scholarly journals Absence of Sex Differences Identified in Food Motivation Pathways in Youth with Avoidant/Restrictive Food Intake Disorder (ARFID)

2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. A2-A3
Author(s):  
Ethiopia D Getachew ◽  
Avery L Van De Water ◽  
Megan Kuhnle ◽  
Kristine Hauser ◽  
P Evelyna Kambanis ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Young Adults ◽  
Sex Differences ◽  
Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Food Intake ◽  
Orbitofrontal Cortex ◽  
A Priori ◽  
Regions Of Interest ◽  
Food Motivation ◽  
Lateral Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
The Right

Abstract Background: Avoidant/Restrictive Food Intake Disorder (ARFID) is a recent diagnosis incorporated into the DSM-5 to provide diagnostic specificity to individuals who may have avoidant/restrictive eating behavior unrelated to body image/weight concerns and display three core profiles: insufficient intake/low interest in feeding, fear of aversive consequences related to food intake (e.g., choking) and avoidance based on sensory characteristics of food. Various studies have shown a higher preponderance of male patients in ARFID compared to other eating disorder groups. To elucidate potential sex differences in the neurobiology of ARFID, we examined food motivation pathways by assessing levels of key appetite regulating hormones, anorexigenic peptide YY (PYY) and orexigenic ghrelin, and fMRI activation of relevant brain circuitry in females compared to males with ARFID. Based on prior fMRI studies in healthy controls, we hypothesized that in a fasted state, females (vs. males) would demonstrate greater blood-oxygen-level-dependent (BOLD) activation in response to high-calorie food (vs. non-food) images in the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) and the right lateral prefrontal cortex (LPFC), while males (vs. females) would demonstrate greater activation in the right hippocampus. Methods: Seventy-five adolescents and young adults with ARFID and sub-threshold ARFID (43 female) were studied after a 10-hour overnight fast. PYY and ghrelin levels were assessed in a subset of 62 individuals (31 female). All participants completed fMRI imaging in a 3T scanner while viewing images of foods, non-food items, and fixation stimuli. Functional MRI data were analyzed using SPM12. A priori regions of interest included the right lateral prefrontal cortex (LPFC), right hippocampus and orbitofrontal cortex (OFC). Secondary exploratory whole-brain analysis was also performed. Statistical significance is reported at the p<0.05 level. Results: Females and males did not differ in age ((mean±SD): 16.1±3.7 years) or BMI (19.9±5.4 kg/m2). There were no statistically significant differences between females and males in PYY (p=0.10) or ghrelin (p=0.47) levels. Furthermore, analysis of fMRI data yielded no significant differences between females and males with ARFID in a priori regions of interest (OFC: p(FWE-corr)>0.50; R LPFC: no suprathreshold clusters, or R hippocampus: p(FWE-corr)=0.25 and 0.33) or in the secondary whole-brain analysis (cluster p(FWE-corr)=0.304). Conclusion: This is the first study to investigate sex differences in the neurobiology of ARFID, an important line of research to advance treatment approaches. We found no sex-specific neurobiological differences in adolescents and young adults with ARFID. Future studies with larger sample sizes are needed to further investigate potential sex differences across the different ARFID profiles.

scholarly journals An Initial Investigation of Disrupted Intracortical Myelin as a Novel Brain Marker of Alcohol Use Disorder

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vanessa Morris ◽  
Luciano Minuzzi ◽  
Nicholas Bock ◽  
James MacKillop ◽  
Michael Amlung
Keyword(s):  
Sex Differences ◽  
Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Alcohol Use ◽  
Gray Matter ◽  
Alcohol Use Disorder ◽  
A Priori ◽  
Anterior Cingulate ◽  
Posterior Cingulate ◽  
Cohen’S D ◽  
Cohen's D

Abstract: Although disruption of cortical gray matter and white matter tracts are well-established markers of alcohol use disorder (AUD), this is the first study to examine the specific role of intracortical myelin (ICM; i.e., highly myelinated gray matter in deeper cortical layers) in AUD. The current study used a 3T MRI sequence optimized for high intracortical contrast to examine patterns of ICM-related MRI signal in 30 individuals with AUD and 33 healthy social drinkers. Secondary aims included exploring continuous associations with alcohol problem severity and examining sex differences. Surface-based analytic techniques were used to quantify ICM-related MRI signal for a priori region of interest analyses (20 bilateral regions) and exploratory vertex-wise analyses (using Cohen’s d). Although the distribution of ICM-related signal was generally comparable between groups, the AUD group exhibited significantly (p<.05) greater ICM-related MRI signal in precuneus, ventromedial prefrontal cortex, posterior cingulate, middle anterior cingulate, middle/posterior insula, dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, and posterior cingulate, among other regions (Cohen’s d = .50-.75, indicating medium magnitude effects). Significant positive correlations between ICM signal and AUD severity were found in several frontal, parietal, cingulate, and temporal regions (rs .25-.34). No sex differences in ICM were observed. These findings provide initial proof-of-concept for examining ICM in relation to AUD. Understanding the pathophysiological mechanisms of these associations (e.g., neuroinflammation) and the clinical relevance of ICM is warranted.

scholarly journals Brief Relaxation Practice Induces Significantly More Prefrontal Cortex Activation during Arithmetic Tasks Comparing to Viewing Greenery Images as Revealed by Functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy (fNIRS)

2020 ◽  
Vol 17 (22) ◽  
pp. 8366
Author(s):  
Zhisong Zhang ◽  
Agnieszka Olszewska-Guizzo ◽  
Syeda Fabeha Husain ◽  
Jessica Bose ◽  
Jongkwan Choi ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Orbitofrontal Cortex ◽  
Near Infrared ◽  
Control Task ◽  
Functional Near Infrared Spectroscopy ◽  
Frontopolar Cortex ◽  
Before And After ◽  
Relaxation Practice ◽  
The Right ◽  
And Control

Background: There is little understanding on how brief relaxation practice and viewing greenery images would affect brain responses during cognitive tasks. In the present study, we examined the variation in brain activation of the prefrontal cortex during arithmetic tasks before and after viewing greenery images, brief relaxation practice, and control task using functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS). Method: This randomized controlled study examined the activation patterns of the prefrontal cortex (PFC) in three groups of research participants who were exposed to viewing greenery images (n = 10), brief relaxation practice (n = 10), and control task (n = 11). The activation pattern of the PFC was measured pre- and post-intervention using a portable fNIRS device and reported as mean total oxygenated hemoglobin (HbO μm). Primary outcome of the study is the difference in HbO μm between post- and pre-intervention readings during a cognitive task that required the research participants to perform arithmetic calculation. Results: In terms of intervention-related differences, there was significant difference in average HbO μm when performing arithmetic tasks before and after brief relaxation practice (p < 0.05). There were significant increases in average HbO μm in the right frontopolar cortex (p = 0.029), the left frontopolar cortex (p = 0.01), and the left orbitofrontal cortex (p = 0.033) during arithmetic tasks after brief relaxation practice. In contrast, there were no significant differences in average HbO μm when performing arithmetic tasks before and after viewing greenery images (p > 0.05) and the control task (p > 0.05). Conclusion: Our preliminary findings show that brief relaxation practice but not viewing greenery images led to significant frontal lobe activation during arithmetic tasks. The present study demonstrated, for the first time, that there was an increase in activation in neuroanatomical areas including the combined effort of allocation of attentional resources, exploration, and memory performance after the brief relaxation practice. Our findings suggest the possibility that the right frontopolar cortex, the left frontopolar cortex, and the left orbitofrontal cortex may be specifically associated with the benefits of brief relaxation on the brain.

scholarly journals Gene expression profiling of the dorsolateral and medial orbitofrontal cortex in schizophrenia

2016 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mihovil Mladinov ◽  
Goran Sedmak ◽  
Heidi R. Fuller ◽  
Mirjana Babić Leko ◽  
Davor Mayer ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Gene Expression ◽  
Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Cognitive Processing ◽  
Orbitofrontal Cortex ◽  
Right Hemisphere ◽  
Transcriptome Profiling ◽  
Differentially Expressed ◽  
Unknown Etiology ◽  
Dorsolateral Prefrontal ◽  
The Right

AbstractSchizophrenia is a complex polygenic disorder of unknown etiology. Over 3,000 candidate genes associated with schizophrenia have been reported, most of which being mentioned only once. Alterations in cognitive processing - working memory, metacognition and mentalization - represent a core feature of schizophrenia, which indicates the involvement of the prefrontal cortex in the pathophysiology of this disorder. Hence we compared the gene expression in postmortem tissue from the left and right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC, Brodmann's area 46), and the medial part of the orbitofrontal cortex (MOFC, Brodmann's area 11/12), in six patients with schizophrenia and six control brains. Although in the past decade several studies performed transcriptome profiling in schizophrenia, this is the first study to investigate both hemispheres, providing new knowledge about possible brain asymmetry at the level of gene expression and its relation to schizophrenia. We found that in the left hemisphere, twelve genes from the DLPFC and eight genes from the MOFC were differentially expressed in patients with schizophrenia compared to controls. In the right hemisphere there was only one gene differentially expressed in the MOFC. We reproduce the involvement of previously reported genes TARDBP and HNRNPC in the pathogenesis of schizophrenia, and report seven novel genes:

scholarly journals Effects of distraction on taste-related neural processing

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
I. Duif ◽  
J. Wegman ◽  
M. Mars ◽  
C. de Graaf ◽  
P.A.M. Smeets ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Food Intake ◽  
Orbitofrontal Cortex ◽  
Normal Weight ◽  
Detection Task ◽  
Chocolate Milk ◽  
Neural Processing ◽  
Unknown Mechanism ◽  
Ad Libitum ◽  
Taste Processing ◽  
The Right

SummaryDistracted eating is associated with increased food intake and overweight. However, the underlying neurocognitive mechanisms are unknown. To elucidate these mechanisms, 41 healthy normal-weight participants received sips of high- and low-sweet isocaloric chocolate milk, while performing a high- or low-distracting detection task during fMRI on two test days. Subsequently, we measured ad libitum food intake. As expected, a region in the primary taste cortex – located in the insula – responded more to the sweeter drink. Distraction did not affect this right insula sweetness response across the group, but did weaken sweetness-related connectivity of this region to a secondary taste region in the right orbitofrontal cortex. Moreover, distraction-related attenuation of taste processing in the insula predicted increased subsequent ad libitum food intake after distraction between subjects. These results reveal a previously unknown mechanism explaining how distraction during consumption attenuates neural taste processing and increases food intake. The study was preregistered at https://osf.io/vxdhg/register/5771ca429ad5a1020de2872e?view_only=e3207cd6567f41f0a1505e343a64b5aa.

scholarly journals Dissociable roles for lateral orbitofrontal cortex and lateral prefrontal cortex during preference driven reversal learning

NeuroImage ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 59 (4) ◽  
pp. 4102-4112 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adam Hampshire ◽  
Amir M. Chaudhry ◽  
Adrian M. Owen ◽  
Angela C. Roberts
Keyword(s):  
Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Reversal Learning ◽  
Orbitofrontal Cortex ◽  
Lateral Prefrontal Cortex

scholarly journals Verbal suppression and strategy use: a role for the right lateral prefrontal cortex?

Brain ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 138 (4) ◽  
pp. 1084-1096 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gail A. Robinson ◽  
Lisa Cipolotti ◽  
David G. Walker ◽  
Vivien Biggs ◽  
Marco Bozzali ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Strategy Use ◽  
Lateral Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
The Right

scholarly journals Effective connectivity during faces processing in major depression: Distinguishing markers of pathology, risk, and resilience

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Seda Sacu ◽  
Carolin Wackerhagen ◽  
Susanne Erk ◽  
Nina Romanczuk-Seiferth ◽  
Kristina Schwarz ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Major Depression ◽  
Orbitofrontal Cortex ◽  
Dorsolateral Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Brain Connectivity ◽  
Effective Connectivity ◽  
Fusiform Gyrus ◽  
Risk And Resilience ◽  
Dorsolateral Prefrontal ◽  
The Right

Abstract Background: Aberrant brain connectivity during emotional processing, especially within the fronto-limbic pathway, is one of the hallmarks of major depressive disorder (MDD). However, a lack of systematic approaches in previous studies made it difficult to determine whether a specific alteration in brain connectivity reflects a cause, correlate, or effect of the disorder. The current study aimed to investigate neural mechanisms that correspond to disease, risk and resilience in major depression during implicit processing of emotion cues. Methods: Forty-eight patients with MDD, 49 first-degree relatives of patients with MDD and 103 healthy controls performed a face-matching task during functional magnetic resonance imaging. We used dynamic causal modelling to estimate task-dependent effective connectivity at the subject level. Parametric empirical Bayes was then performed to quantify group differences in effective connectivity. Results: Depressive pathology was associated with decreased effective connectivity from the left amygdala and left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex to the right fusiform gyrus, whereas familial risk for depression corresponded to decreased connectivity from the right orbitofrontal cortex to the left insula and from the left orbitofrontal cortex to the right fusiform gyrus. Resilience for depression was related to increased connectivity from the anterior cingulate cortex to the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. Conclusions: Our results suggest that the depressive state alters top-down control of higher visual regions during the processing of emotional faces, whereas increased connectivity within the cognitive control network promotes resilience to depression.

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