Bilateral Amygdala Research Articles

The association between peer-victimisation and structural and functional brain outcomes: A systematic review.

Peer adversity and aggression are common experiences in childhood and adolescence which lead to poor mental health outcomes. To date, there has been no review conducted on the neurobiological changes associated with relational peer-victimisation, bullying and cyberbullying. This systematic review assessed structural and functional brain changes associated with peer-victimisation, bullying, and cyberbullying from 1 January 2000 to April 2021. A systematic search of Psychoinfo, Pubmed, and Scopus was performed independently by two reviewers using predefined criteria. Twenty-six studies met the selection criteria and were considered for review. The data collected shows altered brain activation of regions implicated in processing reward, social pain, and affect; and heightened sensitivity and more widespread activation of brain regions during acute social exclusion, most notably in the amygdala, left parahippocampal gyrus, and fusiform gyrus, associated with victimisation exposure. In addition, victimised youths also demonstrated greater risk-taking behaviours following acute social exclusion showing greater ventral striatum-inferior frontal gyrus coupling, activation in the bilateral amygdala, orbital frontal cortex (OFC), medial prefrontal cortex (MPFC), temporoparietal junction (TPJ), medial posterior parietal cortex (MPPC) and dorsomedial prefrontal cortex(dmPFC), suggesting greater social monitoring, seeking of inclusion, and moreeffortful cognitive control. The studies included participants from a very broad developmental age range, mostly using cross-sectional measure of peer-victimisation exposure, at varying developmental stages. This review highlights the need for more neuroimaging studies in cyberbullying, as well as longitudinal studies across more diverse samples for investigating gender, age, and developmental interactions with peer-victimising. This also brings to attention the importance of addressing bullying victimisation particularly in adolescence, given the evidence for social stress in heightening developmentally sensitive processes which are associated with depression, anxiety, and externalising symptoms.

Neural underpinnings of emotion regulation subgroups in remitted patients with recently diagnosed bipolar disorder

Neuroimaging studies of bipolar disorder (BD) generally involve comparison with healthy controls (HC), which may mask neurobiological variability within the disorder. This study aims to assess the neural underpinnings of potential subgroups of BD patients based on functional activity in the emotion regulation network and its relation to illness characteristics and relapse risk. Eighty-seven remitted patients with recently diagnosed BD and 66 HC underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) while performing an emotion regulation task. Patients were re-assessed with clinical interviews after 16 (±5) months. Data-driven hierarchical cluster analysis was employed to investigate ‘neuronal subgroups’ of patients based on their neuronal activity in a pre-defined emotion regulation network. Relations between neuronal subgroups and illness characteristics and relapse rates were examined. Patients were allocated into two subgroups. Subgroup 1 (n=62, 75%) was characterized by exaggerated bilateral amygdala reactivity but normal prefrontal and temporo-parietal activation. Subgroup 2 (n= 22, 25%) showed widespread hypo-activity within all emotion regulation regions. Both subgroups were less successful at down-regulating their emotions than HC (F(2,146)=5.33, p=.006, ηp2=.07). Patients in subgroup 2 had a history of more and longer mixed episodes (ps≤.01). Importantly, heightened amygdala activity across all patients was associated with increased risk of relapse during a 16-month follow-up period (β=3.36, 95% CI [1.49;550.35], N=60, p=.03). The identified neuronal subgroups of patients with either amygdala hyper-activity or broad network hypo-activity during emotion regulation points to neurobiological heterogeneity among remitted patients with BD. Heightened amygdala reactivity may be a neuronal target for personalized treatments to prevent relapse.

Functional Connectivity Features of Resting-State Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging May Distinguish Migraine From Tension-Type Headache.

BackgroundMigraineurs often exhibited abnormalities in cognition, emotion, and resting-state functional connectivity (rsFC), whereas patients with tension-type headache (TTH) rarely exhibited these abnormalities. The aim of this study is to explore whether rsFC alterations in brain regions related to cognition and emotion could be used to distinguish patients with migraine from patients with TTH.MethodsIn this study, Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA), Self-Rating Anxiety Scale (SAS), Self-Rating Depression Scale (SDS), and rsFC analyses were used to assess the cognition, anxiety, and depression of 24 healthy controls (HCs), 24 migraineurs, and 24 patients with TTH. Due to their important roles in neuropsychological functions, the bilateral amygdala and hippocampus were chosen as seed regions for rsFC analyses. We further assessed the accuracy of the potential rsFC alterations for distinguishing migraineurs from non-migraineurs (including HCs and patients with TTH) by the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis. Associations between headache characteristics and rsFC features were calculated using a multi-linear regression model. This clinical trial protocol has been registered in the Chinese Clinical Trial Registry (registry number: ChiCTR1900024307, Registered: 5 July 2019-Retrospectively registered, http://www.chictr.org.cn/showproj.aspx?proj=40817).ResultsMigraineurs showed lower MoCA scores (p = 0.010) and higher SAS scores (p = 0.017) than HCs. Migraineurs also showed decreased rsFC in the bilateral calcarine/cuneus, lingual gyrus (seed: left amygdala), and bilateral calcarine/cuneus (seed: left hippocampus) in comparison to HCs and patients with TTH. These rsFC features demonstrated significant distinguishing capabilities and got a sensitivity of 82.6% and specificity of 81.8% with an area under the curve (AUC) of 0.868. rsFC alterations showed a significant correlation with headache frequency in migraineurs (p = 0.001, Pc = 0.020).ConclusionThe rsFC of amygdala and hippocampus with occipital lobe can be used to distinguish patients with migraine from patients with TTH.Clinical Trial Registration[http://www.chictr.org.cn/showproj.aspx?proj=40817], identifier [ChiCTR1900024307].

Grey matter correlates of affective and somatic symptoms of premenstrual dysphoric disorder

Ovarian hormones fluctuations across the menstrual cycle are experienced by about 58% of women in their fertile age. Maladaptive brain sensitivity to these changes likely leads to the severe psychological, cognitive, and physical symptoms repeatedly experienced by women with Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder (PMDD) during the late luteal phase of the menstrual cycle. However, the neuroanatomical correlates of these symptoms are unknown. The relationship between grey matter structure and PMDD symptom severity was delineated using structural magnetic resonance imaging during the late luteal phase of fifty-one women diagnosed with PMDD, combined with Voxel- and Surface-Based Morphometry, as well as subcortical volumetric analyses. A negative correlation was found between depression-related symptoms and grey matter volume of the bilateral amygdala. Moreover, the severity of affective and somatic PMDD symptoms correlated with cortical thickness, gyrification, sulcal depth, and complexity metrics, particularly in the prefrontal, cingulate, and parahippocampal gyri. The present findings provide the first evidence of grey matter morphological characteristics associated with PMDD symptomatology in brain regions expressing ovarian hormone receptors and of relevance to cognitive-affective functions, thus potentially having important implications for understanding how structural brain characteristics relate to PMDD symptomatology.

Clinical and imaging analysis to evaluate the response of patients with anti-DPPX encephalitis to immunotherapy

BackgroundTo report the main spectrum and new clinical and imaging characteristics of dipeptidyl-peptidase-like protein 6 (DPPX) antibody-associated encephalitis, and to evaluate the effect of immunotherapy.MethodsA retrospective analysis of nine patients with anti-DPPX encephalitis was performed, and all previously reported cases in the literature were reviewed. A cell-based indirect immunofluorescence assay using human embryonic kidney 293 cells transfected with DPPX was used.ResultsNine patients were identified (median age, 51 years; range, 14–65 years) with prodromal fever, diarrhea, or weight loss, followed by rapid progressive encephalopathy characterized by cognitive disorder. One patient who received methylprednisolone therapy and a trial of tacrolimus showed substantial improvement and had no relapse by the 6-month follow-up. Our comprehensive literature review demonstrated that 53 cases were reported, of which more than half had prodromal weight loss (52.8%) and gastrointestinal disorders (58.5%). Cognitive disorders (74.6%) and brainstem/spinal cord disorders (75.5%) were the most common major symptoms. A greater proportion of Chinese patients than non-Chinese patients had abnormalities on brain magnetic resonance imaging specific for encephalitis (70.0% vs. 23.3%, P < 0.001). Our study is the first to report three patients with anti-DPPX encephalitis who had sleep disorders with rapid eye movement sleep behavior disorder, limb paralysis (two), severe pleocytosis, elevated protein levels (two) in the cerebrospinal fluid, and increased T2/FLAIR signal abnormalities in the bilateral hippocampus, temporal lobe, amygdala, basal ganglia, thalamus, centrum semiovale, and frontal and parietal lobes in seven patients (77.8%).ConclusionOur study expands the clinical and imaging phenotypes of anti-DPPX encephalitis. Further studies elucidating the entire clinical spectrum of anti-DPPX encephalitis, its pathogenic mechanisms, and prognosis under long-term immunosuppressive therapy are warranted.

Brain Structures and Networks Underlying Treatment Response to Deep Brain Stimulation Targeting the Inferior Thalamic Peduncle in Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder

Background: Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is a debilitating disease with a lifetime prevalence of 2–3%. Neuromodulatory treatments have been successfully used in severe cases. Deep brain stimulation (DBS) targeting the inferior thalamic peduncle (ITP) has been shown to successfully alleviate symptoms in OCD patients; however, the brain circuits implicated remain unclear. Here, we investigate the efficacious neural substrates following ITP-DBS for OCD. Methods: High-quality normative structural and functional connectomics and voxel-wise probabilistic mapping techniques were applied to assess the neural substrates of OCD symptom alleviation in a cohort of 5 ITP-DBS patients. Results: The region of most efficacious stimulation was located in the regions of the ITP and bed nucleus of the stria terminalis. Both functional and structural connectomics analyses demonstrated that successful symptom alleviation involved a brain network encompassing the bilateral amygdala and prefrontal regions. Limitations: The main limitation is the small size of the ITP-DBS cohort. While the findings are highly consistent and significant, these should be validated in larger studies. Conclusions: These results identify a tripartite brain network – composed of the bilateral amygdala and prefrontal regions 24 and 46 – whose engagement is associated with greater symptom improvement. They also provide information for optimizing targeting and identifying network components critically involved in ITP-DBS treatment response. Amygdala engagement in particular seems to be a key component for clinical benefits and could constitute a biomarker for treatment optimization.

Thyroid hormones disturbances, cognitive deficits and abnormal dynamic functional connectivity variability of the amygdala in unmedicated bipolar disorder

ObjectiveAccumulating evidence suggests that hypothalamus-pituitary-thyroid (HPT) axis dysfunction is relevant to the neuropsychological and pathophysiology functions of bipolar disorder (BD). However, no research has investigated the inter-relationships among thyroid hormones disturbance, neurocognitive deficits, and aberrant brain function (particularly in the amygdala) in patients with BD. Materials and methodsData of dynamic resting-state functional connectivity (rs-dFC) were gathered from 59 patients with unmedicated BD II during depressive episodes and 52 healthy controls (HCs). Four seeds were selected (the bilateral lateral amygdala and the bilateral medial amygdala). The sliding-window analysis was applied to investigate dynamic functional connectivity (dFC). Additionally, the serum thyroid hormone (free tri-iodothyronine (FT3), total tri-iodothyronine (TT3), free thyroxin (FT4), total thyroxin (TT4) and thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH)) levels, and cognitive scores on the MATRICS Consensus Cognitive Battery (MCCB) in patients and HCs were detected. ResultsThe BD group exhibited increased dFC variability between the left medial amygdala and right medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) when compared with the HC group. Additionally, the BD group showed lower FT3, TT3, and TSH level, higher FT4 level, and poorer cognitive score. Moreover, a significant negative correlation was observed between the dFC variability of the left medial amygdala-right mPFC and TSH level, or reasoning and problem solving of MCCB score in BD group. Multiple regression analysis showed that the TSH level × dFC variability of the medial amygdala-mPFC was an independent predictor for cognitive processing speed in BD group. ConclusionsThis study revealed patients with BD II depression had excessive variability in dFC between the medial amygdala and mPFC. Moreover, both HPT axis dysfunction and abnormal dFC of the amygdala-mPFC might be implicated in cognitive impairment in the early stages of BD.

Context-prosody interaction in sarcasm comprehension: A functional magnetic resonance imaging study

During conversation, sarcasm is perceived as an incongruity between the context, content, and prosody of the utterance. We hypothesized that prosody modifies the context‒content incongruity effect. Thus, we conducted a functional magnetic resonance imaging study with an auditory sarcasm detection task in 22 healthy adult participants. The participants listened to a short conversation according to which they had done either a good or bad deed, about which their conversational partner made a positive comment. When the context was positive (congruent with the content of utterance), positive prosody lessened the sarcasm rating, whereas negative prosody enhanced this rating. When the context was negative, the positive prosody effect disappeared, while negative prosody increased the sarcasm rating. Thus, context‒content incongruity is the primary determinant of sarcasm comprehension; and is modified by prosody in a context-dependent manner. Neuroimaging results showed that the context‒content incongruity effect was notable in the cerebellum and the mentalizing network, representing what was uttered in a particular context. The content‒prosody incongruity effect was observed in the bilateral amygdala, representing the manner of utterance. The interaction between these incongruity effects was found in the bilateral dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, extending to the inferior frontal gyrus and the salience network, including the anterior insular cortex and the caudal part of the dorso-medial prefrontal cortex. These findings indicate that two distinct incongruity detection systems for sarcasm comprehension are integrated in the prefrontal cortices through the salience network.

Reduced structural connectivity of the amygdala is associated with childhood trauma in adult patients with alcohol use disorder.

Childhood trauma (CT) is frequent in patients with alcohol use disorder (AUD) and may impact on adult drinking behaviour and treatment outcome. This study aimed to investigate the structural correlates of CT in AUD, focusing on the amygdala, which plays a crucial role in the neurobiology of trauma. We hypothesized reduced amygdala volume and reduced structural connectivity as quantified by fractional anisotropy (FA) and by number of streamlines in those AUD patients with a history of moderate to severe CT (AUD‐CT). T1‐weighted MP2RAGE and diffusion‐weighted imaging (DWI) 3‐Tesla MRI‐scans were acquired in 41 recently abstinent patients with AUD. We compared bilateral amygdala volume and structural connectivity (FA and number of streamlines) of pathways emanating from the amygdala between AUD‐CT (n = 20) and AUD without CT (AUD‐NT, n = 21) using a mixed model multivariate analysis of variance (MANCOVA) controlling for age and gender. AUD‐CT displayed reduced FA and reduced number of streamlines of amygdalar tracts. There were no differences regarding amygdala volume. The severity of physical abuse, a subscale of the childhood trauma questionnaire, was negatively correlated with FA and with number of streamlines. AUD‐CT and AUD‐NT differ regarding structural connectivity of pathways projecting to and from the amygdala, but not regarding amygdala volume. Those alterations of structural connectivity in AUD‐CT may represent a distinguishable neurobiological subtype of AUD, which might be associated with the complex clinical picture and poorer outcome that patients with CT and AUD often present.

Differences in subcortical brain volumes among patients with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder and healthy controls.

Background:Patients with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder have an overlapping polygenic architecture and clinical similarities, although the 2 disorders are distinct diagnoses with clinical dissimilarities. It remains unclear whether there are specific differences in subcortical volumes between schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, and whether the subcortical differences are affected by any clinical characteristics. We investigated differences in subcortical volumes bilaterally among patients with schizophrenia, patients with bipolar disorder and healthy controls. We also investigated the influences of clinical characteristics on specific subcortical volumes in these patient groups.Methods:We collected 3 T T1-weighted MRI brain scans from 413 participants (157 with schizophrenia, 51 with bipolar disorder and 205 controls) with a single scanner at a single institute. We used FreeSurfer version 6.0 for processing the T1-weighted images to segment the following subcortical brain volumes: thalamus, caudate, putamen, globus pallidus, hippocampus, amygdala and nucleus accumbens. Differences in the 7 subcortical volumes were investigated among the groups. We also evaluated correlations between subcortical volumes and clinical variables in these patient groups.Results:Of 7 subcortical regions, patients with schizophrenia had significantly smaller volumes in the left thalamus (Cohen d = −0.29, p = 5.83 × 10−3), bilateral hippocampi (left, d = −0.36, p = 8.85 × 10−4; right, d = −0.41, p = 1.15 × 10−4) and left amygdala (d = −0.31, p = 4.02 × 10−3) than controls. Compared with controls, patients with bipolar disorder had bilateral reductions only in the hippocampal volumes (left, d = −0.52, p = 1.12 × 10−3; right, d = −0.58, p = 0.30 × 10−4). We also found that patients with schizophrenia had significantly smaller volumes in the bilateral amygdalae (left, d = −0.43, p = 4.22 × 10−3; right, d = −0.45, p = 4.56 × 10−3) than patients with bipolar disorder. We did not find any significant volumetric differences in the other 6 subcortical structures between patient groups (p > 0.05). Smaller left amygdalar volumes were significantly correlated with younger onset age only in patients with schizophrenia (r = 0.22, p = 5.78 × 10−3).Limitations:We did not evaluate the differences in subcortical volumes between patients stratified based on clinical bipolar disorder subtype and a history of psychotic episodes because our sample size of patients with bipolar disorder was limited.Conclusion:Our findings suggest that volumetric differences in the amygdala between patients with schizophrenia and those with bipolar disorder may be a putative biomarker for distinguishing 2 clinically similar diagnoses.

Association between resting-state functional connectivity of amygdala subregions and peripheral pro-inflammation cytokines levels in bipolar disorder.

The pathophysiological mechanisms of bipolar disorder (BD) are not completely known, and systemic inflammation and immune dysregulation are considered as risk factors. Previous neuroimaging studies have proved metabolic, structural and functional abnormalities of the amygdala in BD, suggesting the vital role of amygdala in BD patients. This study aimed to test the underlying neural mechanism of inflammation-induced functional connectivity (FC) in the amygdala subregions of BD patients. Resting-state functional MRI (rs-fMRI) was used to delineate the amygdala FC from two pairs of amygdala seed regions (the bilateral lateral and medial amygdala) in 51 unmedicated BD patients and 69 healthy controls (HCs). The levels of pro-inflammatory cytokines including interleukin (IL)-1β, IL-6 and tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α were measured in the serum. The correlation between abnormal levels of pro-inflammatory cytokines and FC values were calculated in BD patients. The BD group exhibited decreased FC between the right medial amygdala and bilateral medial frontal cortex (MFC), and decreased FC between the left medial amygdala and the left temporal pole (TP), right orbital inferior frontal gyrus compared with HCs. The BD patients had higher levels of TNF-α than HCs. Correlation analysis showed negative correlation between the TNF-α level and abnormal FC of the right medial amygdala-bilateral MFC; and negative correlation between TNF-α levels and abnormal FC of the left medial amygdala-left TP in BD group. These findings suggest that dysfunctional and immune dysregulation between the amygdala and the frontotemporal circuitry might play a critical role in the pathogenesis of BD.

Altered centromedial amygdala functional connectivity in adults is associated with childhood emotional abuse and predicts levels of depression and anxiety

BackgroundChildhood maltreatment is significantly associated with greater occurrence of mental disorders in adulthood such as depression and anxiety. As a key node of the limbic system, the amygdala is engaged in emotional processing and regulation and is dysfunctional in many psychiatric disorders. The present study aimed at exploring the association between childhood maltreatment and amygdala-based functional networks and their potential contributions to depression and anxiety. MethodsTotally 90 Chinese healthy volunteers participated in a resting-state fMRI experiment. Levels of childhood maltreatment experience were assessed using the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (CTQ-SF) as well as levels of depression and anxiety. Associations between CTQ-SF scores and bilateral amygdala gray matter volume and resting-state functional connectivity (RSFC) of the amygdala and selected regions of interest were analyzed using multiple regression analyses with sex and age as covariates. A subsequent moderation analysis was performed to identify whether associations were predictive of depression and anxiety levels. ResultsChildhood maltreatment was significantly negatively associated with RSFC between left amygdala and anterior insula. Further sub-region analyses revealed that this negative association only occurred for the left centromedial amygdala subregion, which subsequently moderated the relationship between levels of childhood emotional abuse and depression / anxiety. LimitationsNo psychiatric patients were involved and specific neural associations with different childhood maltreatment subtypes need to be examined in future studies. ConclusionThe present findings provide evidence for altered RSFC of centromedial amygdala and the anterior insula associated with childhood maltreatment and which moderate levels of depression and anxiety in adulthood.

Dialectical Thinking Is Linked With Smaller Left Nucleus Accumbens and Right Amygdala.

Our current work examined the interface between thinking style and emotional experience at both the behavioral and neuropsychological levels. Thirty-nine Chinese participants completed the triad task, and we calculated the rate of individually selected relationship pairings to overall selections to represent their holistic thinking tendencies. In addition, participants in the top one-third of the ratio score were classified into the high holistic thinking group, while those in the bottom one-third of the ratio score were classified into the low holistic thinking group. We used the sensitivity to punishment and sensitivity to reward questionnaire (SPSRQ) to examine how people elicit positive and negative affective behaviors. Additionally, we examined the volume of the amygdala and nucleus accumbens and their functional connectivity in the resting-state. We found that high holistic thinkers were much less sensitive to rewards than low holistic thinkers. In other words, individuals with high holistic thinking are less likely to pursue behaviors that have positive emotional outcomes. Furthermore, their bilateral nucleus accumbens and right amygdala volumes were smaller than those of low holistic thinkers. Hierarchical regression analysis showed that holistic thinking tendency can negatively predict the volume of the left nucleus accumbens and right amygdala. Finally, resting-state functional connectivity results showed increased functional connectivity FC between left nucleus accumbens and bilateral amygdala in high holistic thinkers. These findings provide emotion-related manifestations of thinking styles at the behavioral and neural levels.

Mapping of Brain Activity in the Analgesia Induced by Phα1β and Morphine.

Preclinical evidence suggests the potential of Phα1β, a toxin obtained from the venom of spider Phoneutria nigriventer, as a new analgesic drug. Molecular brain imaging techniques have afforded exciting opportunities to examine brain processes in clinical pain conditions. This paper aims to study the brain regions involved in the analgesic effects of Phα1β compared with Morphine, in a model of acute pain induced by formalin in Sprague Dawley rats. We used 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose as a metabolic radiotracer to perform brain imaging of rats pretreated with Phα1β or Morphine in a model of acute inflammatory pain caused by intraplantar injection of formalin. The rats’ hind paw’s formalin stimulation resulted in a brain metabolic increase at the bilateral motor cortex, visual cortex, somatosensory cortex, thalamus, and cingulate cortex.In rats treated with Phα1β, selective inhibition of unilateral motor cortex and cingulate cortex was observed. Morphine treatment leads to small and selective inhibition at the bilateral amygdala striatum and accumbens. Our results indicate that the analgesic effect of Phα1β and Morphine possesses a differential profile of central processing in the pain state.

Sex Differences of Cerebellum and Cerebrum: Evidence from Graph Convolutional Network.

This work aims to exploit a novel graph neural network to predict the sex of the brain topological network, and to find the sex differences in the cerebrum and cerebellum. A two-branch multi-scale graph convolutional network (TMGCN) is designed to analyze the sex differences of the brain. Two complementary templates are used to construct cerebrum and cerebellum networks, respectively, followed by a two-branch sub-network with multi-scale filters and a trainable weighted fusion strategy for the final prediction. Finally, a trainable graph topk-pooling layer is utilized in our model to visualize key brain regions relevant to the prediction. The proposed TMGCN achieves a prediction accuracy of 84.48%. In the cerebellum, the bilateral Crus I-II, lobule VI and VIIb, and the posterior vermis (VI-X) are discriminative for this task. As for the cerebrum, the discriminative brain regions consist of the bilateral inferior temporal gyrus, the bilateral fusiform gyrus, the bilateral parahippocampal gyrus, the bilateral cingulate gyrus, the bilateral medial ventral occipital cortex, the bilateral lateral occipital cortex, the bilateral amygdala, and the bilateral hippocampus. This study tackles the sex prediction problem from a more comprehensive view, and may provide the resting-state fMRI evidence for further study of sex differences in the cerebellum and cerebrum.

Toddler-mother attachment moderates adolescents' behavioral and neural evaluation of trustworthiness.

This longitudinal study examined the prospective association between toddler–mother attachment to adolescents’ (n = 52; 34 boys; Mage = 13.22 years; 90% White) behavioral and neural responses during the evaluation of trustworthiness from unfamiliar, emotionally neutral faces. At 33 months, toddler–mother attachment status (secure vs insecure classification) was assessed using a modified Strange Situation procedure. Results revealed that attachment moderated the processing of trustworthiness facial cues. As faces became less trustworthy, adolescents with a secure (vs insecure) attachment history rated the faces as correspondingly less trustworthy and showed increasing (vs overall blunted) activation in brain regions involved in trustworthiness perception (i.e. bilateral amygdala, bilateral fusiform, right anterior insula and right posterior superior temporal sulcus). Findings suggest that a secure compared with insecure child–mother attachment in toddlerhood may be associated with greater capacity for, or openness to, processing potentially negative social information at both the behavioral and neural levels during adolescence.

The Use of Neuroimaging for Predicting Sumatriptan Treatment Response in Patients With Migraine.

ObjectivesTo identify the neuroimaging predictors for the responsiveness of patients to sumatriptan and use an independent cohort for external validation.MethodsStructuralized headache questionnaire and 3-Tesla brain magnetic resonance imaging were performed in migraine patients. Regional brain volumes were automatically calculated using FreeSurfer version 6.0, including bilateral amygdala, anterior cingulated cortex, caudate, putamen, precuneus, orbitofrontal cortex, superior frontal gyri, middle frontal gyri, hippocampus, and parahippocampus. A sumatriptan-responder was defined as headache relief within 2 h after the intake of sumatriptan in at least two out of three treated attacks. We constructed a prediction model for sumatriptan response using the regional brain volume and validated it with an independent cohort of migraine patients.ResultsA total of 105 migraine patients were recruited, including 73 sumatriptan responders (69.5%) and 32 (30.5%) non-responders. We divided the migraine patients into derivation (n = 73) and validation cohorts (n = 32). In the derivation cohort, left hippocampal volume was larger in sumatriptan responders (responders vs. non-responders: 3,929.5 ± 403.1 vs. 3,611.0 ± 389.9 mm3, p = 0.002), and patients with a larger left hippocampal volume had a higher response rate to sumatriptan (>4,036.2 vs. ≤4,036.2 mm3: 92.0 vs. 56.3%, p = 0.001). Based on the findings, we constructed a prediction model using the cutoff value of 4,036.2 mm3, and we found that patients with a left hippocampal volume >4,032.6 mm3 had a higher response rate to sumatriptan than those with a left hippocampal volume ≤4,032.6 mm3 (84.6 vs. 42.1%, odds ratio [OR] = 7.6 [95% confidence interval = 1.3–44.0], p = 0.013) in the validation cohort.ConclusionOur study showed that left hippocampal volume is helpful to identify sumatriptan non-responders. This proof-of-concept study shows that left hippocampal volume could be used to predict the treatment response to sumatriptan in migraine patients.

Subcortical Brain Volumes Relate to Neurocognition in First-Episode Schizophrenia, Bipolar Disorder, Major Depression Disorder, and Healthy Controls.

ObjectiveTo explore differences and similarities in relationships between subcortical structure volumes and neurocognition among the four subject groups, including first-episode schizophrenia (FES), bipolar disorder (BD), major depression disorder (MDD), and healthy controls (HCs).MethodsWe presented findings from subcortical volumes and neurocognitive analyses of 244 subjects (109 patients with FES; 63 patients with BD, 30 patients with MDD, and 42 HCs). Using the FreeSurfer software, volumes of 16 selected subcortical structures were automatically segmented and analyzed for relationships with results from seven neurocognitive tests from the MATRICS (Measurement and Treatment Research to Improve Cognition in Schizophrenia) Cognitive Consensus Battery (MCCB).ResultsLarger left lateral ventricle volumes in FES and BD, reduced bilateral hippocampus and amygdala volumes in FES, and lower bilateral amygdala volumes in BD and MDD were presented compared with HCs, and both FES and BD had a lower bilateral amygdala volume than MDD; there were seven cognitive dimension, five cognitive dimension, and two cognitive dimension impairments in FES, BD, and MDD, respectively; significant relationships were found between subcortical volumes and neurocognition in FES and BD but not in MDD and HCs; besides age and years of education, some subcortical volumes can predict neurocognitive performances variance.ConclusionThe different degrees of subcortical volume lessening may contribute to the differences in cognitive impairment among the three psychiatric disorders.

Structural Alteration of Medial Temporal Lobe Subfield in the Amnestic Mild Cognitive Impairment Stage of Alzheimer's Disease.

Objective Volume reduction and structural abnormality is the most replicated finding in neuroimaging studies of Alzheimer's disease (AD). Amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI) is the early stage of AD development. Thus, it is necessary to investigate the link between atrophy of regions of interest (ROIs) in medial temporal lobe, the variation trend of ROI densities and volumes among patients with cognitive impairment, and the distribution characteristics of ROIs in the aMCI group, Alzheimer's disease (AD) group, and normal control (NC) group. Methods 30 patients with aMCI, 16 patients with AD, and 30 NC are recruited; magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) brain scans are conducted. Voxel-based morphometry was employed to conduct the quantitative measurement of gray matter densities of the hippocampus, amygdala, entorhinal cortex, and mammillary body (MB). FreeSurfer was utilized to automatically segment the hippocampus into 21 subregions and the amygdala into 9 subregions. Then, their subregion volumes and total volume were calculated. Finally, the ANOVA and multiple comparisons were performed on the above-mentioned data from these three groups. Results AD had lower GM densities than MCI, and MCI had lower GM densities than NC, but not all of the differences were statistically significant. In the comparisons of AD-aMCI-NC, AD-aMCI, and AD-NC, the hippocampus, amygdala, and entorhinal cortex showed differences in the gray matter densities (p < 0.05); the differences of mammillary body densities were not significant in the random comparison between these three groups (p > 0.05). The hippocampus densities and volumes of the subjects from the aMCI group and the AD group were bilaterally symmetric. The gray matter densities of the right side of the entorhinal cortex inside each group and the hippocampus from the NC group were higher than those of the left side (p < 0.05), and the gray matter densities of the amygdala and mammillary body were bilaterally symmetric in the three groups (p > 0.05). There were no gender differences of four ROIs in the AD, aMCI, and NC groups (p > 0.05). The volume differences of the hippocampus presubiculum-body and parasubiculum manifest no statistical significance (p > 0.05) in the random comparison between these three groups. Volume differences of the left amygdala basal nucleus, the left lateral nucleus, the left cortical amygdala transitional area, the left paravamnion nucleus, and bilateral hippocampal amygdala transition area (HATA) had statistical differences only between the AD group and the NC group (p < 0.05). Conclusion Structural defects of medial temporal lobe subfields were revealed in the aMCI and AD groups. Decreased gray matter densities of the hippocampus, entorhinal cortex, and amygdala could distinguish patients with early stage of AD between aMCI and NC. Volume decline of the hippocampus and amygdala subfields could only distinguish AD between NC.

HIV-Associated Structural and Functional Brain Alterations in Homosexual Males.

Purpose:Neuroimaging elucidations have shown structural and functional brain alterations in HIV-infected (HIV+) individuals when compared to HIV-negative (HIV–) controls. However, HIV− groups used in previous studies were not specifically considered for sexual orientation, which also affects the brain structures and functions. The current study aimed to characterize the brain alterations associated with HIV infection while controlling for sexual orientation.Methods:Forty-three HIV+ and 40 HIV– homosexual men (HoM) were recruited and underwent resting-state MRI scanning. Group differences in gray matter volume (GMV) were assessed using a voxel-based morphometry analysis. Brain regions with the altered GMV in the HIV+ HoM group were then taken as regions of interest in a seed-based analysis to identify altered functional connectivity. Furthermore, the amplitude of low-frequency fluctuation (ALFF) and regional homogeneity values were compared between the two groups to evaluate the HIV-associated functional abnormalities in local brain regions.Results:HIV+ HoM showed significantly increased GMV in the bilateral parahippocampal gyrus and amygdala, and decreased GMV in the right inferior cerebellum, compared with the HIV– HoM. The brain regions with increased GMV were hyper-connected with the left superior cerebellum, right lingual gyrus, and left precuneus in the HIV+ HoM. Moreover, the ALFF values of the right fusiform gyrus, and left parahippocampal gyrus were increased in the HIV+ HoM. The regional homogeneity values of the right anterior cingulate and paracingulate gyri, and left superior cerebellum were decreased in the HIV+ HoM.Conclusion:When the study population was restricted to HoM, HIV+ individuals exhibited structural alterations in the limbic system and cerebellum, and functional abnormalities in the limbic, cerebellum, and visual network. These findings complement the existing knowledge on the HIV-associated neurocognitive impairment from the previous neuroimaging studies by controlling for the potential confounding factor, sexual orientation. Future studies on brain alternations with the exclusion of related factors like sexual orientation are needed to understand the impact of HIV infection on neurocognitive function more accurately.