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Bas‐Hoogendam JM, van Steenbergen H, Blackford JU, Tissier RLM, van der Wee NJA, Westenberg PM. Impaired neural habituation to neutral faces in families genetically enriched for social anxiety disorder. Depress Anxiety 2019; 36:1143-1153. [PMID: 31600020 PMCID: PMC6916167 DOI: 10.1002/da.22962] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/30/2019] [Revised: 08/22/2019] [Accepted: 08/24/2019] [Indexed: 01/09/2023] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND Social anxiety disorder (SAD) is an incapacitating disorder running in families. Previous work associated social fearfulness with a failure to habituate, but the habituation response to neutral faces has, as of yet, not been investigated in patients with SAD and their family members concurrently. Here, we examined whether impaired habituation to neutral faces is a putative neurobiological endophenotype of SAD by using data from the multiplex and multigenerational Leiden Family Lab study on SAD. METHODS Participants (n = 110; age, 9.2 - 61.5 years) performed a habituation paradigm involving neutral faces, as these are strong social stimuli with an ambiguous meaning. We used functional magnetic resonance imaging data to investigate whether brain activation related to habituation was associated with the level of social anxiety within the families. Furthermore, the heritability of the neural habituation response was estimated. RESULTS Our data revealed a relationship between impaired habituation to neutral faces and social anxiety in the right hippocampus and right amygdala. In addition, our data indicated that this habituation response displayed moderate - to-moderately high heritability in the right hippocampus. CONCLUSION The present results provide support for altered habituation as a candidate SAD endophenotype; impaired neural habitation cosegregrated with the disorder within families and was heritable. These findings shed light on the genetic susceptibility to SAD.
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Affiliation(s)
- Janna M. Bas‐Hoogendam
- Developmental and Educational Psychology, Institute of PsychologyLeiden UniversityLeidenThe Netherlands,Department of PsychiatryLeiden University Medical CenterLeidenThe Netherlands,Leiden Institute for Brain and CognitionLeidenThe Netherlands
| | - Henk van Steenbergen
- Leiden Institute for Brain and CognitionLeidenThe Netherlands,Cognitive Psychology Unit, Institute of PsychologyUniversity of LeidenLeidenThe Netherlands
| | - Jennifer Urbano Blackford
- Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral SciencesVanderbilt University Medical CenterNashvilleTennessee,Department of Veterans Affairs Medical CenterResearch Service, Research and DevelopmentNashvilleTennessee
| | - Renaud L. M. Tissier
- Developmental and Educational Psychology, Institute of PsychologyLeiden UniversityLeidenThe Netherlands
| | - Nic J. A. van der Wee
- Department of PsychiatryLeiden University Medical CenterLeidenThe Netherlands,Leiden Institute for Brain and CognitionLeidenThe Netherlands
| | - P. Michiel Westenberg
- Developmental and Educational Psychology, Institute of PsychologyLeiden UniversityLeidenThe Netherlands,Leiden Institute for Brain and CognitionLeidenThe Netherlands
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2
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Mantua J, Ready RE. Emotion habituation is accelerated in chronic mild traumatic brain injury. Brain Inj 2019; 33:1467-1475. [DOI: 10.1080/02699052.2019.1646434] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/31/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Janna Mantua
- Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, University of Massachusetts Amherst, Amherst, Massachusetts, USA
- Behavioral Biology Branch, Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, Silver Spring, Maryland, USA
| | - Rebecca E. Ready
- Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, University of Massachusetts Amherst, Amherst, Massachusetts, USA
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3
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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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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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5
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Hoogeveen HR, Dalenberg JR, Renken RJ, ter Horst GJ, Lorist MM. Neural processing of basic tastes in healthy young and older adults — an fMRI study. Neuroimage 2015; 119:1-12. [DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2015.06.017] [Citation(s) in RCA: 32] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/17/2014] [Revised: 05/13/2015] [Accepted: 06/04/2015] [Indexed: 11/29/2022] Open
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6
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Benner S, Endo T, Kakeyama M, Tohyama C. Environmental insults in early life and submissiveness later in life in mouse models. Front Neurosci 2015; 9:91. [PMID: 25873851 PMCID: PMC4379894 DOI: 10.3389/fnins.2015.00091] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/17/2014] [Accepted: 03/04/2015] [Indexed: 01/12/2023] Open
Abstract
Dominant and subordinate dispositions are not only determined genetically but also nurtured by environmental stimuli during neuroendocrine development. However, the relationship between early life environment and dominance behavior remains elusive. Using the IntelliCage-based competition task for group-housed mice, we have previously described two cases in which environmental insults during the developmental period altered the outcome of dominance behavior later in life. First, mice that were repeatedly isolated from their mother and their littermates (early deprivation; ED), and second, mice perinatally exposed to an environmental pollutant, dioxin, both exhibited subordinate phenotypes, defined by decreased occupancy of limited resource sites under highly competitive circumstances. Similar alterations found in the cortex and limbic area of these two models are suggestive of the presence of neural systems shared across generalized dominance behavior.
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Affiliation(s)
- Seico Benner
- Laboratory of Environmental Health Sciences, Center for Disease Biology and Integrative Medicine, Graduate School of Medicine, The University of Tokyo Tokyo, Japan
| | - Toshihiro Endo
- Laboratory of Environmental Health Sciences, Center for Disease Biology and Integrative Medicine, Graduate School of Medicine, The University of Tokyo Tokyo, Japan ; Department of Neurochemistry, Graduate School of Medicine, The University of Tokyo Tokyo, Japan
| | - Masaki Kakeyama
- Laboratory of Environmental Health Sciences, Center for Disease Biology and Integrative Medicine, Graduate School of Medicine, The University of Tokyo Tokyo, Japan ; Department of Neurobiology and Behavior, Nagasaki University Nagasaki, Japan
| | - Chiharu Tohyama
- Laboratory of Environmental Health Sciences, Center for Disease Biology and Integrative Medicine, Graduate School of Medicine, The University of Tokyo Tokyo, Japan
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7
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Newman-Norlund RD, Thrasher JF, Fridriksson J, Brixius W, Froeliger B, Hammond D, Cummings MK. Neural biomarkers for assessing different types of imagery in pictorial health warning labels for cigarette packaging: a cross-sectional study. BMJ Open 2014; 4:e006411. [PMID: 25552613 PMCID: PMC4281542 DOI: 10.1136/bmjopen-2014-006411] [Citation(s) in RCA: 18] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/23/2022] Open
Abstract
OBJECTIVE Countries around the world have increasingly adopted pictorial health warning labels (HWLs) for tobacco packages to warn consumers about smoking-related risks. Research on how pictorial HWLs work has primarily analysed self-reported responses to HWLs; studies at the neural level comparing the brain's response to different types of HWLs may provide an important complement to prior studies, especially if self-reported responses are systematically biased. In this study we characterise the brain's response to three types of pictorial HWLs for which prior self-report studies indicated different levels of efficacy. METHODS Current smokers rated pictorial HWLs and then observed the same HWLs during functional MRI (fMRI) scanning. Fifty 18-50-year-old current adult smokers who were free from neurological disorders were recruited from the general population and participated in the study. Demographics, smoking-related behaviours and self-reported ratings of pictorial HWL stimuli were obtained prior to scanning. Brain responses to HWLs were assessed using fMRI, focusing on a priori regions of interest. RESULTS Pictorial HWL stimuli elicited activation in a broad network of brain areas associated with visual processing and emotion. Participants who rated the stimuli as more emotionally arousing also showed greater neural responses at these sites. CONCLUSIONS Self-reported ratings of pictorial HWLs are correlated with neural responses in brain areas associated with visual and emotional processing. Study results cross-validate self-reported ratings of pictorial HWLs and provide insights into how pictorial HWLs are processed.
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Affiliation(s)
- Roger D Newman-Norlund
- Department of Exercise Science, University of South Carolina, Columbia, South Carolina, USA
| | - James F Thrasher
- Department of Health Promotion, Education and Behavior, University of South Carolina, Columbia, South Carolina, USA
| | - Johann Fridriksson
- Department of Health Promotion, Education and Behavior, University of South Carolina, Columbia, South Carolina, USA
| | - William Brixius
- Department of Psychology, University of South Carolina, Columbia, South Carolina, USA
| | - Brett Froeliger
- Department of Neurosciences, Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston, South Carolina, USA
- Medical University of South Carolina, Hollings Cancer Center, Charleston, South Carolina, USA
| | - David Hammond
- University of Waterloo, School of Public Health and Health Systems, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada
| | - Michael K Cummings
- Medical University of South Carolina, Hollings Cancer Center, Charleston, South Carolina, USA
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8
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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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9
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Andreano JM, Dickerson BC, Barrett LF. Sex differences in the persistence of the amygdala response to negative material. Soc Cogn Affect Neurosci 2013; 9:1388-94. [PMID: 24036962 DOI: 10.1093/scan/nst127] [Citation(s) in RCA: 40] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/15/2023] Open
Abstract
Previous studies have indicated that men and women have different amygdala responses to novel (vs familiar) and valenced (positive vs negative) material. It is not known, however, whether these affective sex differences are related. In this study, we tested whether women have more persistent amygdala responses to familiar, negative material than men do. During fMRI, male and female participants viewed evocative images that varied in novelty and valence. Women and men showed equivalent responses to novel negative material, but women showed a sustained amygdala response to familiar negative material relative to men, indicating that women's amygdala responses were more persistent over multiple repetitions of negative material. Individuals with more persistent amygdala responses also reported greater levels of negative effect. These findings have implications for sex differences in the incidence of affective disorders.
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Affiliation(s)
- Joseph M Andreano
- Department of Psychiatry, Department of Neurology, Massachusetts General Hospital/Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02129 and Department of Psychology, Northeastern University, Boston, MA 02115, USA
| | - Bradford C Dickerson
- Department of Psychiatry, Department of Neurology, Massachusetts General Hospital/Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02129 and Department of Psychology, Northeastern University, Boston, MA 02115, USA
| | - Lisa Feldman Barrett
- Department of Psychiatry, Department of Neurology, Massachusetts General Hospital/Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02129 and Department of Psychology, Northeastern University, Boston, MA 02115, USA Department of Psychiatry, Department of Neurology, Massachusetts General Hospital/Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02129 and Department of Psychology, Northeastern University, Boston, MA 02115, USA
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10
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Scheepers D, Derks B, Nieuwenhuis S, Lelieveld GJ, Van Nunspeet F, Rombouts SARB, de Rover M. The neural correlates of in-group and self-face perception: is there overlap for high identifiers? Front Hum Neurosci 2013; 7:528. [PMID: 24027516 PMCID: PMC3759853 DOI: 10.3389/fnhum.2013.00528] [Citation(s) in RCA: 16] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/07/2013] [Accepted: 08/14/2013] [Indexed: 11/29/2022] Open
Abstract
Social identity, the part of the self-concept derived from group membership, is a key explanatory construct for a wide variety of behaviors, ranging from organizational commitment to discrimination toward out-groups. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), we examined the neural basis of social identity through a comparison with the neural correlates of self-face perception. Participants viewed a series of pictures, one at a time, of themselves, a familiar other, in-group members, and out-group members. We created a contrast for self-face perception by subtracting brain activation in response to the familiar other from brain activation in response to the self face, and a contrast for social identity by subtracting brain activation in response to out-group faces from brain activation in response to in-group faces. In line with previous research, for the self—familiar other contrast we found activation in several right-hemisphere regions (inferior frontal gyrus, inferior and superior parietal lobules). In addition, we found activation in closely-adjacent brain areas for the social identity contrast. Importantly, significant clusters of activation in this in-group—out-group contrast only emerged to the extent that participants reported high identification with the in-group. These results suggest that self-perception and social identity depend on partly similar neural processes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Daan Scheepers
- Department of Psychology, Leiden University Leiden, Netherlands ; Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition Leiden, Netherlands
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11
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Roalf DR, Pruis TA, Stevens AA, Janowsky JS. More is less: emotion induced prefrontal cortex activity habituates in aging. Neurobiol Aging 2011; 32:1634-50. [PMID: 19913944 PMCID: PMC2891805 DOI: 10.1016/j.neurobiolaging.2009.10.007] [Citation(s) in RCA: 24] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/12/2008] [Revised: 09/12/2009] [Accepted: 10/14/2009] [Indexed: 11/29/2022]
Abstract
Several recent studies have documented age-related changes in brain activity--less amygdala activity and higher prefrontal activity in response to emotional stimuli. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), we examined whether aging also affects the maintenance of activity to emotional stimuli and whether maintenance differs by the valence (negative, neutral and positive) of the pictures. Younger participants had a larger volume of activity in the amygdala but less in the prefrontal cortex than the old. The old showed more habituation to highly arousing negative but not positive or neutral stimuli in prefrontal cortex as compared to younger participants. Thus prefrontal cortex activity indexes emotion in the elderly, but not the young. Amplified prefrontal activity suggests elderly increase cognitive control for negative, highly arousing emotional stimuli, but it is not maintained. Taken together, age-related increases in prefrontal activity and reduced amygdala activity may underlie observed affective changes in aging.
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Affiliation(s)
- David R Roalf
- Department of Behavioral Neuroscience, Oregon Health & Science University, Portland, OR 97239, USA.
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12
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van der Gaag C, Minderaa RB, Keysers C. The BOLD signal in the amygdala does not differentiate between dynamic facial expressions. Soc Cogn Affect Neurosci 2010; 2:93-103. [PMID: 18985128 DOI: 10.1093/scan/nsm002] [Citation(s) in RCA: 46] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/20/2007] [Accepted: 02/01/2007] [Indexed: 01/24/2023] Open
Abstract
The amygdala has been considered to be essential for recognizing fear in other people's facial expressions. Recent studies shed doubt on this interpretation. Here we used movies of facial expressions instead of static photographs to investigate the putative fear selectivity of the amygdala using fMRI under more ecological conditions. The amygdala was found to respond more to movies of facial expressions than to pattern motion, but no differences were found between the responses to neutral, happy, disgusted and fearful facial expressions. This lack of emotional selectivity was replicated in three experiments using three different tasks (passive observation, delayed match to sample and viewing for imitation) and two different analysis methods (voxel-by-voxel and anatomical region of interest). Our data therefore provide strong support for the idea that under more ecologically valid conditions, the contribution of the amygdala towards the detection of fearful facial expressions must be more indirect than previously assumed.
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Affiliation(s)
- Christiaan van der Gaag
- BCN NeuroImaging Center, University Medical Center Groningen, Groningen and Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, University Medical Center Groningen, University of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands
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Moriguchi Y, Negreira A, Weierich M, Dautoff R, Dickerson BC, Wright CI, Barrett LF. Differential hemodynamic response in affective circuitry with aging: an FMRI study of novelty, valence, and arousal. J Cogn Neurosci 2010; 23:1027-41. [PMID: 20521849 DOI: 10.1162/jocn.2010.21527] [Citation(s) in RCA: 42] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/04/2022]
Abstract
Emerging evidence indicates that stimulus novelty is affectively potent and reliably engages the amygdala and other portions of the affective workspace in the brain. Using fMRI, we examined whether novel stimuli remain affectively salient across the lifespan, and therefore, whether novelty processing--a potentially survival-relevant function--is preserved with aging. Nineteen young and 22 older healthy adults were scanned during observing novel and familiar affective pictures while estimating their own subjectively experienced aroused levels. We investigated age-related difference of magnitude of activation, hemodynamic time course, and functional connectivity of BOLD responses in the amygdala. Although there were no age-related differences in the peak response of the amygdala to novelty, older individuals showed a narrower, sharper (i.e., "peakier") hemodynamic time course in response to novel stimuli, as well as decreased connectivity between the left amygdala and the affective areas including orbito-frontal regions. These findings have relevance for understanding age-related differences in memory and affect regulation.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yoshiya Moriguchi
- Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Charlestown, MA 02129, USA.
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14
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Weierich MR, Wright CI, Negreira A, Dickerson BC, Barrett LF. Novelty as a dimension in the affective brain. Neuroimage 2010; 49:2871-8. [PMID: 19796697 PMCID: PMC2818231 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2009.09.047] [Citation(s) in RCA: 96] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/09/2009] [Revised: 06/08/2009] [Accepted: 09/22/2009] [Indexed: 11/23/2022] Open
Abstract
Many neuroscience studies have demonstrated that the human amygdala is a central element in the neural workspace that computes affective value. Emerging evidence suggests that novelty is an affective dimension that engages the amygdala independently of other affective properties. This current study is the first in which novelty, valence, and arousal were systematically examined for their relative contributions to amygdala activation during affective processing. Healthy young adults viewed International Affective Picture System (IAPS) images that varied along the dimensions of valence (positive, negative, neutral), arousal (high, mid, low), and novelty (novel, familiar). The results demonstrate that, in comparison to negative (vs. positive) and high (vs. low) arousal stimuli, the amygdala has higher peak responses and a selectively longer time course of activation to novel (vs. familiar) stimuli. In addition, novelty differentially engaged other affective brain areas including those involved in controlling and regulating amygdala responses (e.g., orbitofrontal cortex), as well as those transmitting sensory signals that the amygdala modulates (e.g., occipitotemporal visual cortex). Taken together with other findings, these results support the idea that an essential amygdala function is signaling stimulus importance or salience. The results also suggest that novelty is a critical stimulus dimension for amygdala engagement (in addition to valence and arousal).
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Affiliation(s)
- Mariann R Weierich
- Department of Psychiatry, MGH and the Athinoula A Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Charlestown, MA 02129, USA.
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Pruis TA, Roalf DR, Janowsky JS. Hormone therapy does not modify emotion-induced brain activity in older women. Horm Behav 2009; 56:539-47. [PMID: 19782686 PMCID: PMC2783864 DOI: 10.1016/j.yhbeh.2009.09.008] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/19/2009] [Revised: 09/15/2009] [Accepted: 09/17/2009] [Indexed: 11/21/2022]
Abstract
Sex hormones have actions in brain regions important for emotion, including the amygdala and prefrontal cortex. Previous studies have shown that cyclic sex hormones and hormone therapy after menopause modify responses to emotional events. Thus, this study examined whether hormone therapy modified emotion-induced brain activity in older women. Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), behavioral ratings (valence and arousal), and recognition memory were used to assess responses to emotionally laden scenes in older women currently using hormone therapy (HT) and women not currently using hormone therapy (NONE). We hypothesized that hormones would affect the amount or persistence of emotion-induced brain activity in the amygdala and ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (VLPFC). However, hormone therapy did not affect brain activity with the exception that NONE women showed a modest increase over time in amygdala activity to positive scenes. Hormone therapy did not affect behavioral ratings or memory for emotional scenes. The results were similar when women were regrouped based on whether they had ever used hormone therapy versus had never used hormone therapy. These results suggest that hormone therapy does not modify emotion-induced brain activity, or its persistence, in older women.
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Affiliation(s)
- T A Pruis
- Department of Behavioral Neuroscience CR131, Oregon Health & Science University, 3181 S.W. Sam Jackson Park Rd., Portland, OR 97239-3098, USA.
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16
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Fernandez-Egea E, Parellada E, Lomeña F, Falcon C, Pavia J, Mane A, Sugranyes G, Valdes M, Bernardo M. A continuous emotional task activates the left amygdala in healthy volunteers: (18)FDG PET study. Psychiatry Res 2009; 171:199-206. [PMID: 19232481 DOI: 10.1016/j.pscychresns.2008.01.003] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/14/2007] [Revised: 12/17/2007] [Accepted: 01/12/2008] [Indexed: 10/21/2022]
Abstract
Human amygdalar activation has been reported during facial emotion recognition (FER) studies, mostly using fast temporal resolution techniques (fMRI, H(2)(15)O PET or MEG). The (18)FDG PET technique has never been previously applied to FER studies. We decided to test whether amygdala response during FER tasks could be assessed with this technique. The study was conducted in 10 healthy right-handed volunteers who underwent two scans on different days in random order. Content of the tasks was either emotional (ET) or neutral (CT) and lasted for 17 (1/2) min. Three SPM2 analyses were completed. The first, an ET-CT contrast, showed left amygdalar activation. The second ruled out order effect as a confounder factor. Finally, the whole brain contrast showed activation of the emotional recognition-related areas. Time responses and errors indicated high rates of accuracy in both tasks. We discuss the results and the role of habituation phenomena and the possibility of applying this technique to samples of patients with psychiatric disorders. In conclusion, our study reveals left amygdalar activation assessed with FDG PET, as well as other major emotion recognition-related brain areas during FER tasks.
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Affiliation(s)
- Emilio Fernandez-Egea
- Hospital Clinic Schizophrenia Program (PEC), Department of Psychiatry, Institute of Neuroscience, Hospital Clinic, Barcelona, Spain.
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18
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Kensinger EA, Leclerc CM. Age-related changes in the neural mechanisms supporting emotion processing and emotional memory. ACTA ACUST UNITED AC 2009. [DOI: 10.1080/09541440801937116] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/22/2022]
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Barrett LF, Bliss-Moreau E. Affect as a Psychological Primitive. ADVANCES IN EXPERIMENTAL SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY 2009; 41:167-218. [PMID: 20552040 PMCID: PMC2884406 DOI: 10.1016/s0065-2601(08)00404-8] [Citation(s) in RCA: 222] [Impact Index Per Article: 14.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/13/2022]
Abstract
In this article, we discuss the hypothesis that affect is a fundamental, psychologically irreducible property of the human mind. We begin by presenting historical perspectives on the nature of affect. Next, we proceed with a more contemporary discussion of core affect as a basic property of the mind that is realized within a broadly distributed neuronal workspace. We then present the affective circumplex, a mathematical formalization for representing core affective states, and show that this model can be used to represent individual differences in core affective feelings that are linked to meaningful variation in emotional experience. Finally, we conclude by suggesting that core affect has psychological consequences that reach beyond the boundaries of emotion, to influence learning and consciousness.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lisa Feldman Barrett
- Massachusetts General Hospital/Harvard Medical School, Psychiatric Neuroimaging Program and Martinos Imaging Center, Department of Radiology; Department of Psychology, Boston College, Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts, USA
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21
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Brodtmann A, Puce A, Darby D, Donnan G. Regional fMRI brain activation does correlate with global brain volume. Brain Res 2008; 1259:17-25. [PMID: 19133239 DOI: 10.1016/j.brainres.2008.12.044] [Citation(s) in RCA: 18] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/03/2008] [Revised: 12/08/2008] [Accepted: 12/11/2008] [Indexed: 11/30/2022]
Abstract
In healthy elderly participants, there has been little correlation found between measures of global brain atrophy and functional magnetic resonance imaging activated voxel counts and mean percent magnetic resonance signal change. We used a validated passive viewing task to calculate the fMRI activated voxel counts and mean percent MR signal change from the striate and ventral extrastriate cortices of 24 healthy control subjects (age range=33-89, mean age=66). We correlated these data with three measures of atrophy - percent brain volume, normalised brain volume and grey matter volume - to evaluate the relationship between global brain atrophy and regional fMRI activation. There was a strong positive correlation (r>0.90) between regional activation volume in striate and ventral extrastriate cortex and decreasing total brain volume when results were averaged by decade. Correlation with percent brain volume was particularly strong. In addition, we found a strong negative correlation between mean percent MR signal change and brain volume measures. Within-subject individual correlation was less strong, highlighting the problem of individual variability in brain volume and regional activation measures.
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Affiliation(s)
- Amy Brodtmann
- National Stroke Research Institute, Austin Health, University of Melbourne, Heidelberg, Melbourne, Australia.
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22
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Wright CI, Negreira A, Gold AL, Britton JC, Williams D, Barrett LF. Neural correlates of novelty and face-age effects in young and elderly adults. Neuroimage 2008; 42:956-68. [PMID: 18586522 PMCID: PMC2613685 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2008.05.015] [Citation(s) in RCA: 51] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/21/2007] [Revised: 05/01/2008] [Accepted: 05/05/2008] [Indexed: 11/29/2022] Open
Abstract
The human amygdala preferentially responds to objects of potential value, such as hedonically valenced and novel stimuli. Many studies have documented age-related differences in amygdala responses to valenced stimuli, but relatively little is known about age-related changes in the amygdala's response to novelty. This study examines whether there are differences in amygdala novelty responses in two different age groups. Healthy young and elderly adults viewed both young and elderly faces that were seen many times (familiar faces) or only once (novel faces) in the context of an fMRI study. We observed that amygdala responses to novel (versus familiar) faces were preserved with aging, suggesting that novelty processing in the amygdala remains stable across the lifespan. In addition, participants demonstrated larger amygdala responses to target faces of the same age group than to age out-group target faces (i.e., an age in-group effect). Differences in anatomic localization and behavioral results suggest that novelty and age in-group effects were differentially processed in the amygdala.
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Affiliation(s)
- Christopher I Wright
- Laboratory of Aging and Emotion, Psychiatric Neuroimaging Research Program, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, 13th Street, Building 149, CNY-2, Charlestown, MA 02129, USA.
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Robinson SD, Pripfl J, Bauer H, Moser E. The impact of EPI voxel size on SNR and BOLD sensitivity in the anterior medio-temporal lobe: a comparative group study of deactivation of the Default Mode. MAGNETIC RESONANCE MATERIALS IN PHYSICS BIOLOGY AND MEDICINE 2008; 21:279-90. [PMID: 18661163 DOI: 10.1007/s10334-008-0128-0] [Citation(s) in RCA: 38] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/11/2008] [Revised: 06/20/2008] [Accepted: 06/27/2008] [Indexed: 11/25/2022]
Abstract
OBJECTIVES To quantify the gain in time-series SNR that can be achieved in the amygdala by reducing EPI voxel size, and to assess the extent to which this advantage is carried through to statistical significance in a group fMRI study, using a cognitive task to trigger task-independent deactivation of anterior medial temporal structures. MATERIALS AND METHODS Two groups of seven subjects were posed number-series tasks to induce deactivation of the Default Mode network. This is known from PET work to include the amygdala, which lies in a region of high magnetic field gradient. In 3 T imaging, one group was studied with high resolution EPI with 6 mul voxels, the other with lower resolution EPI with 17 mul voxels. Field maps were acquired to allow field gradients in relevant ROIs to be assessed. RESULTS Time-series SNR was 45% higher in the amygdala in the high resolution EPI data than in the low resolution data. In activation results, whilst there was good agreement between other areas, the involvement of the amygdala could only be demonstrated in the high resolution data. CONCLUSION We find that reduction in signal dephasing afforded by high resolution EPI is realized as a substantial increase in SNR and BOLD sensitivity in group fMRI data. This has allowed the first demonstration of the involvement of the amygdala in the Default Mode in fMRI.
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Affiliation(s)
- Simon D Robinson
- MR Center of Excellence, Medical University of Vienna, Lazarettegasse 14, 1090, Vienna, Austria.
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Britton JC, Shin LM, Barrett LF, Rauch SL, Wright CI. Amygdala and fusiform gyrus temporal dynamics: responses to negative facial expressions. BMC Neurosci 2008; 9:44. [PMID: 18474111 PMCID: PMC2408598 DOI: 10.1186/1471-2202-9-44] [Citation(s) in RCA: 36] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/01/2007] [Accepted: 05/12/2008] [Indexed: 11/21/2022] Open
Abstract
Background The amygdala habituates in response to repeated human facial expressions; however, it is unclear whether this brain region habituates to schematic faces (i.e., simple line drawings or caricatures of faces). Using an fMRI block design, 16 healthy participants passively viewed repeated presentations of schematic and human neutral and negative facial expressions. Percent signal changes within anatomic regions-of-interest (amygdala and fusiform gyrus) were calculated to examine the temporal dynamics of neural response and any response differences based on face type. Results The amygdala and fusiform gyrus had a within-run "U" response pattern of activity to facial expression blocks. The initial block within each run elicited the greatest activation (relative to baseline) and the final block elicited greater activation than the preceding block. No significant differences between schematic and human faces were detected in the amygdala or fusiform gyrus. Conclusion The "U" pattern of response in the amygdala and fusiform gyrus to facial expressions suggests an initial orienting, habituation, and activation recovery in these regions. Furthermore, this study is the first to directly compare brain responses to schematic and human facial expressions, and the similarity in brain responses suggest that schematic faces may be useful in studying amygdala activation.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jennifer C Britton
- Psychiatric Neuroimaging Research Program and Martinos Biomedical Imaging Center, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.
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Addis DR, Schacter DL. Constructive episodic simulation: Temporal distance and detail of past and future events modulate hippocampal engagement. Hippocampus 2008; 18:227-37. [DOI: 10.1002/hipo.20405] [Citation(s) in RCA: 196] [Impact Index Per Article: 12.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/06/2022]
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Wright CI, Dickerson BC, Feczko E, Negeira A, Williams D. A functional magnetic resonance imaging study of amygdala responses to human faces in aging and mild Alzheimer's disease. Biol Psychiatry 2007; 62:1388-95. [PMID: 17336945 DOI: 10.1016/j.biopsych.2006.11.013] [Citation(s) in RCA: 59] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/20/2006] [Revised: 10/10/2006] [Accepted: 11/15/2006] [Indexed: 12/25/2022]
Abstract
BACKGROUND Neuropsychiatric symptoms are very common even in mild stages of Alzheimer's disease (AD). The amygdala exhibits very early pathology in AD, but amygdala function in mild AD has received relatively little attention. The current study investigates functional alterations in the amygdala in aging and mild AD, and their relationships with neuropsychiatric symptoms. METHODS Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was used to examine and compare amygdala responses in 12 young and elderly controls and in 12 mild AD patients during viewing of neutral and emotional human facial expressions. RESULTS Amygdala responses in the young and elderly did not significantly differ from each other. However, the AD group had significantly greater amygdala responses to both neutral and emotional faces relative to elderly controls. This group effect was maintained when amygdala volume, sex and age were included as covariates in the analysis. Furthermore, amygdala activity correlated with the severity of irritability and agitation symptoms in AD. CONCLUSIONS The amygdala in patients with mild AD is excessively responsive to human faces relative to elderly controls. These amygdala functional alterations may represent a physiologic marker for certain neuropsychiatric manifestations of AD.
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Affiliation(s)
- Christopher I Wright
- Laboratory of Aging and Emotion of the Psychiatric Neuroimaging Research Program, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Charlestown, Massachusetts 02129, USA.
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Britton JC, Gold AL, Feczko EJ, Rauch SL, Williams D, Wright CI. D-cycloserine inhibits amygdala responses during repeated presentations of faces. CNS Spectr 2007; 12:600-5. [PMID: 17667888 DOI: 10.1017/s1092852900021398] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/07/2022]
Abstract
INTRODUCTION Recently, human studies using exposure therapy to treat anxiety have demonstrated that pretreatment with D-cycloserine (DCS) enhances fear reduction in anxiety disorders. However, the underlying brain mechanisms mediating this fear reduction have yet to be determined. METHODS The effects of orally administered DCS on amygdala activity during the processing of repeated facial expressions were examined in this double-blind study. Fourteen healthy males (30.0+/-8.7 years of age) randomly received DCS 500 mg or placebo prior to 3.0 Tesla functional magnetic resonance imaging acquisition. All participants viewed four separate runs, consisting of a single block of a repeated facial expression (happy or fearful) bracketed by fixation blocks. RESULTS Anatomic region-of-interest analyses showed that the placebo group exhibited amygdala activation and response habituation, while the DCS group displayed blunted amygdala responses to emotional faces across the experiment, whereby habituation was not detected. CONCLUSION This finding may have relevance for testing treatments of anxiety and depression.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jennifer C Britton
- Department of Psychiatry, the Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York, NY, USA
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28
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Röder CH, Michal M, Overbeck G, van de Ven VG, Linden DEJ. Pain response in depersonalization: a functional imaging study using hypnosis in healthy subjects. PSYCHOTHERAPY AND PSYCHOSOMATICS 2007; 76:115-21. [PMID: 17230052 DOI: 10.1159/000097970] [Citation(s) in RCA: 56] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/19/2022]
Abstract
BACKGROUND Depersonalization (DP) is characterized by persistent or recurrent episodes of detachment from one's self with reduced pain perception being a common feature. Alterations in the body schema similar to the cortico-limbic disconnection syndrome of pain asymbolia are suggested to be responsible for DP. In this study we used hypnosis to induce DP in healthy subjects and to examine neural patterns of pain perception in the state of DP by means of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). METHODS Pain perception was investigated in 7 healthy subjects with high susceptibility to hypnosis in three different mental states: waking state (N-W), hypnotic relaxation (H-R) and hypnotic DP (H-DP). Pain was induced with electrical stimulation to the median nerve at the right wrist. fMRI measurements were performed during all states. RESULTS Nociceptive stimuli led to an activation of the well described pain network including somatosensory and insular regions and the cerebellum. Activation was markedly reduced in the contralateral somatosensory cortex, parietal cortex (Brodmann area 40, BA40), prefrontal cortex (BA9), putamen and the ipsilateral amygdala during H-DP. Subjects also reported a significant decrease in pain intensity from N-W to H-DP. CONCLUSION Pain response during H-DP was reduced in sensory and affective pain-related areas, reflecting the diminished intensity of the perceived pain. Moreover, a network of cortical and subcortical areas that have been implicated in the perception of the own body was less responsive during DP, which might point to a specific neural mechanism underlying the 'out-of-body' experience. Although the small number of subjects does not allow a generalization of our findings, H-DP seems to be a promising tool for the investigation of psychological and biological mechanisms of self-inflicted injuries as well as the mind-body interplay within the realm of psychosomatic disorders.
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Affiliation(s)
- Christian H Röder
- Department of Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychotherapy, Johann Wolfgang Goethe University, Frankfurt, Germany.
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Neuroanatomical correlates of personality in the elderly. Neuroimage 2007; 35:263-72. [PMID: 17229578 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2006.11.039] [Citation(s) in RCA: 73] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/05/2006] [Revised: 11/08/2006] [Accepted: 11/09/2006] [Indexed: 10/23/2022] Open
Abstract
Extraversion and neuroticism are two important and frequently studied dimensions of human personality. They describe individual differences in emotional responding that are quite stable across the adult lifespan. Neuroimaging research has begun to provide evidence that neuroticism and extraversion have specific neuroanatomical correlates within the cerebral cortex and amygdala of young adults. However, these brain areas undergo alterations in size with aging, which may influence the nature of these personality factor-brain structure associations in the elderly. One study in the elderly demonstrated associations between perisylvian cortex structure and measures of self transcendence [Kaasinen, V., Maguire, R.P., Kurki, T., Bruck, A., Rinne, J.O., 2005. Mapping brain structure and personality in late adulthood. NeuroImage 24, 315-322], but the neuroanatomical correlates of extraversion and neuroticism, or other measures of the Five Factor Model of personality have not been explored. The purpose of the present study was to investigate the structural correlates of neuroticism and extraversion in healthy elderly subjects (n=29) using neuroanatomic measures of the cerebral cortex and amygdala. We observed that the thickness of specific lateral prefrontal cortex (PFC) regions, but not amygdala volume, correlates with measures of extraversion and neuroticism. The results suggest differences in the regional neuroanatomic correlates of specific personality traits with aging. We speculate that this relates to the influences of age-related structural changes in the PFC.
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Fitzgerald DA, Angstadt M, Jelsone LM, Nathan PJ, Phan KL. Beyond threat: amygdala reactivity across multiple expressions of facial affect. Neuroimage 2005; 30:1441-8. [PMID: 16368249 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2005.11.003] [Citation(s) in RCA: 303] [Impact Index Per Article: 15.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/08/2005] [Revised: 10/20/2005] [Accepted: 11/07/2005] [Indexed: 11/30/2022] Open
Abstract
The amygdala has been consistently isolated as a key neural substrate for processing facial displays of affect. Recent evidence from human lesion and functional neuroimaging studies have begun to challenge the notion that the amygdala is reserved for signals of threat (fear/anger). We performed a 4 T fMRI study in which 20 subjects viewed a contemporary set of photographs displaying 6 different facial expressions (fearful, disgusted, angry, sad, neutral, happy) while performing a task with minimal cognitive demand. Across subjects, the left amygdala was activated by each face condition separately, and its response was not selective for any particular emotion category. These results challenge the notion that the amygdala has a specialized role in processing certain emotions and suggest that the amygdala may have a more general-purpose function in processing salient information from faces.
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Affiliation(s)
- Daniel A Fitzgerald
- Department of Psychiatry, The University of Chicago, 5841 South Maryland Avenue MC3077 (L-466C), Chicago, IL 60637-1470, USA
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