scholarly journals Neuroimaging signature associated with symptom exacerbation in early-stage psychosis

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marina Mihaljevic ◽  
Anisha Nagpal ◽  
Semra Etyemez ◽  
Zui Narita ◽  
Anna Ross ◽  
...  

Recent reports have indicated that the occurrence of symptom exacerbation in early-stage psychosis could result in brain changes, which are likely to underlie the poorer disease outcome. Thus, it is important to identify neuroimaging signature associated with symptom exacerbation in early-stage psychosis. We studied 85 patients with psychosis within two years after onset and 94 healthy controls (HC). The patient group was subdivided into two groups: 54 patients who did not experience major symptom exacerbation between the onset and study enrollment (P1), and 31 patients who experienced major symptom exacerbation (P2). We analyzed three brain imaging measures derived from resting-state functional MRI, such as global efficiency, nodal efficiency, and resting-state functional connectivity (rs-FC). After excluding some brain imaging measures that were potentially affected by clinical variables, we conducted a comparison between overall patient group and HC group as well as comparsions between HC, P1, and P2 groups for these three types of brain imaging measures, respectively. By integrating the information, we pinned down the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex and thalamus as key hubs in the context of several large-scale brain networks associated with symptom exacerbations in early-stage psychosis. Our study implies the importance of considering neural mechanism associated with symptom exacerbations in early stages of psychotic disorders.

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 136 ◽  
Author(s):  
Claudio Imperatori ◽  
Chiara Massullo ◽  
Giuseppe Alessio Carbone ◽  
Angelo Panno ◽  
Marta Giacchini ◽  
...  

An increasing body of experimental data have suggested that aberrant functional interactions between large-scale networks may be the most plausible explanation of psychopathology across multiple mental disorders, including substance-related and addictive disorders. In the current research, we have investigated the association between problematic cannabis use (PCU) and triple-network electroencephalographic (EEG) functional connectivity. Twelve participants with PCU and 24 non-PCU participants were included in the study. EEG recordings were performed during resting state (RS). The exact Low-Resolution Electromagnetic Tomography software (eLORETA) was used for all EEG analyses. Compared to non-PCU, PCU participants showed an increased delta connectivity between the salience network (SN) and central executive network (CEN), specifically, between the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex and right posterior parietal cortex. The strength of delta connectivity between the SN and CEN was positively and significantly correlated with higher problematic patterns of cannabis use after controlling for age, sex, educational level, tobacco use, problematic alcohol use, and general psychopathology (rp = 0.40, p = 0.030). Taken together, our results show that individuals with PCU could be characterized by a specific dysfunctional interaction between the SN and CEN during RS, which might reflect the neurophysiological underpinnings of attentional and emotional processes of cannabis-related thoughts, memories, and craving.


2019 ◽  
Vol 15 (10) ◽  
pp. 1076-1085 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tristen K Inagaki ◽  
Meghan L Meyer

Abstract There is a growing appreciation for the health benefits of giving support, though variability in such behavior exists. Based on the possibility that the dorsomedial (DMPFC) default network subsystem is associated with social thinking and behavior, integrity of this subsystem may facilitate giving support to others. The current study tested associations between DMPFC subsystem connectivity at rest and tendencies related to giving support. During a functional magnetic resonance imaging session, 45 participants completed an emotional social cues task, a resting-state scan and self-report measures of social support. Supportive behavior during the month following the scan was also assessed. Greater DMPFC subsystem connectivity at rest was associated with greater support giving (though not receiving or perceiving support) at the time of the scan and one month later. Results held after adjusting for extraversion. In addition, greater resting-state DMPFC subsystem connectivity was associated with attenuated dorsal anterior cingulate cortex, anterior insula and amygdala activity to others’ negative emotional social cues, suggesting that DMPFC subsystem integrity at rest is also associated with the dampened withdrawal response proposed to facilitate care for others in need. Together, results begin to hint at an additional role for the ‘default’ social brain: giving support to others.


PLoS ONE ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (12) ◽  
pp. e0261334
Author(s):  
Chizuko Hamada ◽  
Toshikazu Kawagoe ◽  
Masahiro Takamura ◽  
Atsushi Nagai ◽  
Shuhei Yamaguchi ◽  
...  

Apathy is defined as reduction of goal-directed behaviors and a common nuisance syndrome of neurodegenerative and psychiatric disease. The underlying mechanism of apathy implicates changes of the front-striatal circuit, but its precise alteration is unclear for apathy in healthy aged people. The aim of our study is to investigate how the frontal-striatal circuit is changed in elderly with apathy using resting-state functional MRI. Eighteen subjects with apathy (7 female, 63.7 ± 3.0 years) and eighteen subjects without apathy (10 female, 64.8 ± 3.0 years) who underwent neuropsychological assessment and MRI measurement were recruited. We compared functional connectivity with/within the striatum between the apathy and non-apathy groups. The seed-to-voxel group analysis for functional connectivity between the striatum and other brain regions showed that the connectivity was decreased between the ventral rostral putamen and the right dorsal anterior cingulate cortex/supplementary motor area in the apathy group compared to the non-apathy group while the connectivity was increased between the dorsal caudate and the left sensorimotor area. Moreover, the ROI-to-ROI analysis within the striatum indicated reduction of functional connectivity between the ventral regions and dorsal regions of the striatum in the apathy group. Our findings suggest that the changes in functional connectivity balance among different frontal-striatum circuits contribute to apathy in elderly.


2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ling George ◽  
Lee Ivy ◽  
Guimond Synthia ◽  
Lutz Olivia ◽  
Tandon Neeraj ◽  
...  

AbstractBackgroundSocial cognitive ability is a significant determinant of functional outcome and deficits in social cognition are a disabling symptom of psychotic disorders. The neurobiological underpinnings of social cognition are not well understood, hampering our ability to ameliorate these deficits.ObjectiveUsing ‘resting-state’ fMRI (functional magnetic resonance imaging) and a trans-diagnostic, data-driven analytic strategy, we sought to identify the brain network basis of emotional intelligence, a key domain of social cognition.MethodsStudy participants included 60 participants with a diagnosis of schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder and 46 healthy comparison participants. All participants underwent a resting-state fMRI scan. Emotional Intelligence was measured using the Mayer-Salovey-Caruso Emotional Intelligence Test (MSCEIT). A connectome-wide analysis of brain connectivity examined how each individual brain voxel’s connectivity correlated with emotional intelligence using multivariate distance matrix regression (MDMR).ResultsWe identified a region in the left superior parietal lobule (SPL) where individual network topology predicted emotional intelligence. Specifically, the association of this region with the Default Mode Network predicted higher emotional intelligence and association with the Dorsal Attention Network predicted lower emotional intelligence. This correlation was observed in both schizophrenia and healthy comparison participants.ConclusionPrevious studies have demonstrated individual variance in brain network topology but the cognitive or behavioral relevance of these differences was undetermined. We observe that the left SPL, a region of high individual variance at the cytoarchitectonic level, also demonstrates individual variance in its association with large scale brain networks and that network topology predicts emotional intelligence.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gang-Ping Zhou ◽  
Yu-Chen Chen ◽  
Wang-Wei Li ◽  
Heng-Le Wei ◽  
Yu-Sheng Yu ◽  
...  

Abstract Purpose: The present study combined resting-state functional connectivity (FC) and Granger causality analysis (GCA) to explore frontostriatal network dysfunction in unilateral acute tinnitus (AT) patients with hearing loss. Methods: The participants included 42 AT patients and 43 healthy control (HC) subjects who underwent resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scans. Based on the seed regions in the frontostriatal network, FC and GCA were conducted between the AT patients and HC subjects. Correlation analyses were used to examine correlations among altered FC values, GCA values, and clinical features in AT patients. Results: Compared with HCs, AT patients showed a general reduction in FC between the seed regions in the frontostriatal network and nonauditory areas, including the frontal cortices, midcingulate cortex (MCC) , supramarginal gyrus (SMG), and postcentral gyrus (PoCG) . Using the GCA algorithm, we detected abnormal effective connectivity (EC) in the inferior occipital gyrus (IOG), MCC, Cerebelum_Crus1, and PoCG. Furthermore, correlations between disrupted FC/EC and clinical characteristics, especially tinnitus distress-related characteristics, were found in AT patients. Conclusions: Our work demonstrated abnormal FC and EC between the frontostriatal network and several nonauditory regions in AT patients with hearing loss, suggesting that multiple large-scale network dysfunctions and interactions are involved in the perception of tinnitus. These findings not only enhance the current understanding of the frontostriatal network in tinnitus but also serve as a reminder of the importance of focusing on tinnitus at an early stage.


2018 ◽  
Vol 53 (3) ◽  
pp. 207-218 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yongjun Chen ◽  
Ziyu Meng ◽  
Zongfeng Zhang ◽  
Yajing Zhu ◽  
Rui Gao ◽  
...  

Objective: The imbalance in neurotransmitter and neuronal metabolite concentration within cortico-striato-thalamo-cortical (CSTC) circuit contributes to obsessive–compulsive disorder’s (OCD) onset. Previous studies showed that glutamate mediated upregulation of resting-state activity in healthy people. However, there have been few studies investigating the correlational features between functional and neurochemical alterations in OCD. Methods: We utilize a combined resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rs-fMRI) and proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy (1H-MRS) approach to investigate the altered functional connectivity (FC) in association with glutamatergic dysfunction in OCD pathophysiology. Three regions of interest are investigated, i.e., medial prefrontal cortex and bilateral thalamus, for seed-based whole-brain FC analysis as well as MRS data acquisition. There are 23 unmedicated adult OCD patients and 23 healthy controls recruited for brain FC analysis. Among them, 12 OCD and 8 controls are performed MRS data acquisition. Results: Besides abnormal FC within CSTC circuit, we also find altered FCs in large-scale networks outside CSTC circuit, including occipital area and limbic and motor systems. The decreased FC between right thalamus and right middle occipital gyrus (MOG) is correlated with glutamatergic signal within right thalamus in OCD patients. Moreover, the FC between right thalamus and right dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC) is associated with glutamate level in right thalamus, specifically in patient’s group. Finally, the FC between right thalamus and right MOG is correlated with patient’s Yale–Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale (YBOCS) compulsion and total scores, while the right thalamic glutamatergic signal is associated with YBOCS-compulsion score. Conclusion: Our findings showed that the coupled intrinsic functional–biochemical alterations existed both within CSTC circuit and from CSTC to occipital lobe in OCD pathophysiology.


2019 ◽  
Vol 33 (12) ◽  
pp. 1600-1609 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robin N Perry ◽  
Hera E Schlagintweit ◽  
Christine Darredeau ◽  
Carl Helmick ◽  
Aaron J Newman ◽  
...  

Background: Changes in resting state functional connectivity between the insula and dorsal anterior cingulate cortex as well as between the insula and nucleus accumbens have been linked to nicotine withdrawal and/or administration. However, because many of nicotine’s effects in humans appear to depend, at least in part, on the belief that nicotine has been administered, the relative contribution of nicotine’s pharmacological actions to such effects requires clarification. Aims: The purpose of this study was to examine the impacts of perceived and actual nicotine administration on neural responses. Methods: Twenty-six smokers were randomly assigned to receive either a nicotine inhaler (4 mg deliverable) or a nicotine-free inhaler across two sessions. Inhaler content instructions (told nicotine vs told nicotine-free) differed across sessions. Resting state functional connectivity between sub-regions of the insula and the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex and nucleus accumbens was measured using magnetic resonance imaging before and after inhaler administration. Results: Both actual and perceived nicotine administration independently altered resting state functional connectivity between the anterior insula and the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex, with actual administration being associated with decreased resting state functional connectivity, and perceived administration with increased resting state functional connectivity. Actual nicotine administration also contralaterally reduced resting state functional connectivity between the anterior insula and nucleus accumbens, while reductions in resting state functional connectivity between the mid-insula and right nucleus accumbens were observed when nicotine was administered unexpectedly. Changes in resting state functional connectivity associated with actual or perceived nicotine administration were unrelated to changes in subjective withdrawal and craving. Changes in withdrawal and craving were however independently associated with resting state functional connectivity between the nucleus accumbens and insula. Conclusions: Our findings highlight the importance of considering non-pharmacological factors when examining drug mechanisms of action.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wenyu Tu ◽  
Zilu Ma ◽  
Yuncong Ma ◽  
Nanyin Zhang

AbstractThe architecture of brain networks has been extensively studied in multiple species. However, exactly how the brain network reconfigures when a local region stops functioning remains elusive. By combining chemogenetics and resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rsfMRI) in awake rodents, we investigated the causal impact of acutely inactivating a hub region (i.e. dorsal anterior cingulate cortex) on brain network properties. We found that disrupting hub activity profoundly changed the function the default-mode network (DMN), and this change was associated with altered DMN-related behavior. Suppressing hub activity also impacted the topological architecture of the whole-brain network in network resilience, segregation and small worldness, but not network integration. This study has established a system that allows for mechanistically dissecting the relationship between local regions and brain network properties. Our data provide direct evidence supporting the hypothesis that acute dysfunction of a brain hub can cause large-scale network changes. This study opens an avenue of manipulating brain networks by controlling hub-node activity.


2017 ◽  
Vol 114 (36) ◽  
pp. 9713-9718 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wei Tang ◽  
Hesheng Liu ◽  
Linda Douw ◽  
Mark A. Kramer ◽  
Uri T. Eden ◽  
...  

Segregation and integration are distinctive features of large-scale brain activity. Although neuroimaging studies have been unraveling their neural correlates, how integration takes place over segregated modules remains elusive. Central to this problem is the mechanism by which a brain region adjusts its activity according to the influence it receives from other regions. In this study, we explore how dynamic connectivity between two regions affects the neural activity within a participating region. Combining functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and magnetoencephalography (MEG) in the same group of subjects, we analyzed resting-state data from the core of the default-mode network. We observed directed influence from the posterior cingulate cortex (PCC) to the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) in the 10-Hz range. This time-varying influence was associated with the power alteration in the ACC: strong influence corresponded with a decrease of power around 13–16 Hz and an increase of power in the lower (1–7 Hz) and higher (30–55 Hz) ends of the spectrum. We also found that the amplitude of the 30- to 55-Hz activity was coupled to the phase of the 3- to 4-Hz activity in the ACC. These results characterized the local spectral changes associated with network interactions. The specific spectral information both highlights the functional roles of PCC–ACC connectivity in the resting state and provides insights into the dynamic relationship between local activity and coupling dynamics of a network.


2012 ◽  
Vol 43 (9) ◽  
pp. 1825-1836 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. J. A. van der Werff ◽  
J. N. Pannekoek ◽  
I. M. Veer ◽  
M.-J. van Tol ◽  
A. Aleman ◽  
...  

BackgroundChildhood emotional maltreatment (CEM) has been associated with disturbances in emotional and behavioral functioning, and with changes in regional brain morphology. However, whether CEM has any effect on the intrinsic organization of the brain is not known. In this study, we investigated the effects of CEM on resting-state functional connectivity (RSFC) using seeds in the limbic network, the default-mode network (DMN) and the salience network, and the left dorsomedial prefrontal cortex (dmPFC).MethodUsing 3-T magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), resting-state functional MRI (RS-fMRI) scans were obtained. We defined seeds in the bilateral amygdala, the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC), the posterior cingulate cortex (PCC) and the left dmPFC, and used these to examine whether individuals reporting CEM (n=44) differed from individuals reporting no CEM (n=44) in RSFC with other brain regions. The two groups were matched for age, gender, handedness and the presence of psychopathology.ResultsCEM was associated with decreased RSFC between the right amygdala and the bilateral precuneus and a cluster extending from the left insula to the hippocampus and putamen. In addition, CEM was associated with decreased RSFC between the dACC and the precuneus and also frontal regions of the brain.ConclusionsWe found that CEM has a profound effect on RSFC in the limbic network and the salience network. Regions that show aberrant connectivity are related to episodic memory encoding, retrieval and self-processing operations.


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