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Cao H, Sun J, Hua Q, Huang T, Wei Y, Zhan Y, Yao X, Zhang T, Yang Y, Xu W, Bai T, Tian Y, Zhang L, Wang K, Ji GJ. Decreased inter-hemispheric cooperation in major depressive disorder and its association with neurotransmitter profiles. J Affect Disord 2024; 359:109-116. [PMID: 38768823 DOI: 10.1016/j.jad.2024.05.072] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/28/2023] [Revised: 05/09/2024] [Accepted: 05/17/2024] [Indexed: 05/22/2024]
Abstract
BACKGROUND Inter-hemispheric cooperation is a prominent feature of the human brain, and previous neuroimaging studies have revealed aberrant inter-hemispheric cooperation patterns in patients with major depressive disorder (MDD). Typically, inter-hemispheric cooperation is examined by calculating the functional connectivity (FC) between each voxel in one hemisphere and its anatomical (structurally homotopic) counterpart in the opposite hemisphere. However, bilateral hemispheres are actually asymmetric in anatomy. METHODS In the present study, we utilized connectivity between functionally homotopic voxels (CFH) to investigate abnormal inter-hemispheric cooperation in 96 MDD patients compared to 173 age- and sex-matched healthy controls (HCs). In addition, we analyzed the spatial correlations between abnormal CFH and the density maps of 13 neurotransmitter receptors and transporters. RESULTS The CFH values in bilateral orbital frontal gyri and bilateral postcentral gyri were abnormally decreased in patients with MDD. Furthermore, these CFH abnormalities were correlated with clinical symptoms. In addition, the abnormal CFH pattern in MDD patients was spatially correlated with the distribution pattern of 5-HT1AR. LIMITATIONS drug effect; the cross-sectional research design precludes causal inferences; the neurotransmitter atlases selected were constructed from healthy individuals rather than MDD patients. CONCLUSION These findings characterized the abnormal inter-hemispheric cooperation in MDD using a novel method and the underlying neurotransmitter mechanism, which promotes our understanding of the pathophysiology of depression.
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Affiliation(s)
- Hai Cao
- School of Mental Health and Psychological Sciences, Anhui Medical University, Hefei, China; Research Center for Translational Medicine, The Second Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical University, Anhui Medical University, Hefei, Anhui Province, China; Anhui Province Key Laboratory of Cognition and Neuropsychiatric Disorders, Hefei, China; Collaborative Innovation Center of Neuropsychiatric Disorders and Mental Health, Hefei, China
| | - Jinmei Sun
- Department of Neurology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical University, Anhui Medical University, Hefei, China; Anhui Province Key Laboratory of Cognition and Neuropsychiatric Disorders, Hefei, China; Collaborative Innovation Center of Neuropsychiatric Disorders and Mental Health, Hefei, China
| | - Qiang Hua
- Department of Neurology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical University, Anhui Medical University, Hefei, China; Anhui Province Key Laboratory of Cognition and Neuropsychiatric Disorders, Hefei, China; Collaborative Innovation Center of Neuropsychiatric Disorders and Mental Health, Hefei, China
| | - Tongqing Huang
- School of Mental Health and Psychological Sciences, Anhui Medical University, Hefei, China; Anhui Province Key Laboratory of Cognition and Neuropsychiatric Disorders, Hefei, China; Collaborative Innovation Center of Neuropsychiatric Disorders and Mental Health, Hefei, China
| | - Yuqing Wei
- School of Mental Health and Psychological Sciences, Anhui Medical University, Hefei, China; Anhui Province Key Laboratory of Cognition and Neuropsychiatric Disorders, Hefei, China; Collaborative Innovation Center of Neuropsychiatric Disorders and Mental Health, Hefei, China
| | - Yuqian Zhan
- Department of Neurology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical University, Anhui Medical University, Hefei, China; Anhui Province Key Laboratory of Cognition and Neuropsychiatric Disorders, Hefei, China; Collaborative Innovation Center of Neuropsychiatric Disorders and Mental Health, Hefei, China
| | - Xiaoqing Yao
- Department of Neurology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical University, Anhui Medical University, Hefei, China; Anhui Province Key Laboratory of Cognition and Neuropsychiatric Disorders, Hefei, China; Collaborative Innovation Center of Neuropsychiatric Disorders and Mental Health, Hefei, China
| | - Ting Zhang
- Collaborative Innovation Center of Neuropsychiatric Disorders and Mental Health, Hefei, China; Department of Psychiatry, The First Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical University, Hefei, China; Department of Psychology and Sleep Medicine, The Second Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical University, Hefei, China
| | - Yinian Yang
- School of Mental Health and Psychological Sciences, Anhui Medical University, Hefei, China; Anhui Province Key Laboratory of Cognition and Neuropsychiatric Disorders, Hefei, China; Collaborative Innovation Center of Neuropsychiatric Disorders and Mental Health, Hefei, China
| | - Wenqiang Xu
- School of Mental Health and Psychological Sciences, Anhui Medical University, Hefei, China; Anhui Province Key Laboratory of Cognition and Neuropsychiatric Disorders, Hefei, China; Collaborative Innovation Center of Neuropsychiatric Disorders and Mental Health, Hefei, China
| | - Tongjian Bai
- Department of Neurology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical University, Anhui Medical University, Hefei, China; Anhui Province Key Laboratory of Cognition and Neuropsychiatric Disorders, Hefei, China; Collaborative Innovation Center of Neuropsychiatric Disorders and Mental Health, Hefei, China
| | - Yanghua Tian
- Department of Psychology and Sleep Medicine, The Second Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical University, Hefei, China
| | - Lei Zhang
- School of Mental Health and Psychological Sciences, Anhui Medical University, Hefei, China; Anhui Province Key Laboratory of Cognition and Neuropsychiatric Disorders, Hefei, China; Collaborative Innovation Center of Neuropsychiatric Disorders and Mental Health, Hefei, China.
| | - Kai Wang
- School of Mental Health and Psychological Sciences, Anhui Medical University, Hefei, China; Department of Neurology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical University, Anhui Medical University, Hefei, China; Anhui Province Key Laboratory of Cognition and Neuropsychiatric Disorders, Hefei, China; Collaborative Innovation Center of Neuropsychiatric Disorders and Mental Health, Hefei, China; Institute of Artificial Intelligence, Hefei Comprehensive National Science Center, Hefei, China; Anhui Institute of Translational Medicine, Hefei, China.
| | - Gong-Jun Ji
- School of Mental Health and Psychological Sciences, Anhui Medical University, Hefei, China; Research Center for Translational Medicine, The Second Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical University, Anhui Medical University, Hefei, Anhui Province, China; Department of Neurology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical University, Anhui Medical University, Hefei, China; Anhui Province Key Laboratory of Cognition and Neuropsychiatric Disorders, Hefei, China; Collaborative Innovation Center of Neuropsychiatric Disorders and Mental Health, Hefei, China; Institute of Artificial Intelligence, Hefei Comprehensive National Science Center, Hefei, China; Anhui Institute of Translational Medicine, Hefei, China.
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Ciricugno A, Oldrati V, Cattaneo Z, Leggio M, Urgesi C, Olivito G. Cerebellar Neurostimulation for Boosting Social and Affective Functions: Implications for the Rehabilitation of Hereditary Ataxia Patients. CEREBELLUM (LONDON, ENGLAND) 2024; 23:1651-1677. [PMID: 38270782 PMCID: PMC11269351 DOI: 10.1007/s12311-023-01652-z] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 12/15/2023] [Indexed: 01/26/2024]
Abstract
Beyond motor deficits, spinocerebellar ataxia (SCA) patients also suffer cognitive decline and show socio-affective difficulties, negatively impacting on their social functioning. The possibility to modulate cerebello-cerebral networks involved in social cognition through cerebellar neurostimulation has opened up potential therapeutic applications for ameliorating social and affective difficulties. The present review offers an overview of the research on cerebellar neurostimulation for the modulation of socio-affective functions in both healthy individuals and different clinical populations, published in the time period 2000-2022. A total of 25 records reporting either transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) or transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) studies were found. The investigated clinical populations comprised different pathological conditions, including but not limited to SCA syndromes. The reviewed evidence supports that cerebellar neurostimulation is effective in improving social abilities in healthy individuals and reducing social and affective symptoms in different neurological and psychiatric populations associated with cerebellar damage or with impairments in functions that involve the cerebellum. These findings encourage to further explore the rehabilitative effects of cerebellar neurostimulation on socio-affective deficits experienced by patients with cerebellar abnormalities, as SCA patients. Nevertheless, conclusions remain tentative at this stage due to the heterogeneity characterizing stimulation protocols, study methodologies and patients' samples.
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Affiliation(s)
- Andrea Ciricugno
- IRCCS Mondino Foundation, 27100, Pavia, Italy.
- Department of Brain and Behavioral Science, University of Pavia, 27100, Pavia, Italy.
| | - Viola Oldrati
- Scientific Institute, IRCCS Eugenio Medea, 23842, Bosisio Parini, Italy
| | - Zaira Cattaneo
- IRCCS Mondino Foundation, 27100, Pavia, Italy
- Department of Human and Social Sciences, University of Bergamo, 24129, Bergamo, Italy
| | - Maria Leggio
- Department of Psychology, Sapienza University of Rome, 00185, Rome, Italy
- Ataxia Laboratory, Fondazione Santa Lucia IRCCS, 00179, Rome, Italy
| | - Cosimo Urgesi
- Scientific Institute, IRCCS Eugenio Medea, 23842, Bosisio Parini, Italy
- Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience, Department of Languages and Literatures, Communication, Education and Society, University of Udine, 33100, Udine, Italy
| | - Giusy Olivito
- Department of Psychology, Sapienza University of Rome, 00185, Rome, Italy
- Ataxia Laboratory, Fondazione Santa Lucia IRCCS, 00179, Rome, Italy
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3
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Gainotti G. A historical approach to models of emotional laterality. Brain Res 2024; 1836:148948. [PMID: 38643929 DOI: 10.1016/j.brainres.2024.148948] [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: 02/05/2024] [Revised: 03/25/2024] [Accepted: 04/16/2024] [Indexed: 04/23/2024]
Abstract
In this paper I discuss the main models that have tried to explain brain asymmetries for emotions. The first models, based on clinical observations, proposed either a general right hemisphere dominance for emotions (the'right hemisphere') model or a different specialization of the right hemisphere for negative and of the left hemisphere for positive emotions (the'valence' model). In more recent times new models, based on partly modified versions of the previous ones have been proposed. The revised version of the 'valence' model, labeled the 'approach-avoidance' model maintained that hemispheric asymmetries are not related to the valence of the emotional stimulus but to the motivational (approach vs avoidance) system that is engaged by that stimulus. On the contrary, revised versions of the 'right hemisphere' hypothesis proposed graded versions of this model, maintaining that only some kinds or some levels of emotions are clearly right lateralized. One version of these models (the'emotion type hypothesis') assumed that only elementary basic emotions should be subsumed by the right hemisphere, wheres more complex social emotions should be subtended by the left hemisphere. The other version (the 'schematic level of emotion hypothesis') assumed that the right hemisphere should subsume only the basic 'schematic' level of emotions, characterized by an automatic and unconscious processing, whereas the more propositional and conscious 'conceptual' level could be less lateralized or subsumed by the left hemisphere. This last model is supported by the obsevation that the right hemisphere reveals a modus operandi (i.e. a prevalence of the 'automatic' over the 'intentional' and of the 'unconscious' over the 'conscious' functional processing) that is typical of the 'schematic level of emotions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Guido Gainotti
- Institute of Neurology, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Fondazione Policlinico A. Gemelli, Largo A. Gemelli, 8 00168 Roma, Italy.
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Moosavi J, Resch A, Lecchi A, Sokolov AN, Fallgatter AJ, Pavlova MA. Reading language of the eyes in female depression. Cereb Cortex 2024; 34:bhae253. [PMID: 38990517 DOI: 10.1093/cercor/bhae253] [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: 05/10/2024] [Revised: 05/31/2024] [Accepted: 06/03/2024] [Indexed: 07/12/2024] Open
Abstract
Aberrations in non-verbal social cognition have been reported to coincide with major depressive disorder. Yet little is known about the role of the eyes. To fill this gap, the present study explores whether and, if so, how reading language of the eyes is altered in depression. For this purpose, patients and person-by-person matched typically developing individuals were administered the Emotions in Masked Faces task and Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test, modified, both of which contained a comparable amount of visual information available. For achieving group homogeneity, we set a focus on females as major depressive disorder displays a gender-specific profile. The findings show that facial masks selectively affect inferring emotions: recognition of sadness and anger are more heavily compromised in major depressive disorder as compared with typically developing controls, whereas the recognition of fear, happiness, and neutral expressions remains unhindered. Disgust, the forgotten emotion of psychiatry, is the least recognizable emotion in both groups. On the Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test patients exhibit lower accuracy on positive expressions than their typically developing peers, but do not differ on negative items. In both depressive and typically developing individuals, the ability to recognize emotions behind a mask and performance on the Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test are linked to each other in processing speed, but not recognition accuracy. The outcome provides a blueprint for understanding the complexities of reading language of the eyes within and beyond the COVID-19 pandemic.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jonas Moosavi
- Social Neuroscience Unit, Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Tübingen Center for Mental Health (TüCMH), Medical School and University Hospital, Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen, Calwerstr. 14, 72076, Tübingen, Germany
| | - Annika Resch
- Social Neuroscience Unit, Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Tübingen Center for Mental Health (TüCMH), Medical School and University Hospital, Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen, Calwerstr. 14, 72076, Tübingen, Germany
| | - Alessandro Lecchi
- Social Neuroscience Unit, Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Tübingen Center for Mental Health (TüCMH), Medical School and University Hospital, Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen, Calwerstr. 14, 72076, Tübingen, Germany
| | - Alexander N Sokolov
- Social Neuroscience Unit, Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Tübingen Center for Mental Health (TüCMH), Medical School and University Hospital, Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen, Calwerstr. 14, 72076, Tübingen, Germany
| | - Andreas J Fallgatter
- Social Neuroscience Unit, Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Tübingen Center for Mental Health (TüCMH), Medical School and University Hospital, Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen, Calwerstr. 14, 72076, Tübingen, Germany
- German Center for Mental Health (DZPG), Partner Site Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany
| | - Marina A Pavlova
- Social Neuroscience Unit, Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Tübingen Center for Mental Health (TüCMH), Medical School and University Hospital, Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen, Calwerstr. 14, 72076, Tübingen, Germany
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Huang XL, Gao J, Wang YM, Zhu F, Qin J, Yao QN, Zhang XB, Sun HY. Neuropathological characteristics of abnormal white matter functional signaling in adolescents with major depression. World J Psychiatry 2024; 14:276-286. [PMID: 38464765 PMCID: PMC10921285 DOI: 10.5498/wjp.v14.i2.276] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/23/2023] [Revised: 12/13/2023] [Accepted: 01/08/2024] [Indexed: 02/06/2024] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND Major depression disorder (MDD) constitutes a significant mental health concern. Epidemiological surveys indicate that the lifetime prevalence of depression in adolescents is much higher than that in adults, with a corresponding increased risk of suicide. In studying brain dysfunction associated with MDD in adole-scents, research on brain white matter (WM) is sparse. Some researchers even mistakenly regard the signals generated by the WM as noise points. In fact, studies have shown that WM exhibits similar blood oxygen level-dependent signal fluctuations. The alterations in WM signals and their relationship with disease severity in adolescents with MDD remain unclear. AIM To explore potential abnormalities in WM functional signals in adolescents with MDD. METHODS This study involved 48 adolescent patients with MDD and 31 healthy controls (HC). All participants were assessed using the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 Scale and the mini international neuropsychiatric interview (MINI) suicide inventory. In addition, a Siemens Skyra 3.0T magnetic resonance scanner was used to obtain the subjects' image data. The DPABI software was utilized to calculate the WM signal of the fractional amplitude of low frequency fluctuations (fALFF) and regional homogeneity, followed by a two-sample t-test between the MDD and HC groups. Independent component analysis (ICA) was also used to evaluate the WM functional signal. Pearson's correlation was performed to assess the relationship between statistical test results and clinical scales. RESULTS Compared to HC, individuals with MDD demonstrated a decrease in the fALFF of WM in the corpus callosum body, left posterior limb of the internal capsule, right superior corona radiata, and bilateral posterior corona radiata [P < 0.001, family-wise error (FWE) voxel correction]. The regional homogeneity of WM increased in the right posterior limb of internal capsule and left superior corona radiata, and decreased in the left superior longitudinal fasciculus (P < 0.001, FWE voxel correction). The ICA results of WM overlapped with those of regional homo-geneity. The fALFF of WM signal in the left posterior limb of the internal capsule was negatively correlated with the MINI suicide scale (P = 0.026, r = -0.32), and the right posterior corona radiata was also negatively correlated with the MINI suicide scale (P = 0.047, r = -0.288). CONCLUSION Adolescents with MDD involves changes in WM functional signals, and these differences in brain regions may increase the risk of suicide.
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Affiliation(s)
- Xin-Lin Huang
- Imaging and Nuclear Medicine, Jiamusi University, Jiamusi 154000, Heilongjiang Province, China
| | - Ju Gao
- Department of Psychiatry, The Affiliated Guangji Hospital of Soochow University, Suzhou 215137, Jiangsu Province, China
| | - Yong-Ming Wang
- School of Biology & Basic Medical Sciences, Medical College of Soochow University, Suzhou 215137, Jiangsu Province, China
| | - Feng Zhu
- Department of Psychiatry, The Affiliated Guangji Hospital of Soochow University, Suzhou 215137, Jiangsu Province, China
| | - Jing Qin
- Department of Radiology, Shanghai Anting Hospital, Shanghai 20000, China
| | - Qian-Nan Yao
- Imaging and Nuclear Medicine, Jiamusi University, Jiamusi 154000, Heilongjiang Province, China
| | - Xiao-Bin Zhang
- Department of Psychiatry, The Affiliated Guangji Hospital of Soochow University, Suzhou 215137, Jiangsu Province, China
| | - Hong-Yan Sun
- Department of Radiology, The Affiliated Guangji Hospital of Soochow University, Suzhou 215137, Jiangsu Province, China
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Vaioli G, Bastoni I, Villa V, Mendolicchio L, Castelnuovo G, Mauro A, Scarpina F. "I cannot see your fear!" Altered recognition of fearful facial expressions in anorexia nervosa. Front Psychol 2023; 14:1280719. [PMID: 38125860 PMCID: PMC10732310 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1280719] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/21/2023] [Accepted: 11/13/2023] [Indexed: 12/23/2023] Open
Abstract
Background The evidence about facial emotion recognition in anorexia nervosa as the role of alexithymic traits on this emotional ability is conflicting and heterogeneous. Objective We assessed the capability of recognizing facial expressions of two primary emotions, fear, and anger, in the context of anorexia nervosa. Methods Women affected by anorexia nervosa were compared with healthy weight women in a well-established implicit facial emotion recognition task. Both reaction time and level of accuracy were computed. Moreover, the individual levels of alexithymia were assessed through a standard self-report questionnaire. Results Participants with anorexia nervosa reported a significantly lower performance in terms of reaction time and accuracy when the emotion of fear-but not anger-was the target. Notably, such an alteration was linked to the levels of alexithymia reported in the self-report questionnaire. Conclusion In anorexia nervosa, difficulties in processing facial fearful (but not angry) expressions may be observed as linked to higher expressions of alexithymic traits. We suggested future research in which emotional processing will be investigated taking into account the role of the bodily dimensions of emotional awareness.
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Affiliation(s)
- Giulia Vaioli
- I.R.C.C.S. Istituto Auxologico Italiano, U.O. di Neurologia e Neuroriabilitazione, Ospedale San Giuseppe, Piancavallo, Italy
| | - Ilaria Bastoni
- I.R.C.C.S. Istituto Auxologico Italiano, Laboratorio di Psicologia, Ospedale San Giuseppe, Piancavallo, Italy
| | - Valentina Villa
- I.R.C.C.S. Istituto Auxologico Italiano, Laboratorio di Psicologia, Ospedale San Giuseppe, Piancavallo, Italy
| | - Leonardo Mendolicchio
- I.R.C.C.S. Istituto Auxologico Italiano, U.O. dei Disturbi del Comportamento Alimentare, Ospedale San Giuseppe, Piancavallo, Italy
| | - Gianluca Castelnuovo
- I.R.C.C.S. Istituto Auxologico Italiano, Laboratorio di Psicologia, Ospedale San Giuseppe, Piancavallo, Italy
- Psychology Department, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Milan, Italy
| | - Alessandro Mauro
- I.R.C.C.S. Istituto Auxologico Italiano, U.O. di Neurologia e Neuroriabilitazione, Ospedale San Giuseppe, Piancavallo, Italy
- “Rita Levi Montalcini” Department of Neurosciences, University of Turin, Turin, Italy
| | - Federica Scarpina
- I.R.C.C.S. Istituto Auxologico Italiano, U.O. di Neurologia e Neuroriabilitazione, Ospedale San Giuseppe, Piancavallo, Italy
- “Rita Levi Montalcini” Department of Neurosciences, University of Turin, Turin, Italy
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Sato W, Yoshikawa S. Influence of stimulus manipulation on conscious awareness of emotional facial expressions in the match-to-sample paradigm. Sci Rep 2023; 13:20727. [PMID: 38007578 PMCID: PMC10676436 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-023-47995-9] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/28/2023] [Accepted: 11/21/2023] [Indexed: 11/27/2023] Open
Abstract
The conscious perception of emotional facial expressions plays an indispensable role in social interaction. However, previous psychological studies have reported inconsistent findings regarding whether conscious awareness is greater for emotional expressions than for neutral expressions. Furthermore, whether this phenomenon is attributable to emotional or visual factors remains unknown. To investigate these issues, we conducted five psychological experiments to test the conscious perception of emotional and neutral facial expressions using the match-to-sample paradigm. Facial stimuli were momentarily presented in the peripheral visual fields while participants read simultaneously presented letters in the central visual fields. The participants selected a perceived face from nine samples. The results of all experiments demonstrated that emotional expressions were more accurately identified than neutral expressions. Furthermore, Experiment 4 showed that angry expressions were identified more accurately than anti-angry expressions, which expressed neutral emotions with comparable physical changes to angry expressions. Experiment 5, testing the interaction between emotional expression and face direction, showed that angry expressions looking toward participants were more accurately identified than those looking away from participants, even though they were physically identical. These results suggest that the conscious awareness of emotional facial expressions is enhanced by their emotional significance.
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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.
- Field Science Education and Research Center, Kyoto University, Oiwake-cho, Kitashirakawa, Sakyo, Kyoto, 606-8502, Japan.
| | - Sakiko Yoshikawa
- Field Science Education and Research Center, Kyoto University, Oiwake-cho, Kitashirakawa, Sakyo, Kyoto, 606-8502, Japan
- Faculty of the Arts, Kyoto University of the Arts, 2-116 Uryuyama, Kitashirakawa, Sakyo, Kyoto, 606-8501, Japan
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Turkstra LS, Hosseini-Moghaddam S, Wohltjen S, Nurre SV, Mutlu B, Duff MC. Facial affect recognition in context in adults with and without TBI. Front Psychol 2023; 14:1111686. [PMID: 37645059 PMCID: PMC10461638 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1111686] [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: 11/29/2022] [Accepted: 07/31/2023] [Indexed: 08/31/2023] Open
Abstract
Introduction Several studies have reported impaired emotion recognition in adults with traumatic brain injury (TBI), but studies have two major design features that limit application of results to real-world contexts: (1) participants choose from among lists of basic emotions, rather than generating emotion labels, and (2) images are typically presented in isolation rather than in context. To address these limitations, we created an open-labeling task with faces shown alone or in real-life scenes, to more closely approximate how adults with TBI label facial emotions beyond the lab. Methods Participants were 55 adults (29 female) with moderate to severe TBI and 55 uninjured comparison peers, individually matched for race, sex, and age. Participants viewed 60 photographs of faces, either alone or in the pictured person's real-life context, and were asked what that person was feeling. We calculated the percent of responses that were standard forced-choice-task options, and also used sentiment intensity analysis to compare verbal responses between the two groups. We tracked eye movements for a subset of participants, to explore whether gaze duration or number of fixations helped explain any group differences in labels. Results Over 50% of responses in both groups were words other than basic emotions on standard affect tasks, highlighting the importance of eliciting open-ended responses. Valence of labels by participants with TBI was attenuated relative to valence of Comparison group labels, i.e., TBI group responses were less positive to positive images and the same was true for negative images, although the TBI group responses had higher lexical diversity. There were no significant differences in gaze duration or number of fixations between groups. Discussion Results revealed qualitative differences in affect labels between adults with and without TBI that would not have emerged on standard forced-choice tasks. Verbal differences did not appear to be attributable to differences in gaze patterns, leaving open the question of mechanisms of atypical affect processing in adults with TBI.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lyn S. Turkstra
- Faculty of Health Sciences, McMaster University, Hamilton, ON, Canada
| | | | - Sophie Wohltjen
- Department of Computer Sciences, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, United States
| | - Sara V. Nurre
- American Speech-Language-Hearing Association, Rockville, MD, United States
| | - Bilge Mutlu
- Department of Computer Sciences, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, United States
| | - Melissa C. Duff
- Department of Hearing and Speech Sciences, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, United States
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Altered recognition of fearful and angry facial expressions in women with fibromyalgia syndrome: an experimental case-control study. Sci Rep 2022; 12:21498. [PMID: 36513716 PMCID: PMC9747799 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-022-25824-9] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/18/2022] [Accepted: 12/04/2022] [Indexed: 12/15/2022] Open
Abstract
Evidence relative to facial emotion recognition and the role played by alexithymia in fibromyalgia syndrome is rare and heterogeneous. In this work, we investigated this ability in fibromyalgia investigating the implicit behaviour in the facial emotion recognition task, focusing on fear and anger. Twenty women with fibromyalgia and twenty healthy women as controls performed a facial emotion recognition of fearful and angry expressions. Their implicit behaviour was scored in accordance with the redundant target effect. The level of alexithymic traits through a standard psychological questionnaire and its effect on behavioral performance were also assessed. Participants affected by fibromyalgia reported a lower level of accuracy in recognizing fearful and angry expressions, in comparison with the controls. Crucially, such a difference was not explained by the different levels of alexithymic traits between groups. Our results agreed with some previous evidence suggesting an altered recognition of others' emotional facial expressions in fibromyalgia syndrome. Considering the role of emotion recognition on social cognition and psychological well-being in fibromyalgia, we underlined the crucial role of emotional difficulties in the onset and maintenance of the symptoms life-span.
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Scarpina F, Turroni S, Mambrini S, Barone M, Cattaldo S, Mai S, Prina E, Bastoni I, Cappelli S, Castelnuovo G, Brigidi P, Scacchi M, Mauro A. Gut Microbiota and Fear Processing in Women Affected by Obesity: An Exploratory Pilot Study. Nutrients 2022; 14:nu14183788. [PMID: 36145169 PMCID: PMC9505791 DOI: 10.3390/nu14183788] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/02/2022] [Revised: 08/31/2022] [Accepted: 09/06/2022] [Indexed: 11/20/2022] Open
Abstract
The microbiota–gut–brain axis extends beyond visceral perception, influencing higher-order brain structures, and ultimately psychological functions, such as fear processing. In this exploratory pilot study, we attempted to provide novel experimental evidence of a relationship between gut microbiota composition and diversity, and fear-processing in obesity, through a behavioral approach. Women affected by obesity were enrolled and profiled for gut microbiota, through 16S rRNA amplicon sequencing. Moreover, we tested their ability to recognize facial fearful expressions through an implicit-facial-emotion-recognition task. Finally, a traditional self-report questionnaire was used to assess their temperamental traits. The participants exhibited an unbalanced gut microbiota profile, along with impaired recognition of fearful expressions. Interestingly, dysbiosis was more severe in those participants with altered behavioral performance, with a decrease in typically health-associated microbes, and an increase in the potential pathobiont, Collinsella. Moreover, Collinsella was related to a lower expression of the persistence temperamental trait, while a higher expression of the harm-avoidance temperament, related to fear-driven anxiety symptoms, was linked to Lactobacillus. Once confirmed, our findings could pave the way for the design of innovative microbiome-based strategies for the treatment of psychological and emotional difficulties by mitigating obesity-related consequences and behaviors.
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Affiliation(s)
- Federica Scarpina
- “Rita Levi Montalcini” Department of Neurosciences, University of Turin, Via Cherasco 15, 10126 Turin, Italy
- I.R.C.C.S. Istituto Auxologico Italiano, U.O. di Neurologia e Neuroriabilitazione, Ospedale San Giuseppe, Str. L Cadorna 90, 28824 Piancavallo, Italy
- Correspondence: (F.S.); (S.T.)
| | - Silvia Turroni
- Unit of Microbiome Science and Biotechnology, Department of Pharmacy and Biotechnology, University of Bologna, Via Belmeloro 6, 40126 Bologna, Italy
- Correspondence: (F.S.); (S.T.)
| | - Sara Mambrini
- I.R.C.C.S. Istituto Auxologico Italiano, Laboratorio di Ricerca Metabolica, Ospedale San Giuseppe, Str. L Cadorna 90, 28824 Piancavallo, Italy
- International Center for the Assessment of Nutritional Status (ICANS), Department of Food, Environmental and Nutritional Sciences (DeFENS), University of Milan, Via G. Celoria 2, 20133 Milan, Italy
| | - Monica Barone
- Unit of Microbiome Science and Biotechnology, Department of Pharmacy and Biotechnology, University of Bologna, Via Belmeloro 6, 40126 Bologna, Italy
- Department of Medical and Surgical Sciences, Unit of Microbiomics, University of Bologna, Via Massarenti 11, 40126 Bologna, Italy
| | - Stefania Cattaldo
- I.R.C.C.S. Istituto Auxologico Italiano, Laboratorio di Neurobiologia Clinica, Ospedale San Giuseppe, Str. L Cadorna 90, 28824 Piancavallo, Italy
| | - Stefania Mai
- I.R.C.C.S. Istituto Auxologico Italiano, Laboratorio di Ricerca Metabolica, Ospedale San Giuseppe, Str. L Cadorna 90, 28824 Piancavallo, Italy
| | - Elisa Prina
- I.R.C.C.S. Istituto Auxologico Italiano, Laboratorio di Ricerca Metabolica, Ospedale San Giuseppe, Str. L Cadorna 90, 28824 Piancavallo, Italy
| | - Ilaria Bastoni
- I.R.C.C.S. Istituto Auxologico Italiano, Laboratorio di Psicologia, Ospedale San Giuseppe, Str. L Cadorna 90, 28824 Piancavallo, Italy
| | - Simone Cappelli
- I.R.C.C.S. Istituto Auxologico Italiano, Laboratorio di Psicologia, Ospedale San Giuseppe, Str. L Cadorna 90, 28824 Piancavallo, Italy
| | - Gianluca Castelnuovo
- I.R.C.C.S. Istituto Auxologico Italiano, Laboratorio di Psicologia, Ospedale San Giuseppe, Str. L Cadorna 90, 28824 Piancavallo, Italy
- Department of Psychology, Catholic University of Milan, Largo Agostino Gemelli 1, 20123 Milan, Italy
| | - Patrizia Brigidi
- Department of Medical and Surgical Sciences, Unit of Microbiomics, University of Bologna, Via Massarenti 11, 40126 Bologna, Italy
| | - Massimo Scacchi
- I.R.C.C.S. Istituto Auxologico Italiano, Divisione di Medicina Generale ad indirizzo Endocrino-Metabolico, Ospedale San Giuseppe, Str. L Cadorna 90, 28824 Piancavallo, Italy
- Department of Clinical Sciences and Community Health, University of Milan, Via Festa del Perdono 7, 20122 Milan, Italy
| | - Alessandro Mauro
- “Rita Levi Montalcini” Department of Neurosciences, University of Turin, Via Cherasco 15, 10126 Turin, Italy
- I.R.C.C.S. Istituto Auxologico Italiano, U.O. di Neurologia e Neuroriabilitazione, Ospedale San Giuseppe, Str. L Cadorna 90, 28824 Piancavallo, Italy
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11
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Features and Extra-Striate Body Area Representations of Diagnostic Body Parts in Anger and Fear Perception. Brain Sci 2022; 12:brainsci12040466. [PMID: 35447997 PMCID: PMC9028525 DOI: 10.3390/brainsci12040466] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/27/2022] [Revised: 03/19/2022] [Accepted: 03/29/2022] [Indexed: 02/04/2023] Open
Abstract
Social species perceive emotion via extracting diagnostic features of body movements. Although extensive studies have contributed to knowledge on how the entire body is used as context for decoding bodily expression, we know little about whether specific body parts (e.g., arms and legs) transmit enough information for body understanding. In this study, we performed behavioral experiments using the Bubbles paradigm on static body images to directly explore diagnostic body parts for categorizing angry, fearful and neutral expressions. Results showed that subjects recognized emotional bodies through diagnostic features from the torso with arms. We then conducted a follow-up functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) experiment on body part images to examine whether diagnostic parts modulated body-related brain activity and corresponding neural representations. We found greater activations of the extra-striate body area (EBA) in response to both anger and fear than neutral for the torso and arms. Representational similarity analysis showed that neural patterns of the EBA distinguished different bodily expressions. Furthermore, the torso with arms and whole body had higher similarities in EBA representations relative to the legs and whole body, and to the head and whole body. Taken together, these results indicate that diagnostic body parts (i.e., torso with arms) can communicate bodily expression in a detectable manner.
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12
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Fu X, Ding Y, Chen J, Liu F, Li H, Zhao J, Guo W. Altered Brain Functional Asymmetry in Patients With Major Depressive Disorder Related to Gastrointestinal Symptoms. Front Neurosci 2022; 15:797598. [PMID: 35250436 PMCID: PMC8891942 DOI: 10.3389/fnins.2021.797598] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/19/2021] [Accepted: 12/22/2021] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
ObjectiveDisrupted brain functional asymmetry has been reported in major depressive disorder (MDD). The comorbidity may be a crucial factor to this functional asymmetry. It is quite common that gastrointestinal (GI) symptoms are comorbid with MDD, but limited evidence focuses on the effect of GI comorbidity on the neuropathology of MDD from a functional lateralization perspective.MethodsResting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging was obtained in 28 healthy controls (HCs), 35 MDD patients with GI symptoms (GI-MDD patients), and 17 patients with MDD without GI symptoms (nGI-MDD patients). The parameter of asymmetry (PAS) was used to analyze the imaging data and evaluate the changes of functional asymmetry.ResultsThe GI-MDD patients showed increased PAS scores in the left inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) and superior medial prefrontal cortex (MPFC) and decreased PAS scores in the right postcentral gyrus in comparison with nGI-MDD patients. The PAS scores of the left IFG and left superior MPFC were correlated with the severity of GI problems and could be applied to distinguish GI-MDD patients from nGI-MDD patients with an accuracy, a sensitivity, and a specificity of 92.31, 100, and 76.47%, respectively. Furthermore, GI-MDD and nGI-MDD patients both displayed increased PAS scores in the PCC/precuneus.ConclusionsThis study revealed the influence of concomitant GI symptoms on functional asymmetry in MDD patients. Increased PAS scores of the left IFG and superior MPFC might represent an unbalanced regulation of brain over GI function and had the potential to be regarded as distinctive features related to functional GI symptoms in MDD.
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Affiliation(s)
- Xiaoya Fu
- National Clinical Research Center for Mental Disorders, Department of Psychiatry, The Second Xiangya Hospital of Central South University, Changsha, China
| | - Yudan Ding
- National Clinical Research Center for Mental Disorders, Department of Psychiatry, The Second Xiangya Hospital of Central South University, Changsha, China
| | - Jindong Chen
- National Clinical Research Center for Mental Disorders, Department of Psychiatry, The Second Xiangya Hospital of Central South University, Changsha, China
| | - Feng Liu
- Department of Radiology, Tianjin Medical University General Hospital, Tianjin, China
| | - Huabing Li
- Department of Radiology, The Second Xiangya Hospital of Central South University, Changsha, China
| | - Jingping Zhao
- National Clinical Research Center for Mental Disorders, Department of Psychiatry, The Second Xiangya Hospital of Central South University, Changsha, China
| | - Wenbin Guo
- National Clinical Research Center for Mental Disorders, Department of Psychiatry, The Second Xiangya Hospital of Central South University, Changsha, China
- Department of Psychiatry, The Third People’s Hospital of Foshan, Foshan, China
- *Correspondence: Wenbin Guo,
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13
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Burgund ED. Left Hemisphere Dominance for Negative Facial Expressions: The Influence of Task. Front Hum Neurosci 2021; 15:742018. [PMID: 34602999 PMCID: PMC8484516 DOI: 10.3389/fnhum.2021.742018] [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: 07/15/2021] [Accepted: 08/30/2021] [Indexed: 11/28/2022] Open
Abstract
Major theories of hemisphere asymmetries in facial expression processing predict right hemisphere dominance for negative facial expressions of disgust, fear, and sadness, however, some studies observe left hemisphere dominance for one or more of these expressions. Research suggests that tasks requiring the identification of six basic emotional facial expressions (angry, disgusted, fearful, happy, sad, and surprised) are more likely to produce left hemisphere involvement than tasks that do not require expression identification. The present research investigated this possibility in two experiments that presented six basic emotional facial expressions to the right or left hemisphere using a divided-visual field paradigm. In Experiment 1, participants identified emotional expressions by pushing a key corresponding to one of six labels. In Experiment 2, participants detected emotional expressions by pushing a key corresponding to whether an expression was emotional or not. In line with predictions, fearful facial expressions exhibited a left hemisphere advantage during the identification task but not during the detection task. In contrast to predictions, sad expressions exhibited a left hemisphere advantage during both identification and detection tasks. In addition, happy facial expressions exhibited a left hemisphere advantage during the detection task but not during the identification task. Only angry facial expressions exhibited a right hemisphere advantage, and this was only observed when data from both experiments were combined. Together, results highlight the influence of task demands on hemisphere asymmetries in facial expression processing and suggest a greater role for the left hemisphere in negative expressions than predicted by previous theories.
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Affiliation(s)
- E. Darcy Burgund
- Department of Psychology, Macalester College, Saint Paul, MN, United States
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14
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Scarpina F, Varallo G, Castelnuovo G, Capodaglio P, Molinari E, Mauro A. Implicit facial emotion recognition of fear and anger in obesity. Eat Weight Disord 2021; 26:1243-1251. [PMID: 32948997 DOI: 10.1007/s40519-020-01010-6] [Citation(s) in RCA: 14] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/10/2020] [Accepted: 09/04/2020] [Indexed: 11/26/2022] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND Previous evidence about facial emotion recognition capability in obesity is few and not conclusive. OBJECTIVE We investigated the capability of female individuals affected by obesity to recognize the emotions of fear and anger through a facial emotion recognition task grounded on the implicit redundant target effect. METHODS 20 women affected by obesity and 20 healthy-weight women were enrolled. We administered an implicit facial emotion recognition task. Both reaction time and level of accuracy were computed. Moreover, the level of alexithymia was measured through the standard questionnaire. RESULTS Selective difficulties in recognizing the emotion of fear were observed in participants with obesity, when their performance was contrasted with healthy-weight controls. Instead, they showed the implicit redundant target effect when anger was the target. However, the two groups reported globally similar scores at the standard questionnaire relative to the level of alexithymia. CONCLUSIONS Our result might agree with the hypothesis about affected individuals' difficulties in being attentive to negative facial emotions, and specifically in the case of fearful expression. This study might encourage future research in which emotional processing will be investigated through subjective judgments and implicit/objective measurements. LEVEL I Experimental study.
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Affiliation(s)
- Federica Scarpina
- Istituto Auxologico Italiano, IRCCS, U.O. di Neurologia e Neuroriabilitazione, Ospedale San Giuseppe, 28824, Piancavallo, VCO, Italy.
- "Rita Levi Montalcini", Department of Neurosciences, University of Turin, 10124, Turin, Italy.
| | - Giorgia Varallo
- Istituto Auxologico Italiano, IRCCS, Laboratorio di Psicologia, Ospedale San Giuseppe, 28824, Piancavallo, Italy
- Psychology Department, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, 20123, Milan, Italy
| | - Gianluca Castelnuovo
- Istituto Auxologico Italiano, IRCCS, Laboratorio di Psicologia, Ospedale San Giuseppe, 28824, Piancavallo, Italy
- Psychology Department, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, 20123, Milan, Italy
| | - Paolo Capodaglio
- Istituto Auxologico Italiano, IRCCS, U.O. di. Riabilitazione Osteoarticolare, Ospedale S. Giuseppe, 28824, Piancavallo, Italy
| | - Enrico Molinari
- Istituto Auxologico Italiano, IRCCS, Laboratorio di Psicologia, Ospedale San Giuseppe, 28824, Piancavallo, Italy
- Psychology Department, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, 20123, Milan, Italy
| | - Alessandro Mauro
- Istituto Auxologico Italiano, IRCCS, U.O. di Neurologia e Neuroriabilitazione, Ospedale San Giuseppe, 28824, Piancavallo, VCO, Italy
- "Rita Levi Montalcini", Department of Neurosciences, University of Turin, 10124, Turin, Italy
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15
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Schmahmann JD. Emotional disorders and the cerebellum: Neurobiological substrates, neuropsychiatry, and therapeutic implications. HANDBOOK OF CLINICAL NEUROLOGY 2021; 183:109-154. [PMID: 34389114 DOI: 10.1016/b978-0-12-822290-4.00016-5] [Citation(s) in RCA: 21] [Impact Index Per Article: 7.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/13/2023]
Abstract
The notion that the cerebellum is devoted exclusively to motor control has been replaced by a more sophisticated understanding of its role in neurological function, one that includes cognition and emotion. Early clinical reports, as well as physiological and behavioral studies in animal models, raised the possibility of a nonmotor role for the cerebellum. Anatomical studies demonstrate cerebellar connectivity with the distributed neural circuits linked with autonomic, sensorimotor, vestibular, associative, and limbic/paralimbic brain areas. Identification of the cerebellar cognitive affective syndrome in adults and children underscored the clinical relevance of the role of the cerebellum in cognition and emotion. It opened new avenues of investigation into higher-order deficits that accompany the ataxias and other cerebellar diseases, as well as the contribution of cerebellar dysfunction to neuropsychiatric and neurocognitive disorders. Brain imaging studies have demonstrated the complexity of cerebellar functional topography, revealing a double representation of the sensorimotor cerebellum in the anterior lobe and lobule VIII and a triple cognitive representation in the cerebellar posterior lobe, as well as representation in the cerebellum of the intrinsic connectivity networks identified in the cerebral hemispheres. This paradigm shift in thinking about the cerebellum has been advanced by the theories of dysmetria of thought and the universal cerebellar transform, harmonizing the dual anatomic realities of homogeneously repeating cerebellar cortical microcircuitry set against the heterogeneous and topographically arranged cerebellar connections with extracerebellar structures. This new appreciation of cerebellar incorporation into circuits that subserve cognition and emotion mandates a deeper understanding of the cerebellum by practitioners in behavioral neurology and neuropsychiatry because it impacts the understanding and diagnosis of disorders of emotion and intellect and has potential for novel cerebellar-based approaches to therapy.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jeremy D Schmahmann
- Ataxia Center, Cognitive Behavioral Neurology Unit, Laboratory for Neuroanatomy and Cerebellar Neurobiology, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, United States.
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16
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Makita K, Takiguchi S, Naruse H, Shimada K, Morioka S, Fujisawa TX, Shimoji K, Tomoda A. White matter changes in children and adolescents with reactive attachment disorder: A diffusion tensor imaging study. Psychiatry Res Neuroimaging 2020; 303:111129. [PMID: 32585578 DOI: 10.1016/j.pscychresns.2020.111129] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/02/2019] [Revised: 02/23/2020] [Accepted: 06/12/2020] [Indexed: 01/02/2023]
Abstract
Childhood maltreatment is associated with altered brain structure and function and is a major risk factor for psychopathology, including reactive attachment disorder (RAD). However, whether changes to white matter microstructural integrity are associated with RAD is unclear. We used diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) to assess group differences in fractional anisotropy (FA) in patients with RAD (n = 25; mean age = 13.2) to typically developing (TD) controls (n = 33; mean age = 13.0). To further interpret differences in FA, additional parameters such as mean diffusivity (MD), axial diffusivity (AD) and radial diffusivity (RD) were assessed. We found that FA values in the body of corpus callosum (CC) and in the projection and thalamic pathways, including the posterior limb of the internal capsule and corona radiata (anterior, posterior, and superior), were significantly higher in the RAD than in the TD group. Additionally, RAD group showed significantly lower RD values in the body of the CC and abovementioned pathways than TD group. Our findings indicate that RAD is associated with altered structure of the CC and projection and thalamic pathways, which may play a role in emotion regulation. The aberrant development of these tracts in RAD may reflect stress-related psychophysiological responses.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kai Makita
- Research Center for Child Mental Development, University of Fukui, Fukui, Japan
| | - Shinichiro Takiguchi
- Department of Child and Adolescent Psychological Medicine, University of Fukui Hospital, Fukui, Japan; Division of Developmental Higher Brain Functions, United Graduate School of Child Development, University of Fukui, Fukui, Japan
| | - Hiroaki Naruse
- Division of Physical Therapy and Rehabilitation, University of Fukui Hospital, Fukui, Japan
| | - Koji Shimada
- Research Center for Child Mental Development, University of Fukui, Fukui, Japan; Division of Developmental Higher Brain Functions, United Graduate School of Child Development, University of Fukui, Fukui, Japan
| | - Shigemi Morioka
- Department of Pediatrics, Fukui Aiiku Hospital, Fukui, Japan
| | - Takashi X Fujisawa
- Research Center for Child Mental Development, University of Fukui, Fukui, Japan; Division of Developmental Higher Brain Functions, United Graduate School of Child Development, University of Fukui, Fukui, Japan
| | - Keigo Shimoji
- Department of Diagnostic Radiology, Tokyo Metropolitan Geriatric Hospital, Tokyo, Japan; Department of Radiology, Juntendo University Graduate School of Medicine, Tokyo, Japan
| | - Akemi Tomoda
- Research Center for Child Mental Development, University of Fukui, Fukui, Japan; Department of Child and Adolescent Psychological Medicine, University of Fukui Hospital, Fukui, Japan; Division of Developmental Higher Brain Functions, United Graduate School of Child Development, University of Fukui, Fukui, Japan.
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17
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Scarpina F. Detection and Recognition of Fearful Facial Expressions During the Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) Pandemic in an Italian Sample: An Online Experiment. Front Psychol 2020; 11:2252. [PMID: 33013588 PMCID: PMC7516084 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2020.02252] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/07/2020] [Accepted: 08/11/2020] [Indexed: 12/28/2022] Open
Abstract
In this observational study, the psychological ability to recognize the others' fearful expressions in Italian individuals during the pandemic COVID-19 lockdown was explored through a behavioral task performed online. An implicit version of the traditional facial emotion recognition task, grounded on the attentional and unconscious mechanism of the redundant target effect, was used. The experiment was scripted through the free software OpenSesame (Mathôt et al., 2012) and published on the Internet through the free software Jatos (Lange et al., 2015). The Reaction Time and level of Accuracy in detecting fearful expressions were computed. Overall, the data of 86 Italian individuals were collected. When their performance was scored in terms of Reaction Time, the redundant target effect did not emerge; instead, the expected effect was observed when the level of Accuracy was considered. Overall, the performance registered in this Italian sample in terms of accuracy was in line with previous results reported in Scarpina et al. (2018), in which a long extended version of the same behavioral task was used in a traditional experimental setting. This study might offer some considerations regarding the adoption of online experiments - together with self-report surveys - to assess the psychological and behavioral functioning during social restriction measures.
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Affiliation(s)
- Federica Scarpina
- “Rita Levi Montalcini” Department of Neurosciences, University of Turin, Turin, Italy
- Istituto Auxologico Italiano, IRCCS, U.O. di Neurologia e Neuroriabilitazione, Ospedale S. Giuseppe, Piancavallo, Italy
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18
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Sharma D, Gulati R, Misra I. Exploring Consistency in Right Hemispheric Hypothesis and Valence Hypothesis for Perception of Emotions in Brain. PSYCHOLOGICAL STUDIES 2020. [DOI: 10.1007/s12646-020-00562-y] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/29/2022] Open
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19
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Carr AR, Jimenez EE, Thompson PM, Mendez MF. Frontotemporal asymmetry in socioemotional behavior: A pilot study in frontotemporal dementia. Soc Neurosci 2019; 15:15-24. [PMID: 31064266 DOI: 10.1080/17470919.2019.1614478] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/26/2022]
Abstract
Clinical studies report abnormal socioemotional behavior in patients with right frontotemporal disease, but neuroimaging studies of socioemotional behavior usually show bilateral activations in normal subjects. This discrepancy suggests that impaired interhemispheric collaboration for socioemotional functions results from asymmetric frontotemporal disease. Behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD) can clarify the contribution of direction-independent frontotemporal asymmetry. In a two-part study, we evaluated bvFTD patients using socioemotional scales and magnetic and resonance imaging measures. Part A compared 18 patients on scales of social dysfunction and emotional intelligence with degree of asymmetry in frontal lobe volumes and analyzed differences between lower and higher asymmetry groups. Part B compared 24 patients on scales of social observation and emotional blunting with degree of asymmetry in frontotemporal cortical thickness using multiple linear regression. Both results showed that left or right hemispheric-specific contributions did not account for all socioemotional differences and that frontal lobe and frontotemporal differences in atrophy between the hemispheres accounted for significant variance in abnormalities in social and emotional behavior. These preliminary results indicate that the degree of frontal lobe and frontotemporal asymmetric involvement, regardless of direction or laterality, significantly contribute to socioemotional dysfunction and support the hypothesis that interhemispheric collaboration is important for complex socioemotional behavior.
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Affiliation(s)
- Andrew R Carr
- Neurology Service, V.A. Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System, Los Angeles, CA, USA.,Departments of Neurology, University of California at Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, USA
| | - Elvira E Jimenez
- Neurology Service, V.A. Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System, Los Angeles, CA, USA.,Departments of Neurology, University of California at Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, USA
| | - Paul M Thompson
- Imaging Genetics Center, Mark & Mary Stevens Neuroimaging & Informatics Institute, University of Southern California, Marina del Rey, CA, USA
| | - Mario F Mendez
- Neurology Service, V.A. Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System, Los Angeles, CA, USA.,Departments of Neurology, University of California at Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, USA.,Psychiatry & Biobehavioral Sciences, and Medicine, David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California at Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, USA
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20
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The cerebellum and cognition. Neurosci Lett 2019; 688:62-75. [DOI: 10.1016/j.neulet.2018.07.005] [Citation(s) in RCA: 425] [Impact Index Per Article: 85.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/03/2018] [Revised: 07/03/2018] [Accepted: 07/04/2018] [Indexed: 02/07/2023]
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21
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Lu M, Yang C, Chu T, Wu S. Cerebral White Matter Changes in Young Healthy Individuals With High Trait Anxiety: A Tract-Based Spatial Statistics Study. Front Neurol 2018; 9:704. [PMID: 30197621 PMCID: PMC6117387 DOI: 10.3389/fneur.2018.00704] [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: 06/04/2018] [Accepted: 08/03/2018] [Indexed: 11/24/2022] Open
Abstract
Background: Abnormalities in prespecified and empirical white matter tracts in young patients with anxiety-related disorders have been reported in some diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) studies. However, with few literatures examining the association between the integrity of whole brain white matter and trait anxiety levels in the non-clinical populations, whether white matter changes arise in young healthy individuals with high trait anxiety remains unknown. Methods: We examined whole brain white matter alterations in young healthy individuals with high anxiety but without history of neurological or psychiatric disorders via DTI technology. Group comparison of tract-based spatial statistics (TBSS) was performed to investigate the microstructural diffusion alterations in 38 high anxious subjects in comparison with 34 low anxious subjects matched with age, gender, and degree of education. These analyses controlled for depression to establish specificity to trait anxiety. Results: Young healthy subjects with high trait anxiety had significantly decreased fractional anisotropy (FA) values in multiple clusters, including corona radiate (CR), anterior thalamic radiation (ATR), inferior fronto-occipital fasciculus (IFOF), bilaterally, body, genu, and splenium of corpus callosum (CC) and forceps minor, compared with low trait anxious subjects. For the abnormal FA regions, the other diffusion metrics were also altered slightly. Conclusions: Non-clinical individuals with high anxiety already have white matter alterations in the thalamus-cortical circuit and some emotion-related areas that were widely reported in anxiety-related disorders. The altered white matter may be a vulnerability marker in individuals at high risk of clinical anxiety. These findings can deepen our understanding of the pathological mechanism of anxiety and further support the need for preventive interventions in high anxiety individuals.
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Affiliation(s)
- Min Lu
- College of Life Science and Bioengineering, Beijing University of Technology, Beijing, China
| | - Chunlan Yang
- College of Life Science and Bioengineering, Beijing University of Technology, Beijing, China
| | - Tongpeng Chu
- College of Life Science and Bioengineering, Beijing University of Technology, Beijing, China
| | - Shuicai Wu
- College of Life Science and Bioengineering, Beijing University of Technology, Beijing, China
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22
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Guérin-Dugué A, Roy RN, Kristensen E, Rivet B, Vercueil L, Tcherkassof A. Temporal Dynamics of Natural Static Emotional Facial Expressions Decoding: A Study Using Event- and Eye Fixation-Related Potentials. Front Psychol 2018; 9:1190. [PMID: 30050487 PMCID: PMC6052106 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2018.01190] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/07/2018] [Accepted: 06/20/2018] [Indexed: 11/28/2022] Open
Abstract
This study aims at examining the precise temporal dynamics of the emotional facial decoding as it unfolds in the brain, according to the emotions displayed. To characterize this processing as it occurs in ecological settings, we focused on unconstrained visual explorations of natural emotional faces (i.e., free eye movements). The General Linear Model (GLM; Smith and Kutas, 2015a,b; Kristensen et al., 2017a) enables such a depiction. It allows deconvolving adjacent overlapping responses of the eye fixation-related potentials (EFRPs) elicited by the subsequent fixations and the event-related potentials (ERPs) elicited at the stimuli onset. Nineteen participants were displayed with spontaneous static facial expressions of emotions (Neutral, Disgust, Surprise, and Happiness) from the DynEmo database (Tcherkassof et al., 2013). Behavioral results on participants' eye movements show that the usual diagnostic features in emotional decoding (eyes for negative facial displays and mouth for positive ones) are consistent with the literature. The impact of emotional category on both the ERPs and the EFRPs elicited by the free exploration of the emotional faces is observed upon the temporal dynamics of the emotional facial expression processing. Regarding the ERP at stimulus onset, there is a significant emotion-dependent modulation of the P2-P3 complex and LPP components' amplitude at the left frontal site for the ERPs computed by averaging. Yet, the GLM reveals the impact of subsequent fixations on the ERPs time-locked on stimulus onset. Results are also in line with the valence hypothesis. The observed differences between the two estimation methods (Average vs. GLM) suggest the predominance of the right hemisphere at the stimulus onset and the implication of the left hemisphere in the processing of the information encoded by subsequent fixations. Concerning the first EFRP, the Lambda response and the P2 component are modulated by the emotion of surprise compared to the neutral emotion, suggesting an impact of high-level factors, in parieto-occipital sites. Moreover, no difference is observed on the second and subsequent EFRP. Taken together, the results stress the significant gain obtained in analyzing the EFRPs using the GLM method and pave the way toward efficient ecological emotional dynamic stimuli analyses.
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Affiliation(s)
- Anne Guérin-Dugué
- GIPSA-lab, Institute of Engineering, Université Grenoble Alpes, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Grenoble INP, Grenoble, France
| | - Raphaëlle N. Roy
- Department of Conception and Control of Aeronautical and Spatial Vehicles, Institut Supérieur de l’Aéronautique et de l’Espace, Université Fédérale de Toulouse, Toulouse, France
| | - Emmanuelle Kristensen
- GIPSA-lab, Institute of Engineering, Université Grenoble Alpes, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Grenoble INP, Grenoble, France
- Laboratoire InterUniversitaire de Psychologie – Personnalité, Cognition, Changement Social, Université Grenoble Alpes, Université Savoie Mont Blanc, Grenoble, France
| | - Bertrand Rivet
- GIPSA-lab, Institute of Engineering, Université Grenoble Alpes, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Grenoble INP, Grenoble, France
| | - Laurent Vercueil
- Exploration Fonctionnelle du Système Nerveux, Pôle Psychiatrie, Neurologie et Rééducation Neurologique, CHU Grenoble Alpes, Grenoble, France
- Université Grenoble Alpes, Inserm, CHU Grenoble Alpes, Grenoble Institut des Neurosciences, Grenoble, France
| | - Anna Tcherkassof
- Laboratoire InterUniversitaire de Psychologie – Personnalité, Cognition, Changement Social, Université Grenoble Alpes, Université Savoie Mont Blanc, Grenoble, France
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Mishler AD, Neider MB. Absence of distracting information explains the redundant signals effect for a centrally presented categorization task. Acta Psychol (Amst) 2017; 181:18-26. [PMID: 29028518 DOI: 10.1016/j.actpsy.2017.10.002] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/18/2016] [Revised: 10/04/2017] [Accepted: 10/06/2017] [Indexed: 10/18/2022] Open
Abstract
The redundant signals effect, a speed-up in response times with multiple targets compared to a single target in one display, is well-documented, with some evidence suggesting that it can occur even in conceptual processing when targets are presented bilaterally. The current study was designed to determine whether or not category-based redundant signals can speed up processing even without bilateral presentation. Toward that end, participants performed a go/no-go visual task in which they responded only to members of the target category (i.e., they responded only to numbers and did not respond to letters). Numbers and letters were presented along an imaginary vertical line in the center of the visual field. When the single signal trials contained a nontarget letter (Experiment 1), there was a significant redundant signals effect. The effect was not significant when the single-signal trials did not contain a nontarget letter (Experiments 2 and 3). The results indicate that, when targets are defined categorically and not presented bilaterally, the redundant signals effect may be an effect of reducing the presence of information that draws attention away from the target. This suggests that redundant signals may not speed up conceptual processing when interhemispheric presentation is not available.
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Hoche F, Guell X, Sherman JC, Vangel MG, Schmahmann JD. Cerebellar Contribution to Social Cognition. THE CEREBELLUM 2017; 15:732-743. [PMID: 26585120 DOI: 10.1007/s12311-015-0746-9] [Citation(s) in RCA: 134] [Impact Index Per Article: 19.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/16/2022]
Abstract
Emotion attribution (EA) from faces is key to social cognition, and deficits in perception of emotions from faces underlie neuropsychiatric disorders in which cerebellar pathology is reported. Here, we test the hypothesis that the cerebellum contributes to social cognition through EA from faces. We examined 57 patients with cerebellar disorders and 57 healthy controls. Thirty-one patients had complex cerebrocerebellar disease (complex cerebrocerebellar disease group (CD)); 26 had disease isolated to cerebellum (isolated cerebellar disease group (ID)). EA was measured with the Reading the Mind in the Eyes test (RMET), and informants were administered a novel questionnaire, the Cerebellar Neuropsychiatric Rating Scale (CNRS). EA was impaired in all patients (CD p < 0.001, ID p < 0.001). When analyzed for valence categories, both CD and ID missed more positive and negative stimuli. Positive targets produced the highest deficit (CD p < 0.001, ID p = 0.004). EA impairments correlated with CNRS measures of deficient social skills (p < 0.05) and autism spectrum behaviors (p < 0.005). Patients had difficulties with emotion regulation (CD p < 0.001, ID p < 0.001), autism spectrum behaviors (CD p < 0.049, ID p < 0.001), and psychosis spectrum symptoms (CD p < 0.021, ID p < 0.002). ID informants endorsed deficient social skills (CD p < 0.746, ID p < 0.003) and impaired attention regulation (CD p < 0.144, ID p < 0.001). Within the psychosis spectrum domain, CD patients were worse than controls for lack of empathy (CD p = 0.05; ID p = 0.49). Thus, patients with cerebellar damage were impaired on an EA task associated with deficient social skills and autism spectrum behaviors and experienced psychosocial difficulties on the CNRS. This has relevance for ataxias, the cerebellar cognitive affective/Schmahmann syndrome, and neuropsychiatric disorders with cerebellar pathology.
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Affiliation(s)
- Franziska Hoche
- Ataxia Unit, Cognitive Behavioral Neurology Unit, Laboratory for Neuroanatomy and Cerebellar Neurobiology, Department of Neurology, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, 175 Cambridge Street, 02114, Boston, MA, USA.
| | - Xavier Guell
- Ataxia Unit, Cognitive Behavioral Neurology Unit, Laboratory for Neuroanatomy and Cerebellar Neurobiology, Department of Neurology, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, 175 Cambridge Street, 02114, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Janet C Sherman
- Psychology Assessment Center, Department of Psychiatry, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Mark G Vangel
- Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Massachusetts General, Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Jeremy D Schmahmann
- Ataxia Unit, Cognitive Behavioral Neurology Unit, Laboratory for Neuroanatomy and Cerebellar Neurobiology, Department of Neurology, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, 175 Cambridge Street, 02114, Boston, MA, USA.
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State-Dependent TMS Reveals Representation of Affective Body Movements in the Anterior Intraparietal Cortex. J Neurosci 2017. [PMID: 28642285 DOI: 10.1523/jneurosci.0913-17.2017] [Citation(s) in RCA: 25] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/19/2022] Open
Abstract
In humans, recognition of others' actions involves a cortical network that comprises, among other cortical regions, the posterior superior temporal sulcus (pSTS), where biological motion is coded and the anterior intraparietal sulcus (aIPS), where movement information is elaborated in terms of meaningful goal-directed actions. This action observation system (AOS) is thought to encode neutral voluntary actions, and possibly some aspects of affective motor repertoire, but the role of the AOS' areas in processing affective kinematic information has never been examined. Here we investigated whether the AOS plays a role in representing dynamic emotional bodily expressions. In the first experiment, we assessed behavioral adaptation effects of observed affective movements. Participants watched series of happy or fearful whole-body point-light displays (PLDs) as adapters and were then asked to perform an explicit categorization of the emotion expressed in test PLDs. Participants were slower when categorizing any of the two emotions as long as it was congruent with the emotion in the adapter sequence. We interpreted this effect as adaptation to the emotional content of PLDs. In the second experiment, we combined this paradigm with TMS applied over either the right aIPS, pSTS, and the right half of the occipital pole (corresponding to Brodmann's area 17 and serving as control) to examine the neural locus of the adaptation effect. TMS over the aIPS (but not over the other sites) reversed the behavioral cost of adaptation, specifically for fearful contents. This demonstrates that aIPS contains an explicit representation of affective body movements.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT In humans, a network of areas, the action observation system, encodes voluntary actions. However, the role of these brain regions in processing affective kinematic information has not been investigated. Here we demonstrate that the aIPS contains a representation of affective body movements. First, in a behavioral experiment, we found an adaptation after-effect for emotional PLDs, indicating the existence of a neural representation selective for affective information in biological motion. To examine the neural locus of this effect, we then combined the adaptation paradigm with TMS. Stimulation of the aIPS (but not over pSTS and control site) reversed the behavioral cost of adaptation, specifically for fearful contents, demonstrating that aIPS contains a representation of affective body movements.
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Abstract
Recognition of facial affect has been studied extensively in adults with and without traumatic brain injury (TBI), mostly by asking examinees to match basic emotion words to isolated faces. This method may not capture affect labelling in everyday life when faces are in context and choices are open-ended. To examine effects of context and response format, we asked 148 undergraduate students to label emotions shown on faces either in isolation or in natural visual scenes. Responses were categorised as representing basic emotions, social emotions, cognitive state terms, or appraisals. We used students' responses to create a scoring system that was applied prospectively to five men with TBI. In both groups, over 50% of responses were neither basic emotion words nor synonyms, and there was no significant difference in response types between faces alone vs. in scenes. Adults with TBI used labels not seen in students' responses, talked more overall, and often gave multiple labels for one photo. Results suggest benefits of moving beyond forced-choice tests of faces in isolation to fully characterise affect recognition in adults with and without TBI.
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Crespi C, Cerami C, Dodich A, Canessa N, Iannaccone S, Corbo M, Lunetta C, Falini A, Cappa SF. Microstructural Correlates of Emotional Attribution Impairment in Non-Demented Patients with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis. PLoS One 2016; 11:e0161034. [PMID: 27513746 PMCID: PMC4981464 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0161034] [Citation(s) in RCA: 14] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/20/2016] [Accepted: 07/28/2016] [Indexed: 11/18/2022] Open
Abstract
Impairments in the ability to recognize and attribute emotional states to others have been described in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis patients and linked to the dysfunction of key nodes of the emotional empathy network. Microstructural correlates of such disorders are still unexplored. We investigated the white-matter substrates of emotional attribution deficits in a sample of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis patients without cognitive decline. Thirteen individuals with either probable or definite amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and 14 healthy controls were enrolled in a Diffusion Tensor Imaging study and administered the Story-based Empathy Task, assessing the ability to attribute mental states to others (i.e., Intention and Emotion attribution conditions). As already reported, a significant global reduction of empathic skills, mainly driven by a failure in Emotion Attribution condition, was found in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis patients compared to healthy subjects. The severity of this deficit was significantly correlated with fractional anisotropy along the forceps minor, genu of corpus callosum, right uncinate and inferior fronto-occipital fasciculi. The involvement of frontal commissural fiber tracts and right ventral associative fronto-limbic pathways is the microstructural hallmark of the impairment of high-order processing of socio-emotional stimuli in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. These results support the notion of the neurofunctional and neuroanatomical continuum between amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and frontotemporal dementia.
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Affiliation(s)
- Chiara Crespi
- Università Vita-Salute San Raffaele, Milano, Italy
- Division of Neuroscience, San Raffaele Scientific Institute, Milano, Italy
- * E-mail:
| | - Chiara Cerami
- Università Vita-Salute San Raffaele, Milano, Italy
- Division of Neuroscience, San Raffaele Scientific Institute, Milano, Italy
- Department of Clinical Neurosciences, IRCCS San Raffaele Turro, Milano, Italy
| | - Alessandra Dodich
- Università Vita-Salute San Raffaele, Milano, Italy
- Division of Neuroscience, San Raffaele Scientific Institute, Milano, Italy
| | - Nicola Canessa
- Division of Neuroscience, San Raffaele Scientific Institute, Milano, Italy
- NeTS Center, Scuola Universitaria Superiore IUSS, Pavia, Italy
| | - Sandro Iannaccone
- Division of Neuroscience, San Raffaele Scientific Institute, Milano, Italy
- Department of Clinical Neurosciences, IRCCS San Raffaele Turro, Milano, Italy
| | - Massimo Corbo
- Department of Neurorehabilitation Sciences, Casa Cura Policlinico, Milano, Italy
| | - Christian Lunetta
- NEuroMuscolar Omnicentre, Fondazione Serena Onlus, Niguarda Ca’ Granda Hospital, Milano, Italy
| | - Andrea Falini
- Università Vita-Salute San Raffaele, Milano, Italy
- Division of Neuroscience, San Raffaele Scientific Institute, Milano, Italy
- CERMAC – Neuroradiology, San Raffaele Scientific Institute, Milano, Italy
| | - Stefano F. Cappa
- Division of Neuroscience, San Raffaele Scientific Institute, Milano, Italy
- NeTS Center, Scuola Universitaria Superiore IUSS, Pavia, Italy
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Tatham EL, Ramasubbu R, Gaxiola-Valdez I, Cortese F, Clark D, Goodyear B, Foster J, Hall GB. White matter integrity in major depressive disorder: Implications of childhood trauma, 5-HTTLPR and BDNF polymorphisms. Psychiatry Res Neuroimaging 2016; 253:15-25. [PMID: 27261564 DOI: 10.1016/j.pscychresns.2016.04.014] [Citation(s) in RCA: 24] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/13/2015] [Revised: 04/22/2016] [Accepted: 04/25/2016] [Indexed: 11/24/2022]
Abstract
This study examined the impact of childhood neglect, serotonin transporter (5-HTTLPR) and brain derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) polymorphisms on white matter (WM) integrity in major depressive disorder (MDD) using diffusion tensor imaging (DTI). Fifty-five medication-free MDD patients and 18 controls underwent diffusion tensor imaging scanning, genotyping and completed the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire. Tract based spatial statistics (TBSS) findings revealed reduced fractional anisotropy (FA) in the MDD group in the anterior internal capsule. 5-HTTLPR-S'L' heterozygotes in the MDD group exhibited reduced FA in the internal capsule relative to S'S' and reduced FA in corona radiata compared to L'L'. Probabilistic tractography revealed higher FA in the uncinate fasciculus (UF) for BDNF val/val genotype relative to met-carriers, particularly in individuals with high depression severity. High depression severity and experiences of childhood physical or emotional neglect predicted higher FA in the UF and superior longitudinal fasciculus. Reductions in FA were identified for subgroups of MDD patients who were 5-HTTLPR heterozygotes and BDNF-met carriers. An association between emotional/physical neglect and FA was observed in subjects with high depressive symptoms. Our findings suggest that WM connectivity within frontal and limbic regions are affected by depression and influenced by experiences of neglect and genetic risk factors.
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Affiliation(s)
- Erica L Tatham
- McMaster Integrative Neuroscience Discovery and Study Program, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada
| | - Rajamannar Ramasubbu
- Department of Psychiatry, and Clinical Neurosciences, Hotchkiss Brain Institute, Mathison Center for Mental Health Research and Education, University of Calgary, Alberta, Canada
| | | | | | - Darren Clark
- Department of Psychiatry, and Clinical Neurosciences, Hotchkiss Brain Institute, Mathison Center for Mental Health Research and Education, University of Calgary, Alberta, Canada
| | | | - Jane Foster
- Department of Psychiatry and Behavioural Neurosciences, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada
| | - Geoffrey B Hall
- McMaster Integrative Neuroscience Discovery and Study Program, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada; Department of Psychology, Neuroscience & Behaviour, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada.
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Abstract
Recently, two groups of researchers have reported redundancy gains (enhanced performance with multiple, redundant targets) in tasks requiring semantic categorization. Here we report two experiments aimed at determining whether the gains found by one of these groups resulted from some form of semantic coactivation. We asked undergraduate psychology students to complete choice RT tasks requiring the semantic categorization of visually presented words, and compared performance with redundant targets from the same semantic category to performance with redundant targets from different semantic categories. If the redundancy gains resulted from the combination of information at a semantic level, they should have been greater in the former than the latter situation. However, our results showed no significant differences in redundancy gain (for latency and accuracy) between same-category and different-category conditions, despite gains appearing in both conditions. Thus, we suggest that redundancy gain in the semantic categorization task may result entirely from statistical facilitation or combination of information at non-semantic levels.
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Affiliation(s)
- Peter Shepherdson
- a Department of Psychology , University of Otago , Dunedin , New Zealand
| | - Jeff Miller
- a Department of Psychology , University of Otago , Dunedin , New Zealand
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Liu H, Yin HF, Wu DX, Xu SJ. Event-related potentials in response to emotional words in patients with major depressive disorder and healthy controls. Neuropsychobiology 2015; 70:36-43. [PMID: 25247404 DOI: 10.1159/000364829] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/18/2013] [Accepted: 05/25/2014] [Indexed: 11/19/2022]
Abstract
BACKGROUND Dysfunctional cognitive processing and abnormal brain activation in response to emotional stimuli have long been recognized as core features of the major depressive disorder (MDD). The aim of this study was to examine how Chinese patients with MDD process Chinese emotional words presented to either the left (LH) or right hemisphere (RH). METHODS Reaction time (RT) and the late positive component of the event-related potential were measured while subjects judged the valence (positive or negative) of emotional words written in Chinese. RESULTS Compared to healthy controls, patients with MDD exhibited slower RTs in response to negative words. In all subjects, the RTs in response to negative words were significantly faster than RTs in response to positive words presented to the LH, as well as significantly faster than responses to negative words presented to the RH. Compared to healthy controls, MDD patients exhibited reduced activation of the central and left regions of the brain in response to both negative and positive words. In healthy controls, the posterior brain areas were more active than the anterior brain areas when responding to negative words. CONCLUSION All individuals showed faster RTs in response to negative words compared to positive words. In addition, MDD patients showed lateralization of brain activity in response to emotional words, whereas healthy individuals did not show this lateralization. Posterior brain areas appear to play an especially important role in discriminating and experiencing negative emotional words. This study provides further evidence in support of the negative bias hypothesis and the emotional processing theory.
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Affiliation(s)
- Hong Liu
- Medical Psychological Institute, Second Xiangya Hospital, Central South University, Changsha, China
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31
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Prete G, Laeng B, Fabri M, Foschi N, Tommasi L. Right hemisphere or valence hypothesis, or both? The processing of hybrid faces in the intact and callosotomized brain. Neuropsychologia 2015; 68:94-106. [PMID: 25575451 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2015.01.002] [Citation(s) in RCA: 61] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/29/2014] [Revised: 12/20/2014] [Accepted: 01/03/2015] [Indexed: 11/19/2022]
Abstract
The valence hypothesis and the right hemisphere hypothesis in emotion processing have been alternatively supported. To better disentangle the two accounts, we carried out two studies, presenting healthy participants and an anterior callosotomized patient with 'hybrid faces', stimuli created by superimposing the low spatial frequencies of an emotional face to the high spatial frequencies of the same face in a neutral expression. In both studies we asked participants to judge the friendliness level of stimuli, which is an indirect measure of the processing of emotional information, despite this remaining "invisible". In Experiment 1 we presented hybrid faces in a divided visual field paradigm using different tachistoscopic presentation times; in Experiment 2 we presented hybrid chimeric faces in canonical view and upside-down. In Experiments 3 and 4 we tested a callosotomized patient, with spared splenium, in similar paradigms as those used in Experiments 1 and 2. Results from Experiments 1 and 3 were consistent with the valence hypothesis, whereas results of Experiments 2 and 4 were consistent with the right hemisphere hypothesis. This study confirms that the low spatial frequencies of emotional faces influence the social judgments of observers, even when seen for 28 ms (Experiment 1), possibly by means of configural analysis (Experiment 2). The possible roles of the cortical and subcortical emotional routes in these tasks are discussed in the light of the results obtained in the callosotomized patient. We propose that the right hemisphere and the valence accounts are not mutually exclusive, at least in the case of subliminal emotion processing.
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Affiliation(s)
- Giulia Prete
- Department of Neuroscience, Imaging and Clinical Science, 'G. d'Annunzio' University of Chieti-Pescara, Italy.
| | - Bruno Laeng
- Department of Psychology, University of Oslo, Norway
| | - Mara Fabri
- Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, Neuroscience and Cell Biology Section, Polytechnic University of Marche, Ancona, Italy
| | - Nicoletta Foschi
- Regional Epilepsy Centre, Neurological Clinic, "Ospedali Riuniti", Ancona, Italy
| | - Luca Tommasi
- Department of Psychological Science, Humanities and Territory, 'G. d'Annunzio' University of Chieti-Pescara, Italy
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Mitchell RLC, Rossell SL. Perception of emotion-related conflict in human communications: what are the effects of schizophrenia? Psychiatry Res 2014; 220:135-44. [PMID: 25149130 DOI: 10.1016/j.psychres.2014.07.077] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/06/2014] [Revised: 07/29/2014] [Accepted: 07/31/2014] [Indexed: 11/18/2022]
Abstract
Our ability to make sense of emotional cues is of paramount importance for understanding state of mind and communicative intent. However, emotional cues often conflict with each other; this presents a significant challenge for people with schizophrenia. We conducted a theoretical review to determine the extent and types of impaired processing of emotion-related conflict in schizophrenia; we evaluated the relationship with medication and symptoms, and considered possible mediatory mechanisms. The literature established that people with schizophrenia demonstrated impaired function: (i) when passively exposed to emotion cues whilst performing an unrelated task, (ii) when selectively attending to one source of emotion cues whilst trying to ignore interference from another source, and (iii) when trying to resolve conflicting emotion cues and judge meta-communicative intent. These deficits showed associations with both negative and positive symptoms. There was limited evidence for antipsychotic medications attenuating impaired emotion perception when there are conflicting cues, with further direct research needed. Impaired attentional control and context processing may underlie some of the observed impairments. Neuroanatomical correlates are likely to involve interhemispheric transfer via the corpus callosum, limbic regions such as the amygdala, and possibly dorsolateral prefrontal and anterior cingulate cortex through their role in conflict processing.
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Affiliation(s)
- Rachel L C Mitchell
- Centre for Affective (PO Box 72), Department of Psychological Medicine, Institute of Psychiatry, 16 De Crespigny Park, London SE5 8AF, UK.
| | - Susan L Rossell
- Brain and Psychological Sciences Research Centre, Swinburne University of Technology, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
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Serafini G, Pompili M, Borgwardt S, Houenou J, Geoffroy PA, Jardri R, Girardi P, Amore M. Brain changes in early-onset bipolar and unipolar depressive disorders: a systematic review in children and adolescents. Eur Child Adolesc Psychiatry 2014; 23:1023-41. [PMID: 25212880 DOI: 10.1007/s00787-014-0614-z] [Citation(s) in RCA: 76] [Impact Index Per Article: 7.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/23/2013] [Accepted: 08/29/2014] [Indexed: 01/09/2023]
Abstract
Pediatric bipolar disorder (BD) and unipolar disorder (UD) share common symptomatic and functional impairments. Various brain imaging techniques have been used to investigate the integrity of brain white matter (WM) and gray matter (GM) in these disorders. Despite promising preliminary findings, it is still unclear whether these alterations may be considered as common trait markers or may be used to distinguish BD from UD. A systematic literature search of studies between 1980 and September 2013 which reported WM/GM changes in pediatric and adolescent BD/UD, as detected by diffusion tensor imaging and voxel-based analysis was conducted. Of the 34 articles judged as eligible, 17 fulfilled our inclusion criteria and were finally retained in this review. More abnormalities have been documented in the brains of children and adolescents with BD than UD. Reductions in the volume of basal ganglia and the hippocampus appeared more specific for pediatric UD, whereas reduced corpus callosum volume and increased rates of deep WM hyperintensities were more specific for pediatric BD. Seminal papers failed to address the possibility that the differences between unipolar and bipolar samples might be related to illness severity, medication status, comorbidity or diagnosis. UD and BD present both shared and distinctive impairments in the WM and GM compartments. More WM abnormalities have been reported in children and adolescents with bipolar disease than in those with unipolar disease, maybe as a result of a low number of DTI studies in pediatric UD. Future longitudinal studies should investigate whether neurodevelopmental changes are diagnosis-specific.
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Affiliation(s)
- Gianluca Serafini
- Department of Neuroscience, Rehabilitation, Ophthalmology, Genetics, Maternal and Child Health (DINOGMI), Section of Psychiatry, University of Genoa, IRCCS San Martino, Largo Rosanna Benzi 10, 16100, Genoa, Italy,
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Aghajani M, Veer IM, van Lang NDJ, Meens PHF, van den Bulk BG, Rombouts SARB, Vermeiren RRJM, van der Wee NJ. Altered white-matter architecture in treatment-naive adolescents with clinical depression. Psychol Med 2014; 44:2287-2298. [PMID: 24330845 DOI: 10.1017/s0033291713003000] [Citation(s) in RCA: 50] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/27/2023]
Abstract
BACKGROUND Depressive disorders are highly prevalent in adolescence and confer a heightened risk of recurrence in adulthood. Insight into the developmental neurocircuitry of depression could advance our understanding of depression and aid the development of effective treatment strategies. Whereas white-matter (WM) abnormalities are strongly implicated in adult depression, we still lack a firm understanding of WM architecture in adolescent depression. Using diffusion tensor imaging (DTI), we set out to investigate WM microstructure in a sample of clinically depressed adolescents relative to matched controls. METHOD We employed tract-based spatial statistics (TBSS) to examine WM microstructure in 25 treatment-naive adolescents with clinical depression relative to 21 matched controls. Using TBSS, we examined fractional anisotropy (FA), axial diffusivity (AD), radial diffusivity (RD) and mean diffusivity (MD). Threshold-free cluster enhancement (TFCE) with family-wise error (FWE) correction was used to control for multiple comparisons. RESULTS Our analysis revealed abnormal WM microstructure in clinically depressed adolescents. More specifically, whole-brain analysis revealed that patients had lower FA values in the body of the corpus callosum (CC), coupled with elevated RD and MD, and preserved AD. Conversely, region-of-interest analysis revealed that patients had higher FA values in the uncinate fasciculus (UF), coupled with elevated AD, reduced RD and preserved MD. CONCLUSIONS In line with neurocircuitry models of depression, our findings suggest that WM abnormalities within pathways facilitating cognitive and emotional functioning are involved in the pathophysiology of depression. Importantly, our findings show that these WM abnormalities are already present early in the course of the disorder.
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Affiliation(s)
- M Aghajani
- Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Curium,Leiden University Medical Center,The Netherlands
| | - I M Veer
- Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition (LIBC),The Netherlands
| | - N D J van Lang
- Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Curium,Leiden University Medical Center,The Netherlands
| | - P H F Meens
- Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Curium,Leiden University Medical Center,The Netherlands
| | - B G van den Bulk
- Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Curium,Leiden University Medical Center,The Netherlands
| | | | - R R J M Vermeiren
- Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Curium,Leiden University Medical Center,The Netherlands
| | - N J van der Wee
- Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition (LIBC),The Netherlands
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Shepherdson P, Miller J. Redundancy gain in semantic categorisation. Acta Psychol (Amst) 2014; 148:96-106. [PMID: 24508611 DOI: 10.1016/j.actpsy.2014.01.011] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/27/2013] [Revised: 01/09/2014] [Accepted: 01/11/2014] [Indexed: 11/27/2022] Open
Abstract
Redundancy gain refers to the performance enhancements often associated with the presentation of redundant versus single targets (for example, faster, more accurate, or more forceful responses). Though predominantly observed in relatively simple tasks (e.g., stimulus detection), there have been some efforts to investigate similar phenomena in tasks involving higher level processing. We conducted three experiments aimed at determining (a) whether a redundancy gain would be evident in a task unambiguously requiring higher level processing (the semantic categorisation of visually-presented lexical stimuli), and (b) if so, what accounts might be appropriate to explain such findings. We found that redundancy gains are observed in such tasks, and we conclude that both coactivation and race models can account for these gains.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Jeff Miller
- University of Otago, PO Box 56, Dunedin 9054, New Zealand.
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Prete G, D'Ascenzo S, Laeng B, Fabri M, Foschi N, Tommasi L. Conscious and unconscious processing of facial expressions: evidence from two split-brain patients. J Neuropsychol 2013; 9:45-63. [PMID: 24325712 DOI: 10.1111/jnp.12034] [Citation(s) in RCA: 24] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/30/2013] [Revised: 10/15/2013] [Indexed: 02/06/2023]
Abstract
We investigated how the brain's hemispheres process explicit and implicit facial expressions in two 'split-brain' patients (one with a complete and one with a partial anterior resection). Photographs of faces expressing positive, negative or neutral emotions were shown either centrally or bilaterally. The task consisted in judging the friendliness of each person in the photographs. Half of the photograph stimuli were 'hybrid faces', that is an amalgamation of filtered images which contained emotional information only in the low range of spatial frequency, blended to a neutral expression of the same individual in the rest of the spatial frequencies. The other half of the images contained unfiltered faces. With the hybrid faces the patients and a matched control group were more influenced in their social judgements by the emotional expression of the face shown in the left visual field (LVF). When the expressions were shown explicitly, that is without filtering, the control group and the partially callosotomized patient based their judgement on the face shown in the LVF, whereas the complete split-brain patient based his ratings mainly on the face presented in the right visual field. We conclude that the processing of implicit emotions does not require the integrity of callosal fibres and can take place within subcortical routes lateralized in the right hemisphere.
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Affiliation(s)
- Giulia Prete
- Department of Neuroscience and Imaging, 'G. d'Annunzio' University of Chieti-Pescara, Italy
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Fairness lies in the heart of the beholder: How the social emotions of third parties influence reactions to injustice. ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR AND HUMAN DECISION PROCESSES 2013. [DOI: 10.1016/j.obhdp.2012.12.004] [Citation(s) in RCA: 34] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/22/2022]
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Wang L, Li K, Zhang QE, Zeng YW, Jin Z, Dai WJ, Su YA, Wang G, Tan YL, Yu X, Si TM. Interhemispheric functional connectivity and its relationships with clinical characteristics in major depressive disorder: a resting state fMRI study. PLoS One 2013; 8:e60191. [PMID: 23555920 PMCID: PMC3612036 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0060191] [Citation(s) in RCA: 87] [Impact Index Per Article: 7.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/21/2012] [Accepted: 02/22/2013] [Indexed: 01/21/2023] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND Abnormalities in large-scale, structural and functional brain connectivity have been increasingly reported in patients with major depressive disorder (MDD). However, MDD-related alterations in functional interaction between the cerebral hemispheres are still not well understood. Resting state fMRI, which reveals spontaneous neural fluctuations in blood oxygen level dependent signals, provides a means to detect interhemispheric functional coherence. We examined the resting state functional connectivity (RSFC) between the two hemispheres and its relationships with clinical characteristics in MDD patients using a recently proposed measurement named "voxel-mirrored homotopic connectivity (VMHC)". METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS We compared the interhemispheric RSFC, computed using the VMHC approach, of seventeen first-episode drug-naive patients with MDD and seventeen healthy controls. Compared to the controls, MDD patients showed significant VMHC decreases in the medial orbitofrontal gyrus, parahippocampal gyrus, fusiform gyrus, and occipital regions including the middle occipital gyrus and cuneus. In MDD patients, a negative correlation was found between VMHC of the fusiform gyrus and illness duration. Moreover, there were several regions whose VMHC showed significant negative correlations with the severity of cognitive disturbance, including the prefrontal regions, such as middle and inferior frontal gyri, and two regions in the cereballar crus. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE These findings suggest that the functional coordination between homotopic brain regions is impaired in MDD patients, thereby providing new evidence supporting the interhemispheric connectivity deficits of MDD. The significant correlations between the VMHC and clinical characteristics in MDD patients suggest potential clinical implication of VMHC measures for MDD. Interhemispheric RSFC may serve as a useful screening method for evaluating MDD where neural connectivity is implicated in the pathophysiology.
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Affiliation(s)
- Li Wang
- Institute of Mental Health, Peking University, Beijing, China
- The Key Laboratory for Mental Health, Ministry of Health, Beijing, China
| | - Ke Li
- Department of Radiology, 306 Hospital of People’s Liberation Army, Beijing, China
| | - Qing-E Zhang
- Mood Disorders Center, Beijing Anding Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing, China
| | - Ya-Wei Zeng
- Department of Radiology, 306 Hospital of People’s Liberation Army, Beijing, China
| | - Zhen Jin
- Department of Radiology, 306 Hospital of People’s Liberation Army, Beijing, China
| | - Wen-Ji Dai
- Institute of Mental Health, Peking University, Beijing, China
- The Key Laboratory for Mental Health, Ministry of Health, Beijing, China
| | - Yun-Ai Su
- Institute of Mental Health, Peking University, Beijing, China
- The Key Laboratory for Mental Health, Ministry of Health, Beijing, China
| | - Gang Wang
- Mood Disorders Center, Beijing Anding Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing, China
| | - Yun-Long Tan
- Center for Psychiatric Research, Beijing Huilongguan Hospital, Beijing, China
| | - Xin Yu
- Institute of Mental Health, Peking University, Beijing, China
- The Key Laboratory for Mental Health, Ministry of Health, Beijing, China
| | - Tian-Mei Si
- Institute of Mental Health, Peking University, Beijing, China
- The Key Laboratory for Mental Health, Ministry of Health, Beijing, China
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Huang H, Gundapuneedi T, Rao U. White matter disruptions in adolescents exposed to childhood maltreatment and vulnerability to psychopathology. Neuropsychopharmacology 2012; 37:2693-701. [PMID: 22850736 PMCID: PMC3473335 DOI: 10.1038/npp.2012.133] [Citation(s) in RCA: 121] [Impact Index Per Article: 10.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/16/2022]
Abstract
Childhood maltreatment has been known to produce long-lasting impairments in behavioral, cognitive and social functioning, but their underlying mechanisms are not well-understood. A better understanding of their underlying mechanisms will aid in developing effective preventive interventions. Nineteen adolescent volunteers with no personal history of a psychiatric illness, but who were exposed to maltreatment during childhood, and 13 adolescent volunteers with no personal or family history of a psychiatric disorder (controls) underwent diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) studies. The participants were then followed longitudinally at 6-month intervals for up to 5 years to determine the onset of mood and substance use disorders. The associations among fractional anisotropy (FA) values obtained from the DTI scans at baseline and psychopathology at follow-up were examined. At baseline, adolescents exposed to childhood maltreatment had significantly lower FA values in the left and right superior longitudinal fasciculi, right cingulum bundle projecting to the hippocampus, left inferior fronto-occipital fasciculus, and splenium of the corpus callosum compared with controls. Adolescents who developed major depressive disorder at follow-up had significantly lower FA values in the superior longitudinal fasciculi and the right cingulum-hippocampal projection compared with their counterparts who did not develop the illness. Adolescents who developed substance use disorder during follow-up had significantly lower FA values in the right cingulum-hippocampal projection than their counterparts without the disorder. These preliminary results suggest that white matter disruptions observed in adolescents exposed to childhood maltreatment may be associated with increased vulnerability to psychopathology, specifically depressive and substance use disorders.
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Affiliation(s)
- Hao Huang
- Advanced Imaging Research Center, The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, TX, USA,Department of Radiology, The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, TX, USA
| | - Tejasvi Gundapuneedi
- Advanced Imaging Research Center, The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, TX, USA
| | - Uma Rao
- Center for Molecular and Behavioral Neuroscience, Meharry Medical College, Nashville, TN, USA,Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Meharry Medical College, Nashville, TN, USA,Department of Psychiatry, Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, Nashville, TN, USA,Kennedy Center for Research on Human Development, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, USA,Center for Molecular and Behavioral Neuroscience, Meharry Medical College, 1005 Dr DB Todd Jr Boulevard, Nashville, TN 37208, USA. Tel: +1 615 327 6875, Fax: +1 615 327 6144. E-mail:
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Poletti M, Enrici I, Adenzato M. Cognitive and affective Theory of Mind in neurodegenerative diseases: Neuropsychological, neuroanatomical and neurochemical levels. Neurosci Biobehav Rev 2012; 36:2147-64. [DOI: 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2012.07.004] [Citation(s) in RCA: 146] [Impact Index Per Article: 12.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/03/2012] [Revised: 06/25/2012] [Accepted: 07/11/2012] [Indexed: 12/14/2022]
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Adenzato M, Todisco P, Ardito RB. Social cognition in anorexia nervosa: evidence of preserved theory of mind and impaired emotional functioning. PLoS One 2012; 7:e44414. [PMID: 22952975 PMCID: PMC3432108 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0044414] [Citation(s) in RCA: 57] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/16/2012] [Accepted: 08/02/2012] [Indexed: 12/14/2022] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND The findings of the few studies that have to date investigated the way in which individuals with Anorexia Nervosa (AN) navigate their social environment are somewhat contradictory. We undertook this study to shed new light on the social-cognitive profile of patients with AN, analysing Theory of Mind and emotional functioning. Starting from previous evidence on the role of the amygdala in the neurobiology of AN and in the social cognition, we hypothesise preserved Theory of Mind and impaired emotional functioning in patients with AN. METHODOLOGY Thirty women diagnosed with AN and thirty-two women matched for education and age were involved in the study. Theory of Mind and emotional functioning were assessed with a set of validated experimental tasks. A measure of perceived social support was also used to test the correlations between this dimension and the social-cognitive profile of AN patients. PRINCIPAL FINDINGS The performance of patients with AN is significantly worse than that of healthy controls on tasks assessing emotional functioning, whereas patients' performance is comparable to that of healthy controls on the Theory of Mind task. Correlation analyses showed no relationship between scores on any of the social-cognition tasks and either age of onset or duration of illness. A correlation between social support and emotional functioning was found. This latter result seems to suggest a potential role of social support in the treatment and recovery of AN. CONCLUSIONS The pattern of results followed the experimental hypothesis. They may be useful to help us better understand the social-cognitive profile of patients with AN and to contribute to the development of effective interventions based on the ways in which patients with AN actually perceive their social environment.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mauro Adenzato
- Center for Cognitive Science, Department of Psychology, University of Turin, Turin, Italy
- Neuroscience Institute of Turin, Turin, Italy
| | - Patrizia Todisco
- Center of Eating Disorders, Casa di Cura Villa Margherita, Arcugnano, Vicenza, Italy
| | - Rita B. Ardito
- Center for Cognitive Science, Department of Psychology, University of Turin, Turin, Italy
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Atypical moral judgment following traumatic brain injury. JUDGMENT AND DECISION MAKING 2012. [DOI: 10.1017/s1930297500002813] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/04/2023]
Abstract
AbstractPrevious research has shown an association between emotions, particularly social emotions, and moral judgments. Some studies suggested an association between blunted emotion and the utilitarian moral judgments observed in patients with prefrontal lesions. In order to investigate how prefrontal brain damage affects moral judgment, we asked a sample of 29 TBI patients (12 females and 17 males) and 41 healthy participants (16 females and 25 males) to judge 22 hypothetical dilemmas split into three different categories (non-moral, impersonal and personal moral). The TBI group presented a higher proportion of affirmative (utilitarian) responses for personal moral dilemmas when compared to controls, suggesting an atypical pattern of utilitarian judgements. We also found a negative association between the performance on recognition of social emotions and the proportion of affirmative responses on personal moral dilemmas. These results suggested that the preference for utilitarian responses in this type of dilemmas is accompanied by difficulties in social emotion recognition. Overall, our findings suggest that deontological moral judgments are associated with normal social emotion processing and that frontal lobe plays an important role in both emotion and moral judgment.
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Martins AT, Faísca L, Esteves F, Simão C, Justo MG, Muresan A, Reis A. Changes in social emotion recognition following traumatic frontal lobe injury. Neural Regen Res 2012; 7:101-8. [PMID: 25767483 PMCID: PMC4354123 DOI: 10.3969/j.issn.1673-5374.2012.02.004] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/17/2011] [Accepted: 11/02/2011] [Indexed: 11/18/2022] Open
Abstract
Changes in social and emotional behaviour have been consistently observed in patients with traumatic brain injury. These changes are associated with emotion recognition deficits which represent one of the major barriers to a successful familiar and social reintegration. In the present study, 32 patients with traumatic brain injury, involving the frontal lobe, and 41 age- and education-matched healthy controls were analyzed. A Go/No-Go task was designed, where each participant had to recognize faces representing three social emotions (arrogance, guilt and jealousy). Results suggested that ability to recognize two social emotions (arrogance and jealousy) was significantly reduced in patients with traumatic brain injury, indicating frontal lesion can reduce emotion recognition ability. In addition, the analysis of the results for hemispheric lesion location (right, left or bilateral) suggested the bilateral lesion sub-group showed a lower accuracy on all social emotions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ana Teresa Martins
- Department of Psychology, University of Algarve, 8000-000 Faro, Algarve, Portugal
| | - Luis Faísca
- Department of Psychology, University of Algarve, 8000-000 Faro, Algarve, Portugal
| | | | - Cláudia Simão
- Lisbon Universitary Institute, CIS/ISCTE – IUL, Lisbon, Portugal
| | | | - Angélica Muresan
- Department of Psychology, University of Algarve, 8000-000 Faro, Algarve, Portugal
| | - Alexandra Reis
- Department of Psychology, University of Algarve, 8000-000 Faro, Algarve, Portugal
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Lungu O, Stip E. Agenesis of corpus callosum and emotional information processing in schizophrenia. Front Psychiatry 2012; 3:1. [PMID: 22347194 PMCID: PMC3271702 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyt.2012.00001] [Citation(s) in RCA: 16] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/31/2011] [Accepted: 01/04/2012] [Indexed: 01/07/2023] Open
Abstract
Corpus callosum (CC) is essential in providing the integration of information related to perception and action within a subcortico-cortical network, thus supporting the generation of a unified experience about and reaction to changes in the environment. Its role in schizophrenia is yet to be fully elucidated, but there is accumulating evidence that there could be differences between patients and healthy controls regarding the morphology and function of CC, especially when individuals face emotionally laden information. Here, we report a case study of a patient with partial agenesis of corpus callosum (agCC patient with agenesis of the anterior aspect, above the genu) and we provide a direct comparison with a group of patients with no apparent callosal damage (CC group) regarding the brain activity during the processing of emotionally laden information. We found that although the visual cortex activation in response to visual stimuli regardless of their emotional content was comparable in agCC patient and CC group both in terms of localization and intensity of activation, we observed a very large, non-specific and non-lateralized cerebral activation in the agCC patient, in contrast with the CC group, which showed a more lateralized and spatially localized activation, when the emotional content of the stimuli was considered. Further analysis of brain activity in the regions obtained in the CC group revealed that the agCC patient actually had an opposite activation pattern relative to most participants with no CC agenesis, indicating a dysfunctional response to these kind of stimuli, consistent with the clinical presentation of this particular patient. Our results seem to give support to the disconnection hypothesis which posits that the core symptoms of schizophrenia are related to aberrant connectivity between distinct brain areas, especially when faced with emotional stimuli, a fact consistent with the clinical tableau of this particular patient.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ovidiu Lungu
- Departement de Psychiatrie, Université de Montréal Montréal, QC, Canada
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The Recognition of Facial Emotions in Spinocerebellar Ataxia Patients. THE CEREBELLUM 2011; 10:600-10. [DOI: 10.1007/s12311-011-0276-z] [Citation(s) in RCA: 56] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/30/2023]
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Bara BG, Ciaramidaro A, Walter H, Adenzato M. Intentional Minds: A Philosophical Analysis of Intention Tested through fMRI Experiments Involving People with Schizophrenia, People with Autism, and Healthy Individuals. Front Hum Neurosci 2011; 5:7. [PMID: 21344005 PMCID: PMC3034216 DOI: 10.3389/fnhum.2011.00007] [Citation(s) in RCA: 51] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/20/2010] [Accepted: 01/10/2011] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
IN THIS PAPER WE SHOW HOW WE EMPIRICALLY TESTED ONE OF THE MOST RELEVANT TOPICS IN PHILOSOPHY OF MIND THROUGH A SERIES OF FMRI EXPERIMENTS: the classification of different types of intention. To this aim, firstly we trace a theoretical distinction among private, prospective, and communicative intentions. Second, we propose a set of predictions concerning the recognition of these three types of intention in healthy individuals, and we report the experimental results corroborating our theoretical model of intention. Third, we derive from our model predictions relevant for the domain of psychopathological functioning. In particular, we treat the cases of both hyper-intentionality (as in paranoid schizophrenia) and hypo-intentionality (as in autistic spectrum disorders). Our conclusion is that the theoretical model of intention we propose contributes to enlarge our knowledge on the neurobiological bases of intention processing, in both healthy people and in people with impairments to the neurocognitive system that underlies intention recognition.
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Affiliation(s)
- Bruno G Bara
- Department of Psychology, Center for Cognitive Science, University of Turin Turin, Italy
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Huang H, Fan X, Williamson DE, Rao U. White matter changes in healthy adolescents at familial risk for unipolar depression: a diffusion tensor imaging study. Neuropsychopharmacology 2011; 36:684-91. [PMID: 21085111 PMCID: PMC3036948 DOI: 10.1038/npp.2010.199] [Citation(s) in RCA: 119] [Impact Index Per Article: 9.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 02/04/2023]
Abstract
Alterations in white matter integrity of several cortical and subcortical circuits have been reported in relation to unipolar major depressive disorder. It is not clear whether these white matter changes precede the onset of illness. In all, 13 adolescent volunteers with no personal or family history of a psychiatric disorder (controls) and 18 adolescent volunteers with no personal history of a psychiatric illness including depression, but who were at high risk for developing unipolar depression by virtue of parental depression (high-risk youth), underwent diffusion tensor imaging studies. An automated tract-based spatial statistics method, a whole-brain voxel-by-voxel analysis, was used to analyze the scans. Population average diffusion parameter values were also calculated for each tract. Adolescents at high risk for unipolar depression had lower fractional anisotropy (FA) values in the left cingulum, splenium of the corpus callosum, superior longitudinal fasciculi, uncinate, and inferior fronto-occipital fasciculi than did controls. Altered white matter integrity in healthy adolescents at familial risk for unipolar depression suggests that it might serve as a vulnerability marker for the illness.
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Affiliation(s)
- Hao Huang
- Advanced Imaging Research Center, The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, Texas, USA,Department of Radiology, The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, Texas, USA
| | - Xin Fan
- Department of Software Engineering, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian City, Liaoning, China
| | - Douglas E Williamson
- Department of Psychiatry, The University of Texas Health Science Center, San Antonio, Texas, USA
| | - Uma Rao
- Department of Psychiatry, UT Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, Texas, USA,Department of Psychiatry, UT Southwestern Medical Center, 5323 Harry Hines Boulevard, Dallas, TX 75390-9101, USA, Tel: +1 214 648 5260, Fax: +1 214 648 5242, E-mail:
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Cope LM, Schaich Borg J, Harenski CL, Sinnott-Armstrong W, Lieberman D, Nyalakanti PK, Calhoun VD, Kiehl KA. Hemispheric Asymmetries during Processing of Immoral Stimuli. FRONTIERS IN EVOLUTIONARY NEUROSCIENCE 2010; 2:110. [PMID: 21344009 PMCID: PMC3034229 DOI: 10.3389/fnevo.2010.00110] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/05/2010] [Accepted: 12/07/2010] [Indexed: 11/13/2022]
Abstract
Evolutionary approaches to dissecting our psychological architecture underscore the importance of both function and structure. Here we focus on both the function and structure of our neural circuitry and report a functional bilateral asymmetry associated with the processing of immoral stimuli. Many processes in the human brain are associated with functional specialization unique to one hemisphere. With respect to emotions, most research points to right-hemispheric lateralization. Here we provide evidence that not all emotional stimuli share right-hemispheric lateralization. Across three studies employing different paradigms, the processing of negative morally laden stimuli was found to be highly left-lateralized. Regions of engagement common to the three studies include the left medial prefrontal cortex, left temporoparietal junction, and left posterior cingulate. These data support the hypothesis that processing of immoral stimuli preferentially engages left hemispheric processes and sheds light on our evolved neural architecture.
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Sharpley CF, Bitsika V. The diverse neurogeography of emotional experience: Form follows function. Behav Brain Res 2010; 215:1-6. [DOI: 10.1016/j.bbr.2010.06.031] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/23/2010] [Accepted: 06/25/2010] [Indexed: 10/19/2022]
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50
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Neural bases of the non-conscious perception of emotional signals. Nat Rev Neurosci 2010; 11:697-709. [PMID: 20811475 DOI: 10.1038/nrn2889] [Citation(s) in RCA: 616] [Impact Index Per Article: 44.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/20/2023]
Abstract
Many emotional stimuli are processed without being consciously perceived. Recent evidence indicates that subcortical structures have a substantial role in this processing. These structures are part of a phylogenetically ancient pathway that has specific functional properties and that interacts with cortical processes. There is now increasing evidence that non-consciously perceived emotional stimuli induce distinct neurophysiological changes and influence behaviour towards the consciously perceived world. Understanding the neural bases of the non-conscious perception of emotional signals will clarify the phylogenetic continuity of emotion systems across species and the integration of cortical and subcortical activity in the human brain.
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