scholarly journals The brain at war: effects of stress on brain structure in soldiers deployed to a war zone

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Simone Kühn ◽  
Oisin Butler ◽  
Gerd Willmund ◽  
Ulrich Wesemann ◽  
Peter Zimmermann ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Medial Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Mental Health Problems ◽  
Trauma Exposure ◽  
Anterior Cingulate ◽  
Post Traumatic Stress ◽  
Neural Basis ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Cross Sectional Studies ◽  
Volume Decrease

AbstractIn search of the neural basis of severe trauma exposure and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), a multitude of cross-sectional studies have been conducted, most of them pointing at structural deficits in the hippocampus and medial prefrontal cortex including the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) and ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC). Since cross-sectional studies are silent to causality, the core question remains: which brain structural alterations constitute a risk factor for disease and therewith precede the stressor, and which brain regions may undergo alterations as a consequence of exposure to the stressor. We assessed 121 soldiers before and after deployment to regions of war and 40 soldiers as controls, who were not deployed. Analysis using voxel-based morphometry revealed volumetric reductions in the ACC, vmPFC (region of interest analysis, effect does not survive conservative multiple test correction) and in bilateral thalamus (whole-brain analysis) in the deployment group. Remarkably, the ACC and vmPFC volume decrease was not limited to the period of deployment, but continued over the following 6 months after deployment. Volumetric reductions did not correlate with increases in PTSD symptoms. The volume decreases in medial prefrontal cortex and thalamus seem to be driven by trauma exposure rather than a vulnerability factor for PTSD. However, data indicate that the volume decrease in medial prefrontal cortex surpasses the time period of deployment. This may hint at an initiated pathobiological process below a symptom threshold, potentially paving the way to future mental health problems.

scholarly journals GAMBARAN TINGKAT KECEMASAN KORBAN GEMPA LOMBOK

2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
DEWI NURSUKMA PURQOTI ◽  
Zurriyatun Thoyyibah ◽  
ELISA OKTAVIANA
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Rating Scale ◽  
Mental Health Problems ◽  
The Body ◽  
Stress Disorders ◽  
Narrative Form ◽  
Specific Situation ◽  
Post Traumatic Stress ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Sample Number

Earthquakes are consistently proven to relate of mental health issues such as anxiety, depression and post-traumatic stress disorders immediately after disaster. This condition will deteriorate if not detected early and well handled, so it requires mental health services (trauma healing). Excessive anxiety can have a detrimental impact on the mind as well as the body can even cause physical illness. Objectives: The study aims to determine the level of anxiety victims of Lombok earthquake. Methods: This research is a descriptive study with a cross sectional approach. Sampling techniques used by Purposive Sampling with a sample number of 40 people. Data analysis used is univariate with data presented in narrative form, frequency distribution table and percentage. Results: The results showed that 15 respondents experienced mild anxiety (37.5%) and 25 respondents experienced moderate anxiety (62.5%).  Discussion: In addition to physical impact, earthquake incidence also raises mental health problems, one of which is anxiety. Anxiety is a response to a specific situation that threatens and is a normal thing to happen. The instruments used in this study are the Hamilton Anxiety Rating Scale (HARS) questionnaire. Anxiety in the medium category still experienced by respondents can be influenced by gender, age, level of education and experience in the event of an earthquake. Conclusion: most of the respondents in this study is still experiencing moderate anxiety.

scholarly journals Neural mechanisms of economic commitment in the human medial prefrontal cortex

eLife ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
Author(s):  
Konstantinos Tsetsos ◽  
Valentin Wyart ◽  
S Paul Shorkey ◽  
Christopher Summerfield
Keyword(s):  
Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Medial Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Neural Mechanisms ◽  
Anterior Cingulate ◽  
Dorsal Anterior Cingulate Cortex ◽  
Financial Return ◽  
Economic Decisions ◽  
Decision Biases ◽  
Stimulus Value ◽  
Over Time

Neurobiologists have studied decisions by offering successive, independent choices between goods or gambles. However, choices often have lasting consequences, as when investing in a house or choosing a partner. Here, humans decided whether to commit (by acceptance or rejection) to prospects that provided sustained financial return. BOLD signals in the rostral medial prefrontal cortex (rmPFC) encoded stimulus value only when acceptance or rejection was deferred into the future, suggesting a role in integrating value signals over time. By contrast, the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC) encoded stimulus value only when participants rejected (or deferred accepting) a prospect. dACC BOLD signals reflected two decision biases–to defer commitments to later, and to weight potential losses more heavily than gains–that (paradoxically) maximised reward in this task. These findings offer fresh insights into the pressures that shape economic decisions, and the computation of value in the medial prefrontal cortex.

scholarly journals Prevalence of Mental Health Problems and Its Associated Factors Among Recovered COVID-19 Patients During the Pandemic: A Single-Center Study

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mojgan Khademi ◽  
Roya Vaziri-Harami ◽  
Jamal Shams
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Associated Factors ◽  
Mental Health Problems ◽  
Female Gender ◽  
Health Problems ◽  
Post Traumatic Stress ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Care Workers ◽  
Patient Health ◽  
History Of

Introduction: The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), is profoundly affecting the mental health status. Although the burden of mental health problems has been reported in the general population and health care workers, little is known about the prevalence of mental health disorders among recovered COVID-19 patients and their associated factors.Methods: A cross-sectional telephonic-study of recovered COVID-19 patients with and without a history of hospitalization was conducted from April 20 to June 20, 2020, in Tehran, Iran. We assessed the anxiety symptoms, depression, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) among participants, using the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-4) and PTSD checklist for DSM-5 (PCL-5). Logistic regression analyses were used to explore the risk factors associated with mental health problems.Results: A total of 602 individuals with a mean age of 53.2 years (SD: 14.7), completed the study. The rates of mental health symptoms among the respondents were 5.8% (95% CI: 4.2–7.8%) for anxiety, 5.0% (95% CI: 3.5–7.0%) for depression, and 3.8% (95% CI: 2.3–5.3%) for PTSD disorders. Moreover, being younger than 50 years and female gender was significantly associated with a higher probability of reporting anxiety (p < 0.01), and depression (p < 0.001 for being younger than 50 years, p < 0.02 for female gender).Conclusions: The current study indicated that patients with COVID-19 presented features of anxiety, depression, and PTSD. These results may help implement appropriate mental health intervention policies for those at risk and minimize the mental health consequences of the COVID-19.

scholarly journals Neural Basis for the Processes That Underlie Visually Guided and Internally Guided Force Control in Humans

2003 ◽  
Vol 90 (5) ◽  
pp. 3330-3340 ◽  
Author(s):  
David E. Vaillancourt ◽  
Keith R. Thulborn ◽  
Daniel M. Corcos
Keyword(s):  
Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Visual Feedback ◽  
Visual Information ◽  
Grip Force ◽  
Transformation Process ◽  
Anterior Cingulate ◽  
Motor Memory ◽  
Visually Guided ◽  
Visuomotor Transformation ◽  
Neural Basis

Despite an intricate understanding of the neural mechanisms underlying visual and motor systems, it is not completely understood in which brain regions humans transfer visual information into motor commands. Furthermore, in the absence of visual information, the retrieval process for motor memory information remains unclear. We report an investigation where visuomotor and motor memory processes were separated from only visual and only motor activation. Subjects produced precision grip force during a functional MRI (fMRI) study that included four conditions: rest, grip force with visual feedback, grip force without visual feedback, and visual feedback only. Statistical and subtractive logic analyses segregated the functional process maps. There were three important observations. First, along with the well-established parietal and premotor cortical network, the anterior prefrontal cortex, putamen, ventral thalamus, lateral cerebellum, intermediate cerebellum, and the dentate nucleus were directly involved in the visuomotor transformation process. This activation occurred despite controlling for the visual input and motor output. Second, a detailed topographic orientation of visuomotor to motor/sensory activity was mapped for the premotor cortex, parietal cortex, and the cerebellum. Third, the retrieval of motor memory information was isolated in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, ventral prefrontal cortex, and anterior cingulate. The motor memory process did not extend to the supplementary motor area (SMA) and the basal ganglia. These findings provide evidence in humans for a model where a distributed network extends over cortical and subcortical regions to control the visuomotor transformation process used during visually guided tasks. In contrast, a localized network in the prefrontal cortex retrieves force output from memory during internally guided actions.

scholarly journals Altered heartbeat perception sensitivity associated with brain structural alterations in generalised anxiety disorder

2020 ◽  
Vol 33 (1) ◽  
pp. e100057 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hui Li ◽  
Bin Zhang ◽  
Qiang Hu ◽  
Lanlan Zhang ◽  
Yi Jin ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Anxiety Disorder ◽  
Anterior Cingulate Cortex ◽  
Medial Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Grey Matter ◽  
Anterior Cingulate ◽  
Grey Matter Volume ◽  
Generalised Anxiety Disorder ◽  
Matter Volume ◽  
Heartbeat Perception

BackgroundPalpitation is a common complaint in generalised anxiety disorder (GAD). Brain imaging studies have investigated the neural mechanism of heartbeat perception in healthy volunteers. This study explored the neuroanatomical differences of altered heartbeat perception in patients with GAD using structural MRI.AimsBased on the strong somatic-interoceptive symptoms in GAD, we explored the regional structural brain abnormalities involved in heartbeat perception in patients with GAD.MethodsThis study was applied to the a priori regions using neuroanatomical theories of heartbeat perception, including the insula, anterior cingulate cortex, supplementary motor area and prefrontal cortex. A total of 19 patients with GAD and 19 healthy control subjects were enrolled. We used the FMRIB Software Library voxel-based morphometry software for estimating the grey matter volume of these regions of interest and analysed the correlation between heartbeat perception sensitivity and the volume of abnormal grey matter.ResultsPatients with GAD showed a significantly decreased volume of grey matter in their left medial prefrontal cortex, right orbital frontal cortex and anterior cingulate cortex. The grey matter volume of the left medial prefrontal cortex negatively correlated with heartbeat perception sensitivity in patients with GAD.ConclusionsIt should be the first study that shows heartbeat perception is associated with brain structure in GAD. Our findings suggest that the frontal region may play an important role in aberrant heartbeat perception processing in patients with GAD, and this may be an underlying mechanism resulting in the abnormal cardiovascular complaints in GAD. This is hypothesised as a ‘top-down’ deficiency, especially in the medial prefrontal cortex. This will provide the foundation for a more targeted region for neuromodulation intervention in the future.

scholarly journals Interaction of irritability and anxiety on emotional responding and emotion regulation: a functional MRI study

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-11
Author(s):  
Kathleen I. Crum ◽  
Soonjo Hwang ◽  
Karina S. Blair ◽  
Joseph M. Aloi ◽  
Harma Meffert ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Emotion Regulation ◽  
Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Anterior Cingulate Cortex ◽  
Emotional Disorders ◽  
Medial Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Cingulate Cortex ◽  
Task Demands ◽  
Anterior Cingulate ◽  
Reactivity Index ◽  
Emotional States

Abstract Background Irritability and anxiety frequently co-occur in pediatric populations. Studies separately looking at the neural correlates of these symptoms have identified engagement of similar neural systems – particularly those implicated in emotional processing. Both irritability and anxiety can be considered negative valence emotional states that might relate to emotion dysregulation. However, previous work has not examined the neural responding during the performance of an emotion regulation task as a function of interaction between irritability and anxiety simultaneously. Methods This fMRI study involved 155 participants (90 with significant psychopathologies and 92 male) who performed the Affective Stroop Task, designed to engage emotion regulation as a function of task demands. The Affective Reactivity Index (ARI) was used to index irritability and the Screen for Child Anxiety Related Emotional Disorders (SCARED) was used to index anxiety. Results Levels of irritability, but not anxiety, was positively correlated with responses to visual images within the right rostro-medial prefrontal cortex and left anterior cingulate cortex during view trials. The second region of ventral anterior cingulate cortex showed a condition-by-emotion-by-ARI score-by-SCARED score interaction. Specifically, anxiety level was significantly correlated with a decreased differential BOLD response to negative relative to neutral view trials but only in the presence of relatively high irritability. Conclusions Atypical maintenance of emotional stimuli within the rostro-medial prefrontal cortex may exacerbate the difficulties faced by adolescents with irritability. Moreover, increased anxiety combined with significant irritability may disrupt an automatic emotional conflict-based form of emotion regulation that is particularly associated with the ventral anterior cingulate cortex.

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