scholarly journals Attentional bias modification (ABM) training induces spontaneous brain activity changes in young women with subthreshold depression: a randomized controlled trial

2015 ◽  
Vol 46 (5) ◽  
pp. 909-920 ◽  
Author(s):  
H. Li ◽  
D. Wei ◽  
M. Browning ◽  
X. Du ◽  
Q. Zhang ◽  
...  

BackgroundAttention bias modification (ABM) training has been suggested to effectively reduce depressive symptoms, and may be useful in the prevention of the illness in individuals with subthreshold symptoms, yet little is known about the spontaneous brain activity changes associated with ABM training.MethodResting-state functional MRI was used to explore the effects of ABM training on subthreshold depression (SubD) and corresponding spontaneous brain activity changes. Participants were 41 young women with SubD and 26 matched non-depressed controls. Participants with SubD were randomized to receive either ABM or placebo training during 28 sessions across 4 weeks. Non-depressed controls were assessed before training only. Attentional bias, depressive severity, and spontaneous brain activity before and after training were assessed in both training groups.ResultsFindings revealed that compared to active control training, ABM training significantly decreased depression symptoms, and increased attention for positive stimuli. Resting-state data found that ABM training significantly reduced amplitude of low-frequency fluctuations (ALFF) of the right anterior insula (AI) and right middle frontal gyrus which showed greater ALFF than non-depressed controls before training; Functional connectivity strength between right AI and the right frontoinsular and right supramarginal gyrus were significantly decreased after training within the ABM group; moreover, the improvement of depression symptoms following ABM significantly correlated with the connectivity strength reductions between right AI and right frontoinsular and right supramarginal gyrus.ConclusionThese results suggest that ABM has the potential to reshape the abnormal patterns of spontaneous brain activity in relevant neural circuits associated with depression.

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xiao-Man Yu ◽  
Lin-Lin Qiu ◽  
Hai-Xia Huang ◽  
Xiang Zuo ◽  
Zhen-He Zhou ◽  
...  

Abstract Background: Schizophrenia (SZ) and Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) share many demographic and clinical symptoms, genetic risk factors, pathophysiological underpinnings, and brain structure and function. However, the differences in the spontaneous brain activity patterns between the two diseases remain unclear. Here this study aimed to compare the features of intrinsic brain activity in treatment-naive patients with schizophrenia (SZ) and obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and to explore the relationship between spontaneous brain activity and the severity of symptoms. Methods: Twenty-two treatment-naive patients with SZ, twenty-seven treatment-naive patients with OCD, and sixty healthy controls underwent resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). The amplitude of low-frequency fluctuation (ALFF), regional homogeneity (ReHo) and degree of centrality (DC) of SZ group, OCD group and healthy control (HC) group were compared. Results: Compared with SZ group and HC group, patients with OCD had significantly higher ALFF in the right angular gyrus and the left middle frontal gyrus/precentral gyrus, and significantly lower ALFF in the left superior temporal gyrus/insula/rolandic operculum and the left postcentral gyrus. Compared with HC group, lower ALFF values in the right supramarginal gyrus/inferior parietal lobule and DC values of the right lingual gyrus/calcarine fissure and surrounding cortex of the two patient groups, higher ReHo values in OCD group and lower ReHo values in SZ group in the right angular gyrus/middle occipital gyrus brain region, and higher DC values in the right inferior parietal lobule/angular gyrus in SZ group were documented in the present study. In addition, the ALFF values of the left postcentral gyrus were positively correlated with positive subscale score and general psychopathology subscale score respectively on the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS) in SZ group. The ALFF values in the left superior temporal gyrus/insula/rolandic operculum of patients with OCD were positively correlated with compulsion subscale score and total score respectively on the Yale-Brown Obsessive-Compulsive Scale (Y-BOCS). Conclusion: Our data showed various patterns of spontaneous brain activity damage in resting-state between treatment-naive patients with SZ and OCD, which might imply different underlying neurobiological mechanisms in SZ and OCD.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Eric Lacosse ◽  
Klaus Scheffler ◽  
Gabriele Lohmann ◽  
Georg Martius

AbstractCognitive fMRI research primarily relies on task-averaged responses over many subjects to describe general principles of brain function. Nonetheless, there exists a large variability between subjects that is also reflected in spontaneous brain activity as measured by resting state fMRI (rsfMRI). Leveraging this fact, several recent studies have therefore aimed at predicting task activation from rsfMRI using various machine learning methods within a growing literature on ‘connectome fingerprinting’. In reviewing these results, we found lack of an evaluation against robust baselines that reliably supports a novelty of predictions for this task. On closer examination to reported methods, we found most underperform against trivial baseline model performances based on massive group averaging when whole-cortex prediction is considered. Here we present a modification to published methods that remedies this problem to large extent. Our proposed modification is based on a single-vertex approach that replaces commonly used brain parcellations. We further provide a summary of this model evaluation by characterizing empirical properties of where prediction for this task appears possible, explaining why some predictions largely fail for certain targets. Finally, with these empirical observations we investigate whether individual prediction scores explain individual behavioral differences in a task.


2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (7) ◽  
pp. 951
Author(s):  
Ching-Hsiung Liu ◽  
Yen-Ying Kung ◽  
Tzu-Chen Yeh ◽  
Pei-Shan Hsu ◽  
Ching-Ju Yang ◽  
...  

Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) practitioners assess body constitution (BC) as a treatment basis for maintaining body homeostasis. We investigated patterns in spontaneous brain activity in different BC groups using resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rsfMRI) and determined the relationship between these patterns and quality of life (QOL). Thirty-two healthy individuals divided into two groups (body constitution questionnaire (BCQ)-gentleness [BCQ-G] and BCQ-deficiency [BCQ-D]) based on the body constitution questionnaire (BCQ) underwent rsfMRI to analyze regional homogeneity (ReHo) and the amplitude of low-frequency fluctuation (ALFF). The World Health Organization Quality of Life Instruments (brief edition) scale was used to evaluate the QOL. The BCQ-G group (n = 18) had significantly greater ReHo values in the right postcentral gyrus and lower ALFF values in the brainstem than the BCQ-D group (n = 14). In the BCQ-D group, decreased ReHo of the postcentral gyrus correlated with better physiological functioning; increased ALFF in the brainstem correlated with poor QOL. BCQ-subgroup analysis revealed a nonsignificant correlation between ReHo and Yang deficiency/phlegm and stasis (Phl & STA). Nonetheless, the BCQ-D group showed a positive correlation between ALFF and Phl & STA in the parahippocampus. This study identified differences between BCQ-G and BCQ-D types of healthy adults based on the rsfMRI analysis. The different BCQ types with varied brain endophenotypes may elucidate individualized TCM treatment strategies.


2019 ◽  
Vol 31 (4) ◽  
pp. 560-573 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kenny Skagerlund ◽  
Taylor Bolt ◽  
Jason S. Nomi ◽  
Mikael Skagenholt ◽  
Daniel Västfjäll ◽  
...  

What are the underlying neurocognitive mechanisms that give rise to mathematical competence? This study investigated the relationship between tests of mathematical ability completed outside the scanner and resting-state functional connectivity (FC) of cytoarchitectonically defined subdivisions of the parietal cortex in adults. These parietal areas are also involved in executive functions (EFs). Therefore, it remains unclear whether there are unique networks for mathematical processing. We investigate the neural networks for mathematical cognition and three measures of EF using resting-state fMRI data collected from 51 healthy adults. Using 10 ROIs in seed to whole-brain voxel-wise analyses, the results showed that arithmetical ability was correlated with FC between the right anterior intraparietal sulcus (hIP1) and the left supramarginal gyrus and between the right posterior intraparietal sulcus (hIP3) and the left middle frontal gyrus and the right premotor cortex. The connection between the posterior portion of the left angular gyrus and the left inferior frontal gyrus was also correlated with mathematical ability. Covariates of EF eliminated connectivity patterns with nodes in inferior frontal gyrus, angular gyrus, and middle frontal gyrus, suggesting neural overlap. Controlling for EF, we found unique connections correlated with mathematical ability between the right hIP1 and the left supramarginal gyrus and between hIP3 bilaterally to premotor cortex bilaterally. This is partly in line with the “mapping hypothesis” of numerical cognition in which the right intraparietal sulcus subserves nonsymbolic number processing and connects to the left parietal cortex, responsible for calculation procedures. We show that FC within this circuitry is a significant predictor of math ability in adulthood.


2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jierong Chen ◽  
Zhen Wei ◽  
Hongying Han ◽  
Lili Jin ◽  
Chuanyong Xu ◽  
...  

AbstractThe alteration of hippocampal function by chronic stress impairs higher order cognitive functions such as prospective memory (PM). However, how chronic stress affects hippocampal subregions related to PM remains largely unknown. In this study, the altered functional network of hippocampal subregions related to PM in chronic stress was explored. College students (N = 21) completed PM tasks and resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging scans one month prior to (baseline) and during the final examination week (chronic stress). Hippocampal subregions’ seed-based functional connectivity (FC) and PM were compared between baseline and chronic stress. PM performance declined in chronic stress. The FC of the cornu ammonis 2, 3 and dentate gyrus (CA23DG) with the bilateral caudate and precuneus was increased in chronic stress, while the FC of the subicular complex (SUBC) with the left middle frontal gyrus, the left inferior parietal gyrus and the right supramarginal gyrus was decreased. There was a negative correlation between PM performance and the FC of hippocampal subregions. We found chronic stress impairs PM by decreasing the FC of SUBC and increasing the FC of CA23DG. These findings suggest functional changes in hippocampal subregion networks as a mechanism underlying the impairment of PM in chronic stress.


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