Investigation of an emotion perception test using functional magnetic resonance imaging

Expanded gray matter atrophy with severity stages of adult comorbid insomnia and sleep apnea

OBJECTIVE

To investigate gray matter volume (GMV) changes in patients with comorbid insomnia and sleep apnea (COMISA) of differing severity and relationships between GMV alterations and clinical measures.

METHODS

Thirty-four COMISA patients and 24 healthy controls (HC) were recruited. All patients underwent structural MRI and completed measures related to respiration, sleep, mood, and cognition. COMISA patients were further divided into a mild and moderate COMISA (MC) and a severe COMISA (SC) group. Changes in GMV of COMISA patients were investigated via VBM. The voxel-wise differences in GMV were compared between HC group and COMISA group. Analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) was performed on individual GMV maps in MC, SC, and HC groups to further investigate effects of different stages of COMISA severity on GMV. Partial correlation analysis was then performed to analyze relationships between altered GMV and clinical measures.

RESULTS

GMV atrophy was mainly located in the temporal lobes and fusiform gyrus in COMISA group. The post-hoc analysis of the ANCOVA revealed temporal lobes and fusiform gyrus atrophy in MC and SC groups compared to HC and the temporal lobe atrophy was expanded in SC group based on cluster size. Moreover, the SC group showed GMV atrophy of the right amygdala compared to both MC and HC groups. Partial correlation analysis revealed positive relationships between the GMV and mood-and cognitive-related measures and negative correlation between GMV and respiration measure.

CONCLUSIONS

Our findings showed GMV atrophy expansion from temporal lobe to limbic system (right amygdala) as severity stages increase in COMISA patients. These findings contribute to our understanding of neurobiological mechanisms underlying different stages of severity in COMISA patients.

The conscious processing of emotion in depression disorder: a meta-analysis of neuroimaging studies

Background

Depression is generally accompanied by a disturbed conscious processing of emotion, which manifests as a negative bias to facial/voice emotion information and a decreased accuracy in emotion recognition tasks. Several studies have proved that abnormal brain activation was responsible for the deficit function of conscious emotion recognition in depression. However, the altered brain activation related to the conscious processing of emotion in depression was incongruent among studies. Therefore, we conducted an activation likelihood estimation (ALE) analysis to better understand the underlying neurophysiological mechanism of conscious processing of emotion in depression.

Method

Electronic databases were searched using the search terms "depression," "emotion recognition," and "neuroimaging" from inceptions to April 10th, 2023. We retrieved trials which explored the neuro-responses of depressive patients to explicit emotion recognition tasks. Two investigators independently performed literature selection, data extraction, and risk of bias assessment. The spatial consistency of brain activation in conscious facial expressions recognition was calculated using ALE. The robustness of the results was examined by Jackknife sensitivity analysis.

Results

We retrieved 11,365 articles in total, 28 of which were included. In the overall analysis, we found increased activity in the middle temporal gyrus, superior temporal gyrus, parahippocampal gyrus, and cuneus, and decreased activity in the superior temporal gyrus, inferior parietal lobule, insula, and superior frontal gyrus. In response to positive stimuli, depressive patients showed hyperactivity in the medial frontal gyrus, middle temporal gyrus, and insula (uncorrected p < 0.001). When receiving negative stimuli, a higher activation was found in the precentral gyrus, middle frontal gyrus, precuneus, and superior temporal gyrus (uncorrected p < 0.001).

Conclusion

Among depressive patients, a broad spectrum of brain areas was involved in a deficit of conscious emotion processing. The activation of brain regions was different in response to positive or negative stimuli. Due to potential clinical heterogeneity, the findings should be treated with caution.

Systematic review registration

https://inplasy.com/inplasy-2022-11-0057/, identifier: 2022110057.

Recognition of Facial Emotion Expressions in Patients with Depressive Disorders: A Functional MRI Study

BACKGROUND

The present study evaluated the cortical activation during emotional information recognition.

METHODS

The study group included 16 patients with depression, and 16 healthy subjects were enrolled as a control group. Patients received eight weeks of antidepressant therapy. Functional MRI evaluated the cortical activation twice in the patient group and once in the control group. The fMRI task processed the emotional information with face demonstration from the PennCNP test battery.

RESULTS

During the processing of emotional information, patients showed activation in the middle and the inferior frontal gyri, the fusiform gyrus, and the occipital cortex. After treatment, patients showed a significant decrease in the frontal cortex activation for negative face demonstration and no frontal activation for positive emotion recognition. The left superior temporal gyrus activation zone appeared in patients after treatment and in the control group. Healthy subjects showed more intense frontal cortex activation when processing neutral emotions and less when showing happy and sad faces. Activation zones in the amygdala and the insula and deactivation zones in the posterior cingulate cortex were revealed in the controls.

CONCLUSION

This study confirms the hypothesis that anomalies in the processing of emotional stimuli can be a sign of a depressive disorder.

The Study on the Identification of Musical Passages for an Emotion Perception Scale for People With Developmental Disabilities

BACKGROUND

Emotion recognition is essential to the social adjustment and social interaction of people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDDs). Given that music is a medium for expressing and conveying human emotion, we conducted this preliminary study to identify musical passages representing the basic human emotions of happiness, sadness, and anger, with the goal of developing a music-based emotion perception scale for IDDs.

METHODS

To identify musical passages for emotion perception, 20 certified music therapists evaluated 100 selected musical passages and established 60 pieces that yielded the highest agreement for each emotion category. During the second phase of this study, 300 neurotypical participants rated 60 passages in terms of the perceived type and intensity of emotions expressed.

RESULTS

The 60 passages showed high reliability and were statistically classified into three factors: happiness, sadness, and anger. The k-means cluster analysis yielded a cut-off score of 41 for the low emotion perception group (F = 1120.63, P < 0.001). The hierarchical logistic regression analysis revealed that only model 3 (musical passages) was significantly associated with low emotion perception (step χ² = 227.8, P < 0.001).

CONCLUSION

The selected musical passages demonstrated high reliability and established three factors for identifying perceptions of happiness, sadness, and anger. Neither psychological status nor individual demographic characteristics affected the emotion perception results.

Integrative interaction of emotional speech in audio-visual modality

Emotional clues are always expressed in many ways in our daily life, and the emotional information we receive is often represented by multiple modalities. Successful social interactions require a combination of multisensory cues to accurately determine the emotion of others. The integration mechanism of multimodal emotional information has been widely investigated. Different brain activity measurement methods were used to determine the location of brain regions involved in the audio-visual integration of emotional information, mainly in the bilateral superior temporal regions. However, the methods adopted in these studies are relatively simple, and the materials of the study rarely contain speech information. The integration mechanism of emotional speech in the human brain still needs further examinations. In this paper, a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study was conducted using event-related design to explore the audio-visual integration mechanism of emotional speech in the human brain by using dynamic facial expressions and emotional speech to express emotions of different valences. Representational similarity analysis (RSA) based on regions of interest (ROIs), whole brain searchlight analysis, modality conjunction analysis and supra-additive analysis were used to analyze and verify the role of relevant brain regions. Meanwhile, a weighted RSA method was used to evaluate the contributions of each candidate model in the best fitted model of ROIs. The results showed that only the left insula was detected by all methods, suggesting that the left insula played an important role in the audio-visual integration of emotional speech. Whole brain searchlight analysis, modality conjunction analysis and supra-additive analysis together revealed that the bilateral middle temporal gyrus (MTG), right inferior parietal lobule and bilateral precuneus might be involved in the audio-visual integration of emotional speech from other aspects.

A Review of AI Cloud and Edge Sensors, Methods, and Applications for the Recognition of Emotional, Affective and Physiological States

Affective, emotional, and physiological states (AFFECT) detection and recognition by capturing human signals is a fast-growing area, which has been applied across numerous domains. The research aim is to review publications on how techniques that use brain and biometric sensors can be used for AFFECT recognition, consolidate the findings, provide a rationale for the current methods, compare the effectiveness of existing methods, and quantify how likely they are to address the issues/challenges in the field. In efforts to achieve the key goals of Society 5.0, Industry 5.0, and human-centered design better, the recognition of emotional, affective, and physiological states is progressively becoming an important matter and offers tremendous growth of knowledge and progress in these and other related fields. In this research, a review of AFFECT recognition brain and biometric sensors, methods, and applications was performed, based on Plutchik's wheel of emotions. Due to the immense variety of existing sensors and sensing systems, this study aimed to provide an analysis of the available sensors that can be used to define human AFFECT, and to classify them based on the type of sensing area and their efficiency in real implementations. Based on statistical and multiple criteria analysis across 169 nations, our outcomes introduce a connection between a nation's success, its number of Web of Science articles published, and its frequency of citation on AFFECT recognition. The principal conclusions present how this research contributes to the big picture in the field under analysis and explore forthcoming study trends.

Contribution of brain network connectivity in predicting effects of polygenic risk and childhood trauma on state-trait anxiety

BACKGROUND

Anxiety is usually attributed to adverse environmental factors, but it is known as a polygenic inheritance disease. Gene-environment interactions on the occurrence and severity of anxiety are still unclear. The role of brain network connectivity in the gene-environment effects on anxiety has not been explored and may be key to understanding neuropathogenesis and guiding treatment.

METHODS

This study recruited 177 young adults from the community that completed functional magnetic resonance imaging, Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (CTQ), state-trait anxiety scores, and whole exome sequencing. We calculated polygenic risk score (PRS) for anxiety and the sum score of CTQ, which are genetic and environmental factors that may affect anxiety, respectively. Abnormal brain network connectivity determined by the gene-environment effects and its associations with anxiety scores were then explored.

RESULTS

Except for the main effect of PRS or CTQ on intra-network connectivity, significant interactions were found in intra-network connectivity of visual network, default mode network, self-reference network, and sensorimotor network. Moreover, altered network connectivity was related to anxious tendency. In particular, the effect of CTQ on trait anxiety was mediated by the disrupted sensorimotor network, accompanied by a significant direct effect. However, the PRS influence on anxiety was mainly mediated through sensorimotor network paths, which exceeded the direct influence and was moderated by childhood trauma levels.

CONCLUSIONS

These network-specific functional changes related to individual gene-environment risks advance our understanding of psychiatric pathogenesis of anxiety and provide new insights for clinical intervention.

Subregion-specific, modality-dependent and timescale-sensitive hippocampal connectivity alterations in patients with first-episode, drug-naïve major depression disorder

BACKGROUND

Despite accumulating evidence for the hippocampus as a key dysfunctional node in major depressive disorder (MDD), previous findings are controversial possibly due to heterogeneous and small clinical samples, complicated hippocampal structure, and different imaging modalities and analytical methods.

METHODS

We collected structural and resting-state functional MRI data from 100 first-episode, drug-naïve MDD patients and 99 healthy controls. A subset of the participants (34 patients and 33 controls) also completed a battery of neuropsychological tests and childhood trauma questionnaires. Seed-based morphological and functional (static and dynamic) connectivity were calculated for ten hippocampal subregions, followed by analyses of dynamic functional connectivity states (k-means clustering), connectivity cross-modality relationships (cosine similarity), and connectivity associations with clinical and neuropsychological variables (Spearman correlation).

RESULTS

Between-group comparisons revealed abnormal hippocampal connectivity in the patients that depended on 1) hippocampal subdivisions: the cornu ammonis (CA) was the most seriously affected subregion, in particular the right CA1 for functional connectivity alterations; 2) imaging modality: morphological connectivity revealed seldom and sporadic alterations with different lobes, while functional connectivity identified numerous and convergent alterations with prefrontal regions; and 3) time scale: dynamic functional connectivity was more sensitive than static functional connectivity, in particular in revealing alterations between the right CA1 and contralateral prefrontal cortex. Among the 34 patients, functional connectivity alterations of the CA1 were related to the history of childhood trauma in the patients.

LIMITATIONS

Only a subset of the patients completed the neuropsychological tests, which may cause underestimation of cognitive relevance of hippocampal connectivity alterations.

CONCLUSIONS

Disrupted hippocampal CA1 functional connectivity plays key roles in the pathophysiology of MDD and may act as a potential diagnostic biomarker for the disease.

Interaction of Gut Microbiota and Brain Function in Patients With Chronic Insomnia: A Regional Homogeneity Study

Recent studies have shown that the human gut microbiota (GM) plays a critical role in brain function and behavior via the complex microbiome–gut–brain axis. However, knowledge about the underlying relationship between the GM and changes in brain function in patients with chronic insomnia (CI) is still very limited. In this prospective study, 31 CI patients and 30 healthy controls were recruited. Resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging scans were performed and brain functional alterations in CI patients were evaluated using the regional homogeneity (ReHo) method. We collected fecal samples of CI patients and used 16S rDNA amplicon sequencing to assess the relative abundance (RA) and alpha diversity of the GM. We also performed extensive sleep, mood, and cognitive assessments. Then, we tested for potential associations between the GM profile, ReHo alterations, and neuropsychological changes in CI patients. Our results showed associations between the RA of Lactobacilli, ReHo values in the left fusiform gyrus, and depression scores in CI patients. We also found some bacterial genera related to ReHo values of the right triangular inferior frontal gyrus. In addition, the RA of genus Coprobacter was correlated with ReHo values of the left angular gyrus and with specific cognitive performance. These findings revealed complex relationships between GM, brain function, and behavior in patients with CI.

Aberrant Resting-State Functional Brain Connectivity of Insular Subregions in Obstructive Sleep Apnea

The insular cortex is a cortical regulatory area involved in dyspnea, cognition, emotion, and sensorimotor function. Previous studies reported that obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) shows insular tissue damage and abnormal functional connections for the whole insula. The insula can be divided into different subregions with distinct functional profiles, including the ventral anterior insula (vAI) participating in affective processing, dorsal anterior insula (dAI) involved in cognitive processing, and posterior insula (PI) involved in the processing of sensorimotor information. However, the functional connectivity (FC) of these insular subregions in OSA has yet to be established. Hence, the purpose of this study was to explore the resting-state FC of the insular subregions with other brain areas and its relationship with clinical symptoms of OSA. Resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging data from 83 male OSA patients and 84 healthy controls were analyzed by whole-brain voxel-based FC using spherical seeds from six insular subregions, namely, the bilateral vAI, dAI, and PI, to identify abnormalities in the insular subregions network and related brain regions. Ultimately, the Pearson correlation analysis was carried out between the dysfunction results and the neuropsychological tests. Compared with the healthy control group, the OSA patients exhibited disturbed FC from the dAI to areas relevant to cognition, such as the bilateral cerebellum posterior lobe, superior frontal gyrus, right middle frontal gyrus and middle temporal gyrus; decreased FC from the vAI to areas linked with emotion, such as the bilateral fusiform gyrus, superior parietal lobule, precuneus and cerebellum posterior lobe; and abnormal FC from the PI to the brain regions involved in sensorimotor such as the bilateral precentral gyrus, right superior/middle temporal gyrus and left superior frontal gyrus. The linear regression result showed that the apnea-hypopnea index was positively correlated with the increased FC between the right PI and the right precuneus (after Bonferroni correlation, P < 0.001) In conclusion, the abnormal FC between insular subregions and other brain regions were related to cognitive, emotional and sensorimotor networks in OSA patients. These results may provide a new imaging perspective for further understanding of OSA-related cognitive and affective disorders.

Functional Connectivity Density in the Sensorimotor Area is Associated with Sleep Latency in Patients with Primary Insomnia

OBJECTIVE

It is unclear whether the patterns of functional connectivity density (FCD) differ between patients with primary insomnia (PI) and healthy subjects. In the present study, we investigated the features of FCD in patients with PI using resting-state functional MRI (rsfMRI).

METHODS

rsfMRI datasets of 32 patients with PI and 34 healthy controls (HCs) were obtained using a 3-Tesla scanner. FCD analysis was performed to compare voxels with abnormal whole-brain functional connectivity with other voxels among patients with PI and HCs. Abnormal brain regions were then used as seed points for FC analysis.

RESULTS

Compared with HCs, patients with PI exhibited significantly decreased FCD in the left medial frontal gyrus and increased FCD in the left supplementary motor area (SMA). With the left medial frontal gyrus as the seed point, patients with PI showed decreased FC between the left medial frontal gyrus and the left fusiform gyrus compared with HCs. With the left SMA as the seed point, patients with PI exhibited increased FC between the left SMA and the right anterior cingulate gyrus. Correlation analysis revealed that the increased FCD values in the left SMA were positively correlated with sleep latency in patients with PI.

CONCLUSION

Default-mode network and SMA dysfunctions may be related to the pathophysiology of PI.

Weighted RSA: An Improved Framework on the Perception of Audio-visual Affective Speech in Left Insula and Superior Temporal Gyrus

Being able to accurately perceive the emotion expressed by the facial or verbal expression from others is critical to successful social interaction. However, only few studies examined the multimodal interactions on speech emotion, and there is no consistence in studies on the speech emotion perception. It remains unclear, how the speech emotion of different valence is perceived on the multimodal stimuli by our human brain. In this paper, we conducted a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study with an event-related design, using dynamic facial expressions and emotional speech stimuli to express different emotions, in order to explore the perception mechanism of speech emotion in audio-visual modality. The representational similarity analysis (RSA), whole-brain searchlight analysis, and conjunction analysis of emotion were used to interpret the representation of speech emotion in different aspects. Significantly, a weighted RSA approach was creatively proposed to evaluate the contribution of each candidate model to the best fitted model and provided a supplement to RSA. The results of weighted RSA indicated that the fitted models were superior to all candidate models and the weights could be used to explain the representation of ROIs. The bilateral amygdala has been shown to be associated with the processing of both positive and negative emotions except neutral emotion. It is indicated that the left posterior insula and the left anterior superior temporal gyrus (STG) play important roles in the perception of multimodal speech emotion.

Correlations Between Cognitive Functions and Clinical Symptoms in Adolescents With Complex Post-traumatic Stress Disorder

Introduction: Complex post-traumatic stress disorder (C-PTSD) is characterized by the typical symptoms of PTSD, in addition to affective dysregulation, negative self-concept, and disturbances in interpersonal relationships. Children and adolescents with C-PTSD have been reported to have deficits in emotional and cognitive functions. We hypothesized that the following are associated with the severity of C-PTSD symptoms: (1) adolescents with C-PTSD who show deficits in emotional perception and cognitive functions, including executive function and attention; and (2) deficits in neurocognitive functions. Methods: Information on 69 adolescents with PTSD, aged 10-19 years, was gathered from seven shelters. All participants were assessed using complete clinical scales, including the C-PTSD Interview and Depression, Anxiety, and Stress Scales, and neurocognitive function tests, including the emotional perception, mental rotation, and modified Tower of London tests. Results: Adolescents with C-PTSD were more likely to have a history of sexual assault, dissociation, and self-harm than those with PTSD. The total and subscale scores of the C-PTSD Interview Scale in adolescents with C-PTSD were higher than that in adolescents with PTSD. In addition, neurocognitive functions, including emotional perception, attention, and working memory, were correlated with the severity of C-PTSD symptoms. Discussion: Adolescents with C-PTSD experienced more serious clinical symptoms and showed more deficits in neurocognitive functions than adolescents with PTSD. Clinicians should pay careful attention toward the emotional and neurocognitive functions when assessing and treating patients with C-PTSD.

Different facial recognition patterns in schizophrenia and bipolar disorder assessed using a computerized emotional perception test and fMRI

BACKGROUND

The emotional perception test is considered an effective tool in differentiating between schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. We hypothesized that schizophrenic patients would show decreased emotional perception ability compared with bipolar patients and that the disrupted emotional perception ability would be associated with the disrupted functional connectivity within the fronto-temporal-occipital circuit.

METHODS

In total, 55 schizophrenic patients, 54 bipolar patients, and 50 healthy participants were evaluated using a computerized assessment tool for facial emotion recognition, resting-state magnetic resonance imaging, and Korean versions of the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS) and Young Mania Rating Scale (YMRS).

RESULTS

The emotional perception index (EPI) was higher in the schizophrenia group than in the bipolar and healthy control (lowest) groups. The PANSS total and YMRS scores positively correlated with the EPI in schizophrenia and bipolar patients. In healthy controls, EPI positively correlated with regional homogeneity (ReHo) within the left fusiform gyrus, left superior frontal gyrus, left inferior frontal gyrus, and right inferior temporal gyrus. In schizophrenic patients, EPI negatively correlated with ReHo within the frontal lobe and left fusiform gyrus. In bipolar patients, EPI positively correlated with ReHo within the left parietal lobe and negatively correlated with ReHo within both frontal lobes.

LIMITATIONS

More specific definition of EPI should be suggested. Due to lack of cognitive function tests, cognitive functions might be biased throughout the analyses.

CONCLUSIONS

Schizophrenic patients showed decreased emotion recognition abilities compared with bipolar patients. Further, schizophrenic patients showed less frontal cortex usage, while bipolar patients used the parietal lobe to compensate for facial emotion recognition.

Effects of childhood trauma experience and BDNF Val66Met polymorphism on brain plasticity relate to emotion regulation

Brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) Val66Met polymorphism may modulate the link between childhood trauma experience and psychopathology by altering trophic signaling on neuroplasticity. However, few multimodal magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) researches have investigated this gene-environment interaction on both structural and functional plasticity, thereby advancing knowledge about the etiology, prevention, and customized therapeutic directions of mental disease in individuals with childhood trauma experience. We recruited a large non-clinical sample of young adults that completed Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (CTQ), behavioral scores, multimodal MRI scans, and genotyping. Morphometric similarity network (MSN) and independent component analysis were adopted to quantify brain structural and functional changes. Gene-environment-brain-behavior relationships were identified by multiple regression and mediation effect analysis. CTQ score was positively associated with depression and anxiety scores. We found interactions on MSN in sensorimotor, temporal, and orbitofrontal cortex. For intra-network connectivity, significant interaction was noted in clusters within sensorimotor network. For inter-network connectivity, connectivity between dorsal attention network and salience network showed an interactive effect. For mean connectivity strength of each network, we found a main effect of CTQ score on self-reference network that was an outstanding mediator supporting the relationship between CTQ score and anxiety. Our findings demonstrate that childhood trauma and the BDNF Val66Met polymorphism are associated with brain plasticity involving emotion regulation, structurally and functionally, which may contribute to understanding psychotic mechanisms and predicting differential susceptibility. Imaging genetics may be useful as biomarkers to provide early assessment and guide cognitive interventions to avoid or decrease the risk of developing psychopathology.