain Sciences, Imperial College London, London, UK
| | - David J Nutt
- Faculty of Medicine, Division of Brain Sciences, Imperial College London, London, UK
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36
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Antyukhov AD. [Morphometric features of the structure of the central nucleus of the amygdala in men and women]. Zh Nevrol Psikhiatr Im S S Korsakova 2015; 115:61-64. [PMID: 26288290 DOI: 10.17116/jnevro20151154161-64] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/18/2022]
Abstract
OBJECTIVE To identify the interhemispheric asymmetry in the structure of the central nucleus of the amygdala in men and women. MATERIAL AND METHODS Morphometric features of the structure of neurons of the central nucleus amygdala complex were studied in histological sections of the brain of 6 men and 6 women (24 hemispheres), aged 19 to 55 years, with no lifetime diagnosis of mental or neurological disease. The value of the profile fields of neurons of the central nucleus amygdala complex in the left and right hemispheres of the brain were investigated. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION In women, the average value of neurons in the left hemisphere was somewhat greater than in the right hemisphere, while in men this value was greater in the right hemisphere. The interhemispheric morphometric differences were not significant regardless of gender. In addition, the quantity of relevant fields of neurons in the central nucleus of the amygdala in women was significantly larger than that of men in both hemispheres. The authors attempted to associate the results obtained in the study with emotional perception in men and women.
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Affiliation(s)
- A D Antyukhov
- Neurology Research Center, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow
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37
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Chase HW, Fournier JC, Greenberg T, Almeida JR, Stiffler R, Zevallos CR, Aslam H, Cooper C, Deckersbach T, Weyandt S, Adams P, Toups M, Carmody T, Oquendo MA, Peltier S, Fava M, McGrath PJ, Weissman M, Parsey R, McInnis MG, Kurian B, Trivedi MH, Phillips ML. Accounting for Dynamic Fluctuations across Time when Examining fMRI Test-Retest Reliability: Analysis of a Reward Paradigm in the EMBARC Study. PLoS One 2015; 10:e0126326. [PMID: 25961712 PMCID: PMC4427400 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0126326] [Citation(s) in RCA: 17] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/08/2014] [Accepted: 03/31/2015] [Indexed: 02/06/2023] Open
Abstract
Longitudinal investigation of the neural correlates of reward processing in depression may represent an important step in defining effective biomarkers for antidepressant treatment outcome prediction, but the reliability of reward-related activation is not well understood. Thirty-seven healthy control participants were scanned using fMRI while performing a reward-related guessing task on two occasions, approximately one week apart. Two main contrasts were examined: right ventral striatum (VS) activation fMRI BOLD signal related to signed prediction errors (PE) and reward expectancy (RE). We also examined bilateral visual cortex activation coupled to outcome anticipation. Significant VS PE-related activity was observed at the first testing session, but at the second testing session, VS PE-related activation was significantly reduced. Conversely, significant VS RE-related activity was observed at time 2 but not time 1. Increases in VS RE-related activity from time 1 to time 2 were significantly associated with decreases in VS PE-related activity from time 1 to time 2 across participants. Intraclass correlations (ICCs) in VS were very low. By contrast, visual cortex activation had much larger ICCs, particularly in individuals with high quality data. Dynamic changes in brain activation are widely predicted, and failure to account for these changes could lead to inaccurate evaluations of the reliability of functional MRI signals. Conventional measures of reliability cannot distinguish between changes specified by algorithmic models of neural function and noisy signal. Here, we provide evidence for the former possibility: reward-related VS activations follow the pattern predicted by temporal difference models of reward learning but have low ICCs.
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Affiliation(s)
- Henry W. Chase
- Department of Psychiatry, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States of America
- * E-mail:
| | - Jay C. Fournier
- Department of Psychiatry, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States of America
| | - Tsafrir Greenberg
- Department of Psychiatry, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States of America
| | - Jorge R. Almeida
- Department of Psychiatry, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States of America
| | - Richelle Stiffler
- Department of Psychiatry, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States of America
| | - Carlos R. Zevallos
- Department of Psychiatry, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States of America
| | - Haris Aslam
- Department of Psychiatry, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States of America
| | - Crystal Cooper
- UT Southwestern Medical Center, Department of Psychiatry, Dallas, Texas, United States of America
| | - Thilo Deckersbach
- Department of Psychiatry, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America
| | - Sarah Weyandt
- UT Southwestern Medical Center, Department of Psychiatry, Dallas, Texas, United States of America
| | - Phillip Adams
- Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Science, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, New York, United States of America
| | - Marisa Toups
- UT Southwestern Medical Center, Department of Psychiatry, Dallas, Texas, United States of America
| | - Tom Carmody
- UT Southwestern Medical Center, Department of Psychiatry, Dallas, Texas, United States of America
| | - Maria A. Oquendo
- NY State Psychiatric Institute, Therapeutics Depression Evaluation Service, New York, New York, United States of America
- Department of Psychiatry, Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, New York, New York, United States of America
| | - Scott Peltier
- Functional MRI Laboratory, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States of America
| | - Maurizio Fava
- Department of Psychiatry, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America
| | - Patrick J. McGrath
- NY State Psychiatric Institute, Therapeutics Depression Evaluation Service, New York, New York, United States of America
- Department of Psychiatry, Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, New York, New York, United States of America
| | - Myrna Weissman
- NY State Psychiatric Institute, Therapeutics Depression Evaluation Service, New York, New York, United States of America
- Department of Psychiatry, Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, New York, New York, United States of America
| | - Ramin Parsey
- Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Science, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, New York, United States of America
- Department of Radiology, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, New York, United States of America
| | - Melvin G. McInnis
- Department of Psychiatry, University of Michigan School of Medicine, Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States of America
| | - Benji Kurian
- UT Southwestern Medical Center, Department of Psychiatry, Dallas, Texas, United States of America
| | - Madhukar H. Trivedi
- UT Southwestern Medical Center, Department of Psychiatry, Dallas, Texas, United States of America
| | - Mary L. Phillips
- Department of Psychiatry, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States of America
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38
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Kohno S, Noriuchi M, Iguchi Y, Kikuchi Y, Hoshi Y. Emotional discrimination during viewing unpleasant pictures: timing in human anterior ventrolateral prefrontal cortex and amygdala. Front Hum Neurosci 2015; 9:51. [PMID: 25713527 PMCID: PMC4322640 DOI: 10.3389/fnhum.2015.00051] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/11/2014] [Accepted: 01/19/2015] [Indexed: 01/08/2023] Open
Abstract
The ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (VLPFC) and amygdala have critical roles in the generation and regulation of unpleasant emotions, and in this study the dynamic neural basis of unpleasant emotion processing was elucidated by using paired-samples permutation t-tests to identify the timing of emotional discrimination in various brain regions. We recorded the temporal dynamics of blood-oxygen-level-dependent (BOLD) signals in those brain regions during the viewing of unpleasant pictures by using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) with high temporal resolution, and we compared the time course of the signal within the volume of interest (VOI) across emotional conditions. Results show that emotional discrimination in the right amygdala precedes that in the left amygdala and that emotional discrimination in both those regions precedes that in the right anterior VLPFC. They support the hypotheses that the right amygdala is part of a rapid emotional stimulus detection system and the left amygdala is specialized for sustained stimulus evaluation and that the right anterior VLPFC is implicated in the integration of viscerosensory information with affective signals between the bilateral anterior VLPFCs and the bilateral amygdalae.
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Affiliation(s)
- Satoru Kohno
- Tokyo Metropolitan Institute of Medical Science Tokyo, Japan
| | - Madoka Noriuchi
- Tokyo Metropolitan Institute of Medical Science Tokyo, Japan
| | | | | | - Yoko Hoshi
- Tokyo Metropolitan Institute of Medical Science Tokyo, Japan
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39
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Binks S, Chan D, Medford N. Abolition of lifelong specific phobia: a novel therapeutic consequence of left mesial temporal lobectomy. Neurocase 2015; 21:79-84. [PMID: 24460482 DOI: 10.1080/13554794.2013.873056] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/07/2023]
Abstract
Numerous imaging studies have confirmed the amygdala as prominent within a neural network mediating specific phobia, including arachnophobia. We report the case of a patient in whom arachnophobia was abolished after left temporal mesial lobectomy, with unchanged fear responses to other stimuli. The phenomenon of abolition of specific phobia after amygdala removal has not, to our knowledge, been previously reported.
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Affiliation(s)
- S Binks
- a Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust, Royal Sussex County Hospital , Eastern Road, Brighton , BN2 5BE , UK
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40
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Morawetz C, Bode S, Baudewig J, Kirilina E, Heekeren HR. Changes in Effective Connectivity Between Dorsal and Ventral Prefrontal Regions Moderate Emotion Regulation. Cereb Cortex 2015; 26:1923-1937. [DOI: 10.1093/cercor/bhv005] [Citation(s) in RCA: 85] [Impact Index Per Article: 9.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/14/2022] Open
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41
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Hafeman D, Bebko G, Bertocci MA, Fournier JC, Bonar L, Perlman SB, Travis M, Gill MK, Diwadkar VA, Sunshine JL, Holland SK, Kowatch RA, Birmaher B, Axelson D, Horwitz SM, Arnold LE, Fristad MA, Frazier TW, Youngstrom EA, Findling RL, Drevets W, Phillips ML. Abnormal deactivation of the inferior frontal gyrus during implicit emotion processing in youth with bipolar disorder: attenuated by medication. J Psychiatr Res 2014; 58:129-36. [PMID: 25151338 PMCID: PMC4381734 DOI: 10.1016/j.jpsychires.2014.07.023] [Citation(s) in RCA: 32] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/23/2014] [Revised: 07/21/2014] [Accepted: 07/24/2014] [Indexed: 12/28/2022]
Abstract
Previous neuroimaging studies of youth with bipolar disorder (BD) have identified abnormalities in emotion regulation circuitry. Using data from the Longitudinal Assessment of Manic Symptoms Cohort (a clinical sample recruited for behavioral and emotional dysregulation), we examined the impact of BD and medication on activation in these regions. Functional neuroimaging data were obtained from 15 youth with BD who currently were unmedicated with a mood stabilizer or antipsychotic (U-BD), 19 youth with medicated BD (M-BD), a non-bipolar clinical sample with high rates of disruptive behavioral disorders (non-BD, n = 59), and 29 healthy controls (HC) while they were shown task-irrelevant morphing emotional faces and shapes. Whole brain analysis was used to identify clusters that showed differential activation to emotion vs. shapes across group. To assess pair-wise comparisons and potential confounders, mean activation data were extracted only from clusters within regions previously implicated in emotion regulation (including amygdala and ventral prefrontal regions). A cluster in the right inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) showed group differences to emotion vs. shapes (159 voxels, corrected p < .05). Within this cluster, U-BD youth showed decreased activation relative to HC (p = .007) and non-BD (p = .004) youth. M-BD also showed decreased activation in this cluster relative to HC and non-BD youth, but these differences were attenuated. Results were specific to negative emotions, and not found with happy faces. IFG findings were not explained by other medications (e.g. stimulants) or diagnoses. Compared to both HC and a non-BD sample, U-BD is associated with abnormally decreased right IFG activation to negative emotions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Danella Hafeman
- Psychiatry, Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic, University of Pittsburgh
| | - Genna Bebko
- Psychiatry, Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic, University of Pittsburgh
| | - Michele A. Bertocci
- Psychiatry, Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic, University of Pittsburgh
| | - Jay C. Fournier
- Psychiatry, Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic, University of Pittsburgh
| | - Lisa Bonar
- Psychiatry, Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic, University of Pittsburgh
| | - Susan B. Perlman
- Psychiatry, Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic, University of Pittsburgh
| | - Michael Travis
- Psychiatry, Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic, University of Pittsburgh
| | - Mary Kay Gill
- Psychiatry, Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic, University of Pittsburgh
| | | | | | - Scott K Holland
- Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, University of Cincinnati
| | | | - Boris Birmaher
- Psychiatry, Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic, University of Pittsburgh
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | - Robert L. Findling
- University Hospitals Case Medical Center/Case Western Reserve University,Psychiatry, Johns Hopkins University
| | - Wayne Drevets
- Janssen Pharmaceuticals Research & Development, of Johnson&Johnson
| | - Mary L. Phillips
- Psychiatry, Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic, University of Pittsburgh,Psychological Medicine, Cardiff University
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42
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Plichta MM, Grimm O, Morgen K, Mier D, Sauer C, Haddad L, Tost H, Esslinger C, Kirsch P, Schwarz AJ, Meyer-Lindenberg A. Amygdala habituation: a reliable fMRI phenotype. Neuroimage 2014; 103:383-390. [PMID: 25284303 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2014.09.059] [Citation(s) in RCA: 77] [Impact Index Per Article: 7.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/14/2014] [Revised: 09/04/2014] [Accepted: 09/25/2014] [Indexed: 12/27/2022] Open
Abstract
Amygdala function is of high interest for cognitive, social and psychiatric neuroscience, emphasizing the need for reliable assessments in humans. Previous work has indicated unsatisfactorily low within-subject reliability of amygdala activation fMRI measures. Based on basic science evidence for strong habituation of amygdala response to repeated stimuli, we investigated whether a quantification of habituation provides additional information beyond the usual estimate of the overall mean activity. We assessed the within-subject reliability of amygdala habituation measures during a facial emotion matching paradigm in 25 healthy subjects. We extracted the amygdala signal decrement across the course of the fMRI run for the two test-retest measurement sessions and compared reliability estimates with previous findings based on mean response amplitude. Retest-reliability of the session-wise amygdala habituation was significantly higher than the evoked amygdala mean amplitude (intraclass correlation coefficients (ICC)=0.53 vs. 0.16). To test the task-specificity of this finding, we compared the retest-reliability of amygdala habituation across two different tasks. Significant amygdala response decrement was also seen in a cognitive task (n-back working memory) that did not per se activate the amygdala, but was totally unreliable in that context (ICC~0.0), arguing for task-specificity. Together the results show that emotion-dependent amygdala habituation is a robust and considerably more reliable index than the mean amplitude, and provides a robust potential endpoint for within-subject designs including pharmaco-fMRI studies.
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Affiliation(s)
- Michael M Plichta
- Central Institute of Mental Health, Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University of Heidelberg/Medical Faculty Mannheim, Mannheim, Germany.
| | - Oliver Grimm
- Central Institute of Mental Health, Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University of Heidelberg/Medical Faculty Mannheim, Mannheim, Germany
| | - Katrin Morgen
- Central Institute of Mental Health, Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University of Heidelberg/Medical Faculty Mannheim, Mannheim, Germany
| | - Daniela Mier
- Central Institute of Mental Health, Department of Clinical Psychology, University of Heidelberg/Medical Faculty Mannheim, Mannheim, Germany
| | - Carina Sauer
- Central Institute of Mental Health, Department of Clinical Psychology, University of Heidelberg/Medical Faculty Mannheim, Mannheim, Germany
| | - Leila Haddad
- Central Institute of Mental Health, Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University of Heidelberg/Medical Faculty Mannheim, Mannheim, Germany
| | - Heike Tost
- Central Institute of Mental Health, Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University of Heidelberg/Medical Faculty Mannheim, Mannheim, Germany
| | - Christine Esslinger
- Central Institute of Mental Health, Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University of Heidelberg/Medical Faculty Mannheim, Mannheim, Germany
| | - Peter Kirsch
- Central Institute of Mental Health, Department of Clinical Psychology, University of Heidelberg/Medical Faculty Mannheim, Mannheim, Germany
| | | | - Andreas Meyer-Lindenberg
- Central Institute of Mental Health, Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University of Heidelberg/Medical Faculty Mannheim, Mannheim, Germany
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Hansenne M, Nélis D, Feyers D, Salmon E, Majerus S. Better Neuronal Efficiency After Emotional Competences Training: An fMRI Study. Psychol Belg 2014; 54:328-349. [PMID: 30479407 PMCID: PMC5854183 DOI: 10.5334/pb.av] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/20/2022] Open
Abstract
Earlier studies demonstrated that adult emotional competences (EC) can be improved through relatively brief training. This increase has been investigated, thus far, using self-reported questionnaires and behavioral data. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the cerebral correlates underlying improvement in EC. An experimental group received an EC training and a control group received brief sessions of drama improvisation. Participants viewed negative, positive, and neutral pictures while attempting to decrease, increase, or not modulate their emotional reactions. Subjective reactions were assessed via on-line ratings. After the intervention, the training group showed less cerebral activity as compared to the control group within different regions related to emotional regulation and attention including prefrontal regions and the bilateral inferior parietal lobule, the right precentral gyrus and the intraparietal sulcus. These results suggest increased neural efficiency in the training group as a result of emotional competencies training.
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Affiliation(s)
| | | | | | - Eric Salmon
- Cyclotron Research Centre, University of Liège, Belgium
| | - Steve Majerus
- Department of Psychology, University of Liège, Belgium
- Belgian National Fund for Scientific Research (FNRS), Belgium
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44
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Ewbank MP, Rhodes G, von dem Hagen EAH, Powell TE, Bright N, Stoyanova RS, Baron-Cohen S, Calder AJ. Repetition Suppression in Ventral Visual Cortex Is Diminished as a Function of Increasing Autistic Traits. Cereb Cortex 2014; 25:3381-93. [PMID: 24988131 PMCID: PMC4585493 DOI: 10.1093/cercor/bhu149] [Citation(s) in RCA: 25] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/05/2023] Open
Abstract
Repeated viewing of a stimulus causes a change in perceptual sensitivity, known as a visual aftereffect. Similarly, in neuroimaging, repetitions of the same stimulus result in a reduction in the neural response, known as repetition suppression (RS). Previous research shows that aftereffects for faces are reduced in both children with autism and in first-degree relatives. With functional magnetic resonance imaging, we found that the magnitude of RS to faces in neurotypical participants was negatively correlated with individual differences in autistic traits. We replicated this finding in a second experiment, while additional experiments showed that autistic traits also negatively predicted RS to images of scenes and simple geometric shapes. These findings suggest that a core aspect of neural function--the brain's response to repetition--is modulated by autistic traits.
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Affiliation(s)
- Michael P Ewbank
- Medical Research Council, Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit, Cambridge, UK
| | - Gillian Rhodes
- ARC Centre of Excellence in Cognition and its Disorders, School of Psychology, University of Western Australia, Crawley, Western Australia, Australia
| | | | - Thomas E Powell
- Medical Research Council, Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit, Cambridge, UK
| | - Naomi Bright
- Medical Research Council, Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit, Cambridge, UK
| | - Raliza S Stoyanova
- Medical Research Council, Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit, Cambridge, UK
| | - Simon Baron-Cohen
- Autism Research Centre, Department of Psychiatry, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK
| | - Andrew J Calder
- Medical Research Council, Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit, Cambridge, UK ARC Centre of Excellence in Cognition and its Disorders, School of Psychology, University of Western Australia, Crawley, Western Australia, Australia
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45
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Lee KH, Siegle GJ. Different brain activity in response to emotional faces alone and augmented by contextual information. Psychophysiology 2014; 51:1147-57. [PMID: 24964216 DOI: 10.1111/psyp.12254] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/07/2013] [Accepted: 05/07/2014] [Indexed: 01/29/2023]
Abstract
This study examined the extent to which emotional face stimuli differ from the neural reactivity associated with more ecological contextually augmented stimuli. Participants were scanned when they viewed contextually rich pictures depicting both emotional faces and context, and pictures of emotional faces presented alone. Emotional faces alone were more strongly associated with brain activity in paralimbic and social information processing regions, whereas emotional faces augmented by context were associated with increased and sustained activity in regions potentially representing increased complexity and subjective emotional experience. Furthermore, context effects were modulated by emotional intensity and valence. These findings suggest that cortical elaboration that is apparent in contextually augmented stimuli may be missed in studies of emotional faces alone, whereas emotional faces may more selectively recruit limbic reactivity.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kyung Hwa Lee
- Department of Psychology, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
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46
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Gorka AX, Knodt AR, Hariri AR. Basal forebrain moderates the magnitude of task-dependent amygdala functional connectivity. Soc Cogn Affect Neurosci 2014; 10:501-7. [PMID: 24847112 DOI: 10.1093/scan/nsu080] [Citation(s) in RCA: 23] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/17/2014] [Accepted: 05/14/2014] [Indexed: 12/28/2022] Open
Abstract
Animal studies reveal that the amygdala promotes attention and emotional memory, in part, by driving activity in downstream target regions including the prefrontal cortex (PFC) and hippocampus. Prior work has demonstrated that the amygdala influences these regions directly through monosynaptic glutamatergic signaling, and indirectly by driving activity of the cholinergic basal forebrain and subsequent downstream acetylcholine release. Yet to date, no work has addressed the functional relevance of the cholinergic basal forebrain in facilitating signaling from the amygdala in humans. We set out to determine how blood oxygen level-dependent signal within the amygdala and cholinergic basal forebrain interact to predict neural responses within downstream targets. Here, we use functional connectivity analyses to demonstrate that the cholinergic basal forebrain moderates increased amygdala connectivity with both the PFC and the hippocampus during the processing of biologically salient stimuli in humans. We further demonstrate that functional variation within the choline transporter gene predicts the magnitude of this modulatory effect. Collectively, our results provide novel evidence for the importance of cholinergic signaling in modulating neural pathways supporting arousal, attention and memory in humans. Further, our results may shed light on prior association studies linking functional variation within the choline transporter gene and diagnoses of major depression and attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder.
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Affiliation(s)
- Adam X Gorka
- Laboratory of NeuroGenetics, Department of Psychology & Neuroscience, Institute for Genome Sciences & Policy, Duke University, Durham, 27708 NC, USA
| | - Annchen R Knodt
- Laboratory of NeuroGenetics, Department of Psychology & Neuroscience, Institute for Genome Sciences & Policy, Duke University, Durham, 27708 NC, USA
| | - Ahmad R Hariri
- Laboratory of NeuroGenetics, Department of Psychology & Neuroscience, Institute for Genome Sciences & Policy, Duke University, Durham, 27708 NC, USA
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47
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Deveney CM, Brotman MA, Thomas LA, Hinton KE, Muhrer EM, Reynolds RC, Adleman NE, Zarate CA, Pine DS, Leibenluft E. Neural response during explicit and implicit face processing varies developmentally in bipolar disorder. Soc Cogn Affect Neurosci 2014; 9:1984-92. [PMID: 24493839 DOI: 10.1093/scan/nsu014] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/11/2023] Open
Abstract
Both children and adults with bipolar disorder (BD) exhibit face emotion labeling deficits and neural circuitry dysfunction in response to emotional faces. However, few studies have compared these groups directly to distinguish effects of age and diagnosis. Such studies are important to begin to elucidate the developmental trajectory of BD and facilitate its diagnosis, prevention and treatment. This functional magnetic resonance imaging study compares 41 individuals with BD (19 children; 22 adults) and 44 age-matched healthy individuals (25 children; 19 adults) when making explicit or implicit judgments about angry or happy face morphs across a range of emotion intensity. Linear trend analyses revealed that BD patients, irrespective of age, failed to recruit the amygdala in response to increasing angry face. This finding was no longer significant when the group was restricted to euthymic youth or those without comorbid attention deficit hyperactivity disorder although this may reflect low statistical power. Deficits in subgenual anterior cingulate modulation were observed in both patient groups but were related to implicit processing for child patients and explicit processing for adult patients. Abnormalities in face emotion labeling and the circuitry mediating it may be biomarkers of BD that are present across development.
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Affiliation(s)
- Christen M Deveney
- Emotion and Development Branch, Department of Health and Human Services, National Institute of Mental Health, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA, Section on the Neurobiology and Treatment of Mood Disorders, Department of Health and Human Services, National Institute of Mental Health, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA, and Scientific and Statistical Computing Core, Department of Health and Human Services, National Institute of Mental Health, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA
| | - Melissa A Brotman
- Emotion and Development Branch, Department of Health and Human Services, National Institute of Mental Health, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA, Section on the Neurobiology and Treatment of Mood Disorders, Department of Health and Human Services, National Institute of Mental Health, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA, and Scientific and Statistical Computing Core, Department of Health and Human Services, National Institute of Mental Health, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA
| | - Laura A Thomas
- Emotion and Development Branch, Department of Health and Human Services, National Institute of Mental Health, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA, Section on the Neurobiology and Treatment of Mood Disorders, Department of Health and Human Services, National Institute of Mental Health, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA, and Scientific and Statistical Computing Core, Department of Health and Human Services, National Institute of Mental Health, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA
| | - Kendra E Hinton
- Emotion and Development Branch, Department of Health and Human Services, National Institute of Mental Health, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA, Section on the Neurobiology and Treatment of Mood Disorders, Department of Health and Human Services, National Institute of Mental Health, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA, and Scientific and Statistical Computing Core, Department of Health and Human Services, National Institute of Mental Health, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA
| | - Eli M Muhrer
- Emotion and Development Branch, Department of Health and Human Services, National Institute of Mental Health, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA, Section on the Neurobiology and Treatment of Mood Disorders, Department of Health and Human Services, National Institute of Mental Health, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA, and Scientific and Statistical Computing Core, Department of Health and Human Services, National Institute of Mental Health, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA
| | - Richard C Reynolds
- Emotion and Development Branch, Department of Health and Human Services, National Institute of Mental Health, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA, Section on the Neurobiology and Treatment of Mood Disorders, Department of Health and Human Services, National Institute of Mental Health, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA, and Scientific and Statistical Computing Core, Department of Health and Human Services, National Institute of Mental Health, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA
| | - Nancy E Adleman
- Emotion and Development Branch, Department of Health and Human Services, National Institute of Mental Health, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA, Section on the Neurobiology and Treatment of Mood Disorders, Department of Health and Human Services, National Institute of Mental Health, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA, and Scientific and Statistical Computing Core, Department of Health and Human Services, National Institute of Mental Health, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA
| | - Carlos A Zarate
- Emotion and Development Branch, Department of Health and Human Services, National Institute of Mental Health, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA, Section on the Neurobiology and Treatment of Mood Disorders, Department of Health and Human Services, National Institute of Mental Health, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA, and Scientific and Statistical Computing Core, Department of Health and Human Services, National Institute of Mental Health, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA
| | - Daniel S Pine
- Emotion and Development Branch, Department of Health and Human Services, National Institute of Mental Health, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA, Section on the Neurobiology and Treatment of Mood Disorders, Department of Health and Human Services, National Institute of Mental Health, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA, and Scientific and Statistical Computing Core, Department of Health and Human Services, National Institute of Mental Health, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA
| | - Ellen Leibenluft
- Emotion and Development Branch, Department of Health and Human Services, National Institute of Mental Health, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA, Section on the Neurobiology and Treatment of Mood Disorders, Department of Health and Human Services, National Institute of Mental Health, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA, and Scientific and Statistical Computing Core, Department of Health and Human Services, National Institute of Mental Health, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA
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Sebastian CL, McCrory EJ, Dadds MR, Cecil CAM, Lockwood PL, Hyde ZH, De Brito SA, Viding E. Neural responses to fearful eyes in children with conduct problems and varying levels of callous-unemotional traits. Psychol Med 2014; 44:99-109. [PMID: 23510564 DOI: 10.1017/s0033291713000482] [Citation(s) in RCA: 55] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/05/2022]
Abstract
BACKGROUND Children with conduct problems (CP) are a heterogeneous group. Those with high levels of callous-unemotional traits (CP/HCU) appear emotionally under-reactive at behavioural and neural levels whereas those with low levels of CU traits (CP/LCU) appear emotionally over-reactive, compared with typically developing (TD) controls. Investigating the degree to which these patterns of emotional reactivity are malleable may have important translational implications. Instructing participants with CP/HCU to focus on the eyes of fearful faces (i.e. the most salient feature) can ameliorate their fear-recognition deficits, but it is unknown whether this is mediated by amygdala response. It is also unknown whether focusing on fearful eyes is associated with increased amygdala reactivity in CP/LCU. METHOD Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was used to measure neural responses to fearful and calm faces in children with CP/HCU, CP/LCU and TD controls (n = 17 per group). On half of trials participants looked for a blue dot anywhere within target faces; on the other half, participants were directed to focus on the eye region. RESULTS Reaction time (RT) data showed that CP/LCU were selectively slowed in the fear/eyes condition. For the same condition, CP/LCU also showed increased amygdala and subgenual anterior cingulate cortex (sgACC)/orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) responses compared with TD controls. RT and amygdala response to fear/eyes were correlated in CP/LCU only. No effects of focusing on the eye region were observed in CP/HCU. CONCLUSIONS These data extend the evidence base suggesting that CU traits index meaningful heterogeneity in conduct problems. Focusing on regulating reactive emotional responses may be a fruitful strategy for children with CP/LCU.
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Affiliation(s)
- C L Sebastian
- Division of Psychology and Language Sciences, University College London, UK
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Ramasubbu R, Konduru N, Cortese F, Bray S, Gaxiola-Valdez I, Goodyear B. Reduced intrinsic connectivity of amygdala in adults with major depressive disorder. Front Psychiatry 2014; 5:17. [PMID: 24600410 PMCID: PMC3928548 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyt.2014.00017] [Citation(s) in RCA: 117] [Impact Index Per Article: 11.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/12/2013] [Accepted: 02/04/2014] [Indexed: 11/17/2022] Open
Abstract
Imaging studies of major depressive disorder (MDD) have demonstrated enhanced resting-state activity of the amygdala as well as exaggerated reactivity to negative emotional stimuli relative to healthy controls (HCs). However, the abnormalities in the intrinsic connectivity of the amygdala in MDD still remain unclear. As the resting-state activity and functional connectivity (RSFC) reflect fundamental brain processes, we compared the RSFC of the amygdala between unmedicated MDD patients and HCs. Seventy-four subjects, 55 adults meeting the DSM-IV criteria for MDD and 19 HCs, underwent a resting-state 3-T functional magnetic resonance imaging scan. An amygdala seed-based low frequency RSFC map for the whole brain was generated for each group. Compared with HCs, MDD patients showed a wide-spread reduction in the intrinsic connectivity of the amygdala with a variety of brain regions involved in emotional processing and regulation, including the ventrolateral prefrontal cortex, insula, caudate, middle and superior temporal regions, occipital cortex, and cerebellum, as well as increased connectivity with the bilateral temporal poles (p < 0.05 corrected). The increase in the intrinsic connectivity of amygdala with the temporal poles was inversely correlated with symptom severity and anxiety scores. Although the directionality of connections between regions cannot be inferred from temporal correlations, the reduced intrinsic connectivity of the amygdala predominantly with regions involved in emotional processing may reflect impaired bottom-up signaling for top-down cortical modulation of limbic regions leading to abnormal affect regulation in MDD.
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Affiliation(s)
- Rajamannar Ramasubbu
- Department of Psychiatry, University of Calgary , Calgary, AB , Canada ; Department of Clinical Neuroscience, University of Calgary , Calgary, AB , Canada ; Mathison Centre for Mental Health Research and Education, University of Calgary , Calgary, AB , Canada ; Hotchkiss Brain Institute, University of Calgary , Calgary, AB , Canada
| | - Nithya Konduru
- Department of Psychiatry, University of Calgary , Calgary, AB , Canada
| | - Filomeno Cortese
- Hotchkiss Brain Institute, University of Calgary , Calgary, AB , Canada
| | - Signe Bray
- Department of Radiology, University of Calgary , Calgary, AB , Canada ; Alberta Children's Hospital Research Institute , Calgary, AB , Canada
| | | | - Bradley Goodyear
- Department of Psychiatry, University of Calgary , Calgary, AB , Canada ; Department of Clinical Neuroscience, University of Calgary , Calgary, AB , Canada ; Hotchkiss Brain Institute, University of Calgary , Calgary, AB , Canada ; Department of Radiology, University of Calgary , Calgary, AB , Canada
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Neural response to emotional stimuli associated with successful antidepressant treatment and behavioral activation. J Affect Disord 2013; 151:573-581. [PMID: 23948629 DOI: 10.1016/j.jad.2013.06.050] [Citation(s) in RCA: 35] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/14/2013] [Revised: 02/06/2013] [Accepted: 06/28/2013] [Indexed: 11/21/2022]
Abstract
BACKGROUND Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) is a leading cause of disability globally. Currently available treatments have limited efficacy and combination strategies are frequently used. Several lines of research have demonstrated that MDD patients experience impairments in various components of affective processing, including regulation of affective states. AIM To identify baseline and 1-week neuroimaging predictors of response to a 6-week trial of fluoxetine/olanzapine combination treatment during an affective processing task. METHODS Twenty-one MDD patients and 18 healthy controls were enrolled in the study. MDD patients were treated for 6 weeks with fluoxetine (40-60 mg/day) and olanzapine (5-12.5mg/day). All participants viewed images from the International Affective Picture Rating System during a functional magnetic resonance (fMRI) scan at baseline and 1 week. RESULTS There was a 57% response rate (defined as a 50% decrease in Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression-17 item) at 6 weeks. At baseline, responders had increased premotor activity while viewing negative images compared to non-responders and healthy controls. Higher baseline premotor activity was also predictive of greater percent change on the HAMD-17 and improvement in negative disposition and behavioral drive. Non-responders exhibited increased insular activity at baseline compared to responders. Higher activity in the posterior cingulate cortex was also predictive of greater percent change on the HAMD-17. Change from baseline to 1 week did not produce any significant predictive findings. CONCLUSIONS Treatment with fluoxetine/olanzapine demonstrated similar biomarkers of response to monotherapeutic strategies. In particular, posterior cingulate cortex, anterior insula, and premotor cortex may show predictive differences in their response to affective images prior to treatment. Further research needs to be conducted to determine the utility of early changes in emotion circuitry in predicting antidepressant response.
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