scholarly journals Oxytocin modulates neural reactivity in women to emotional stimuli of children depending on childhood emotional neglect

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Isabell M. Meier ◽  
Estrella Montoya ◽  
Hannah Spencer ◽  
Sofia A. Orellana ◽  
Mariet van Buuren ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Childhood Adversity ◽  
Anterior Cingulate ◽  
Emotional Neglect ◽  
Neural Responses ◽  
Specific Effects ◽  
Fmri Study ◽  
Healthy Female ◽  
Distress Cues ◽  
Neural Reactivity ◽  
Subjective Reports

Sensitivity for rewarding cues and distress signals from children are fundamental to human caregiving, and modulated by the neuropeptide oxytocin. In a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study we investigated whether oxytocin regulates neural responses to reward or distress cues form children. In a placebo controlled within-subject design we measured neural responses to positive, negative and neutral cues from children in 22 healthy female subjects who received oxytocin (24 IU) vs. placebo. Further, based on current literature, we hypothesized that oxytocin effects are modulated by experiences of childhood trauma. The task elicited valence specific effects, positive images activated the ventromedial prefrontal cortex, left anterior cingulate cortex and right putamen, and images of children in distress the bilateral amygdala, hippocampus and right medial superior frontal cortex. The effects of oxytocin depended on subjective reports of childhood emotional neglect. Self-reported neglect interacted with oxytocin administration in the amygdala, hippocampus and prefrontal areas. In individuals with higher scores of emotional neglect, oxytocin increased neural reactivity of limbic structures to positive and neutral images. Our findings need replication in larger samples but are in line with the recent literature on the modulating effect of childhood adversity on the sensitivity to OXT administration.

scholarly journals Mood and neural responses to social rejection do not seem to be altered in resilient adolescents with a history of adversity

2019 ◽  
Vol 32 (2) ◽  
pp. 411-423
Author(s):  
Jessica Fritz ◽  
Jason Stretton ◽  
Adrian Dahl Askelund ◽  
Susanne Schweizer ◽  
Nicholas D. Walsh ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Mental Health Problems ◽  
Childhood Adversity ◽  
Health Problems ◽  
Social Rejection ◽  
Anterior Cingulate ◽  
Neural Responses ◽  
Social Feedback ◽  
Dorsal Anterior Cingulate Cortex ◽  
History Of

AbstractChildhood adversity (CA) increases the risk of subsequent mental health problems. Adolescent social support (from family and/or friends) reduces the risk of mental health problems after CA. However, the mechanisms of this effect remain unclear, and we speculate that they are manifested on neurodevelopmental levels. Therefore, we investigated whether family and/or friendship support at ages 14 and 17 function as intermediate variables for the relationship between CA before age 11 and affective or neural responses to social rejection feedback at age 18. We studied 55 adolescents with normative mental health at age 18 (26 with CA and therefore considered “resilient”), from a longitudinal cohort. Participants underwent a Social Feedback Task in the magnetic resonance imaging scanner. Social rejection feedback activated the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex and the left anterior insula. CA did not predict affective or neural responses to social rejection at age 18. Yet, CA predicted better friendships at age 14 and age 18, when adolescents with and without CA had comparable mood levels. Thus, adolescents with CA and normative mood levels have more adolescent friendship support and seem to have normal mood and neural responses to social rejection.

scholarly journals Opioid Misuse and Neural Responses to Social Rejection

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Chester ◽  
Sarah Beth Bell ◽  
Olivia Vanegas ◽  
William W. Stoops ◽  
C. Nathan DeWall
Keyword(s):  
Social Acceptance ◽  
Brain Regions ◽  
Public Health Issue ◽  
Opioid Misuse ◽  
Neural Responses ◽  
Physical Pain ◽  
Social Pain ◽  
Subcortical Regions ◽  
Neural Reactivity ◽  
Subjective Reports

Opioid misuse is a costly public health issue that often develops in response to physical pain. However, the roles of social pain in opioid misuse and the neural mechanisms that convey its potential effects are largely uninvestigated. Twenty eight participants who reported recreational opioid misuse in the past 30 days completed a study in which they were socially accepted and then rejected while undergoing functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Participants who misused opioids displayed a typical pattern of neural reactivity to rejection across broad swaths of cortical and subcortical regions, though subjective reports of rejection-related threat were encoded in brain regions with dense concentrations of opioid receptors. Greater post-rejection cravings for opioids were linked to a deficit in ventromedial prefrontal cortex (VMPFC) activity during social acceptance. Compared to healthy controls, participants who misused opioids exhibited greater VMPFC activity during rejection. These findings suggest that people who misuse opioids have intact neural processing of rejection events and that the distress of these events may be contributed to by dysfunction in the opioid system. Further, opioid cravings may arise when these individuals do not adequately pair social acceptance with a neural ‘safety signal’.

Control of the anterior cingulate/mPFC over the amygdala: a longitudinal fMRI study in patients with panic disorder

2007 ◽  
Vol 40 (05) ◽  
Author(s):  
N Chechko ◽  
M Czisch ◽  
A Erhardt ◽  
D Hoehn ◽  
R Wehrle ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Panic Disorder ◽  
Anterior Cingulate ◽  
Fmri Study

Brain reactivity to humorous films is affected by insomnia

SLEEP ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ernesto Sanz-Arigita ◽  
Yannick Daviaux ◽  
Marc Joliot ◽  
Bixente Dilharreguy ◽  
Jean-Arthur Micoulaud-Franchi ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Emotional Reactivity ◽  
Brain Activity ◽  
Brain Network ◽  
Anterior Cingulate ◽  
Neural Representation ◽  
Cingulate Gyrus ◽  
Anterior Cingulate Gyrus ◽  
Left Caudate ◽  
Neural Reactivity ◽  
The Right

Abstract Study objectives Emotional reactivity to negative stimuli has been investigated in insomnia, but little is known about emotional reactivity to positive stimuli and its neural representation. Methods We used 3T fMRI to determine neural reactivity during the presentation of standardized short, 10-40-s, humorous films in insomnia patients (n=20, 18 females, aged 27.7 +/- 8.6 years) and age-matched individuals without insomnia (n=20, 19 females, aged 26.7 +/- 7.0 years), and assessed humour ratings through a visual analogue scale (VAS). Seed-based functional connectivity was analysed for left and right amygdala networks: group-level mixed-effects analysis (FLAME; FSL) was used to compare amygdala connectivity maps between groups. Results fMRI seed-based analysis of the amygdala revealed stronger neural reactivity in insomnia patients than in controls in several brain network clusters within the reward brain network, without humour rating differences between groups (p = 0.6). For left amygdala connectivity, cluster maxima were in the left caudate (Z=3.88), left putamen (Z=3.79) and left anterior cingulate gyrus (Z=4.11), while for right amygdala connectivity, cluster maxima were in the left caudate (Z=4.05), right insula (Z=3.83) and left anterior cingulate gyrus (Z=4.29). Cluster maxima of the right amygdala network were correlated with hyperarousal scores in insomnia patients only. Conclusions Presentation of humorous films leads to increased brain activity in the neural reward network for insomnia patients compared to controls, related to hyperarousal features in insomnia patients, in the absence of humor rating group differences. These novel findings may benefit insomnia treatment interventions.

scholarly journals Peripheral arterial stiffness during electrocutaneous stimulation is positively correlated with pain-related brain activity and subjective pain intensity: an fMRI study

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Toshio Tsuji ◽  
Fumiya Arikuni ◽  
Takafumi Sasaoka ◽  
Shin Suyama ◽  
Takashi Akiyoshi ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Arterial Stiffness ◽  
Pain Intensity ◽  
Brain Activity ◽  
Brain Regions ◽  
Anterior Cingulate ◽  
Electrocutaneous Stimulation ◽  
Pain Matrix ◽  
Fmri Study ◽  
Subjective Pain ◽  
Peripheral Arterial

AbstractBrain activity associated with pain perception has been revealed by numerous PET and fMRI studies over the past few decades. These findings helped to establish the concept of the pain matrix, which is the distributed brain networks that demonstrate pain-specific cortical activities. We previously found that peripheral arterial stiffness $${\beta }_{\text{art}}$$ β art responds to pain intensity, which is estimated from electrocardiography, continuous sphygmomanometer, and photo-plethysmography. However, it remains unclear whether and to what extent $${\beta }_{\text{art}}$$ β art aligns with pain matrix brain activity. In this fMRI study, 22 participants received different intensities of pain stimuli. We identified brain regions in which the blood oxygen level-dependent signal covaried with $${\beta }_{\text{art}}$$ β art using parametric modulation analysis. Among the identified brain regions, the lateral and medial prefrontal cortex and ventral and dorsal anterior cingulate cortex were consistent with the pain matrix. We found moderate correlations between the average activities in these regions and $${\beta }_{\text{art}}$$ β art (r = 0.47, p < 0.001). $${\beta }_{\text{art}}$$ β art was also significantly correlated with self-reported pain intensity (r = 0.44, p < 0.001) and applied pain intensity (r = 0.43, p < 0.001). Our results indicate that $${\beta }_{\text{art}}$$ β art is positively correlated with pain-related brain activity and subjective pain intensity. This study may thus represent a basis for adopting peripheral arterial stiffness as an objective pain evaluation metric.

scholarly journals The Effects of 10 Hz and 20 Hz tACS in Network Integration and Segregation in Chronic Stroke: A Graph Theoretical fMRI Study

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 377
Author(s):  
Cheng Chen ◽  
Kai Yuan ◽  
Winnie Chiu-wing Chu ◽  
Raymond Kai-yu Tong
Keyword(s):  
Chronic Stroke ◽  
Global Integration ◽  
Neural Responses ◽  
Whole Brain ◽  
Brain Level ◽  
Fmri Study ◽  
Transcranial Alternating Current Stimulation ◽  
Specific Stimulation ◽  
Clinical Potential ◽  
Local Segregation

Transcranial alternating current stimulation (tACS) has emerged as a promising technique to non-invasively modulate the endogenous oscillations in the human brain. Despite its clinical potential to be applied in routine rehabilitation therapies, the underlying modulation mechanism has not been thoroughly understood, especially for patients with neurological disorders, including stroke. In this study, we aimed to investigate the frequency-specific stimulation effect of tACS in chronic stroke. Thirteen chronic stroke patients underwent tACS intervention, while resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data were collected under various frequencies (sham, 10 Hz and 20 Hz). The graph theoretical analysis indicated that 20 Hz tACS might facilitate local segregation in motor-related regions and global integration at the whole-brain level. However, 10 Hz was only observed to increase the segregation from whole-brain level. Additionally, it is also observed that, for the network in motor-related regions, the nodal clustering characteristic was decreased after 10 Hz tACS, but increased after 20 Hz tACS. Taken together, our results suggested that tACS in various frequencies might induce heterogeneous modulation effects in lesioned brains. Specifically, 20 Hz tACS might induce more modulation effects, especially in motor-related regions, and they have the potential to be applied in rehabilitation therapies to facilitate neuromodulation. Our findings might shed light on the mechanism of neural responses to tACS and facilitate effectively designing stimulation protocols with tACS in stroke in the future.

scholarly journals Childhood adversity and psychosis: generalised or specific effects?

2015 ◽  
Vol 25 (4) ◽  
pp. 349-359 ◽  
Author(s):  
E. Longden ◽  
M. Sampson ◽  
J. Read
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Abuse ◽  
Physical Abuse ◽  
Negative Symptoms ◽  
Childhood Adversity ◽  
Clinical Intervention ◽  
Current Data ◽  
Psychotic Symptoms ◽  
Multiple Exposures ◽  
Specific Effects ◽  
The Impact

Background.This study examines relationships between childhood adversity and the presence of characteristic symptoms of schizophrenia. It was hypothesised that total adversity exposures would be significantly higher in individuals exhibiting these symptoms relative to patients without. Recent proposals that differential associations exist between specific psychotic symptoms and specific adversities was also tested, namely: sexual abuse and hallucinations, physical abuse and delusions, and fostering/adoption and delusions.Method.Data were collected through auditing 251 randomly selected medical records, drawn from adult patients in New Zealand community mental health centres. Information was extracted on presence and subtype of psychotic symptoms and exposure to ten types of childhood adversity, including five types of abuse and neglect.Results.Adversity exposure was significantly higher in patients experiencing hallucinations in general, voice hearing, command hallucinations, visions, delusions in general, paranoid delusions and negative symptoms than in patients without these symptoms. There was no difference in adversity exposure in patients with and without tactile/olfactory hallucinations, grandiose delusions or thought disorder. Indication of a dose–response relationship was detected, in that total number of adversities significantly predicted total number of psychotic symptoms. Although fostering/adoption was associated with paranoid delusions, the hypothesised specificity between sexual abuse and hallucinations, and physical abuse and delusions, was not found. The two adversities showing the largest number of associations with psychotic symptoms were poverty and being fostered/adopted.Conclusions.The current data are consistent with a model of global and cumulative adversity, in which multiple exposures may intensify psychosis risk beyond the impact of single events. Implications for clinical intervention are discussed.

Acetaminophen Reduces Social Pain

2010 ◽  
Vol 21 (7) ◽  
pp. 931-937 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. Nathan DeWall ◽  
Geoff MacDonald ◽  
Gregory D. Webster ◽  
Carrie L. Masten ◽  
Roy F. Baumeister ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Brain Activity ◽  
Brain Regions ◽  
Daily Basis ◽  
Social Rejection ◽  
Neural Mechanisms ◽  
Anterior Cingulate ◽  
Neural Responses ◽  
Physical Pain ◽  
Social Pain ◽  
Dorsal Anterior Cingulate Cortex

Pain, whether caused by physical injury or social rejection, is an inevitable part of life. These two types of pain—physical and social—may rely on some of the same behavioral and neural mechanisms that register pain-related affect. To the extent that these pain processes overlap, acetaminophen, a physical pain suppressant that acts through central (rather than peripheral) neural mechanisms, may also reduce behavioral and neural responses to social rejection. In two experiments, participants took acetaminophen or placebo daily for 3 weeks. Doses of acetaminophen reduced reports of social pain on a daily basis (Experiment 1). We used functional magnetic resonance imaging to measure participants’ brain activity (Experiment 2), and found that acetaminophen reduced neural responses to social rejection in brain regions previously associated with distress caused by social pain and the affective component of physical pain (dorsal anterior cingulate cortex, anterior insula). Thus, acetaminophen reduces behavioral and neural responses associated with the pain of social rejection, demonstrating substantial overlap between social and physical pain.

Influence of trait anxiety on brain activity during the acquisition and extinction of aversive conditioning

2008 ◽  
Vol 39 (2) ◽  
pp. 255-265 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Barrett ◽  
J. L. Armony
Keyword(s):  
Trait Anxiety ◽  
Conditioned Response ◽  
Brain Activity ◽  
Aversive Conditioning ◽  
Anterior Cingulate ◽  
Neural Responses ◽  
Conditioning Paradigm ◽  
Subgenual Anterior Cingulate Cortex ◽  
Anxiety Response ◽  
Echo Planar

BackgroundWe examined how individual differences in trait anxiety (TA) influence the neural responses associated with the acquisition and extinction of anticipatory anxiety elicited through a context conditioning paradigm, with particular focus on the amygdala and the subgenual anterior cingulate cortex (sgACC).MethodDuring two sessions of echo-planar functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), 18 healthy volunteers completed a decision-making task with two randomly alternating 28-s to 32-s background screen colour blocks. One of the colours was associated with the presentation of an aversive noise (CTX+) and the other colour was ‘safe’ (CTX−). In the first session (Acquisition), 33% of CTX+ colour blocks were paired with noise and in the second session (Extinction) no noise was presented.ResultsThe amygdala displayed an increased response to CTX+ compared to CTX− colour blocks during the Acquisition and Extinction sessions and the ACC displayed an increased response to CTX+ compared to CTX− colour blocks during Extinction only. In addition, a greater conditioned response (CTX+ minus CTX−) was observed in the ACC when comparing the Extinction and Acquisition sessions. Correlation analyses further showed that higher levels of TA were associated with a higher conditioned response in the amygdala during Extinction as well as a greater differential conditioned response (i.e. Extinction>Acquisition) in the ACC.ConclusionsOur results support the idea that individuals with high levels of anxiety-relevant traits and vulnerable to developing an anxiety disorder display a more resilient anxiety response during extinction that is characterized by hyper-responsivity in the amygdala.

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