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Altered functional connectivity in the brain default-mode network of earthquake survivors persists after 2 years despite recovery from anxiety symptoms.

ABSTRACT: Although acute impact of traumatic experiences on brain function in disaster survivors is similar to that observed in post-traumatic stress disorders (PTSD), little is known about the long-term impact of this experience. We have used structural and functional magnetic resonance imaging to investigate resting-state functional connectivity and gray and white matter (WM) changes occurring in the brains of healthy Wenchuan earthquake survivors both 3 weeks and 2 years after the disaster. Results show that while functional connectivity changes 3 weeks after the disaster involved both frontal-limbic-striatal and default-mode networks (DMN), at the 2-year follow-up only changes in the latter persisted, despite complete recovery from high initial levels of anxiety. No gray or WM volume changes were found at either time point. Taken together, our findings provide important new evidence that while altered functional connectivity in the frontal-limbic-striatal network may underlie the post-trauma anxiety experienced by survivors, parallel changes in the DMN persist despite the apparent absence of anxiety symptoms. This suggests that long-term changes occur in neural networks involved in core aspects of self-processing, cognitive and emotional functioning in disaster survivors which are independent of anxiety symptoms and which may also confer increased risk of subsequent development of PTSD.

SUBMITTER: Du MY

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4631147 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Altered functional connectivity in the brain default-mode network of earthquake survivors persists after 2 years despite recovery from anxiety symptoms.

Du Ming-Ying MY Liao Wei W Lui Su S Huang Xiao-Qi XQ Li Fei F Kuang Wei-Hong WH Li Jing J Chen Hua-Fu HF Kendrick Keith Maurice KM Gong Qi-Yong QY

Social cognitive and affective neuroscience 20150409 11

Although acute impact of traumatic experiences on brain function in disaster survivors is similar to that observed in post-traumatic stress disorders (PTSD), little is known about the long-term impact of this experience. We have used structural and functional magnetic resonance imaging to investigate resting-state functional connectivity and gray and white matter (WM) changes occurring in the brains of healthy Wenchuan earthquake survivors both 3 weeks and 2 years after the disaster. Results sho ...[more]

PMID: 25862672

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Project description:BackgroundFibromyalgia (FM) is a disabling chronic pain syndrome with unknown pathophysiology. Functional magnetic resonance imaging studies on FM have suggested altered brain connectivity between the insula and the default mode network (DMN). However, this connectivity change has not been characterized through direct neural signals for exploring the embedded spectrotemporal features and the pertinent clinical relevance.MethodsWe recorded the resting-state magnetoencephalographic activities of 28 patients with FM and 28 age- and sex-matched controls, and analyzed the source-based functional connectivity between the insula and the DMN at 1-40 Hz by using the minimum norm estimates and imaginary coherence methods. We also measured the connectivity between the DMN and the primary visual (V1) and somatosensory (S1) cortices as intrapatient negative controls. Connectivity measurement was further correlated with the clinical parameters of FM.ResultsCompared with the controls, patients with FM reported more tender points (15.2±2.0 vs. 5.9±3.7) and higher total tenderness score (TTS; 29.1±7.0 vs. 7.7±5.5; both p < 0.001); they also had decreased insula-DMN connectivity at the theta band (4-8 Hz; left, p = 0.007; right, p = 0.035), but displayed unchanged V1-DMN and S1-DMN connectivity (p > 0.05). When patients with FM and the controls were combined together, the insula-DMN theta connectivity was negatively correlated with the number of tender points (left insula, r = -0.428, p = 0.001; right insula, r = -0.4, p = 0.002) and TTS score (left insula, r = -0.429, p = 0.001; right insula, r = -0.389, p = 0.003). Furthermore, in patients with FM, the right insula-DMN connectivity at the beta band (13-25 Hz) was negatively correlated with the number of tender points (r = -0.532, p = 0.004) and TTS (r = -0.428, p = 0.023), and the bilateral insula-DMN connectivity at the delta band (1-4 Hz) was negatively correlated with FM Symptom Severity (left: r = -0.423, p = 0.025; right: r = -0.437, p = 0.020) and functional disability (Fibromyalgia Impact Questionnaire; left: r = -0.415, p = 0.028; right: r = -0.374, p = 0.050).ConclusionsWe confirmed the frequency-specific reorganization of the insula-DMN connectivity in FM. The clinical relevance of this connectivity change may warrant future studies to elucidate its causal relationship and potential as a neurological signature for FM.

Project description:Recent brain imaging findings by using different methods (e.g., fMRI and PET) have suggested that social anxiety disorder (SAD) is correlated with alterations in regional or network-level brain function. However, due to many limitations associated with these methods, such as poor temporal resolution and limited number of samples per second, neuroscientists could not quantify the fast dynamic connectivity of causal information networks in SAD. In this study, SAD-related changes in brain connections within the default mode network (DMN) were investigated using eight electroencephalographic (EEG) regions of interest. Partial directed coherence (PDC) was used to assess the causal influences of DMN regions on each other and indicate the changes in the DMN effective network related to SAD severity. The DMN is a large-scale brain network basically composed of the mesial prefrontal cortex (mPFC), posterior cingulate cortex (PCC)/precuneus, and lateral parietal cortex (LPC). The EEG data were collected from 88 subjects (22 control, 22 mild, 22 moderate, 22 severe) and used to estimate the effective connectivity between DMN regions at different frequency bands: delta (1-3 Hz), theta (4-8 Hz), alpha (8-12 Hz), low beta (13-21 Hz), and high beta (22-30 Hz). Among the healthy control (HC) and the three considered levels of severity of SAD, the results indicated a higher level of causal interactions for the mild and moderate SAD groups than for the severe and HC groups. Between the control and the severe SAD groups, the results indicated a higher level of causal connections for the control throughout all the DMN regions. We found significant increases in the mean PDC in the delta (p = 0.009) and alpha (p = 0.001) bands between the SAD groups. Among the DMN regions, the precuneus exhibited a higher level of causal influence than other regions. Therefore, it was suggested to be a major source hub that contributes to the mental exploration and emotional content of SAD. In contrast to the severe group, HC exhibited higher resting-state connectivity at the mPFC, providing evidence for mPFC dysfunction in the severe SAD group. Furthermore, the total Social Interaction Anxiety Scale (SIAS) was positively correlated with the mean values of the PDC of the severe SAD group, r (22) = 0.576, p = 0.006 and negatively correlated with those of the HC group, r (22) = -0.689, p = 0.001. The reported results may facilitate greater comprehension of the underlying potential SAD neural biomarkers and can be used to characterize possible targets for further medication.

Dataset Information

Altered functional connectivity in the brain default-mode network of earthquake survivors persists after 2 years despite recovery from anxiety symptoms.

Publications

Altered functional connectivity in the brain default-mode network of earthquake survivors persists after 2 years despite recovery from anxiety symptoms.

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