Dataset Information

Increased Nucleus Accumbens Connectivity in Resting-State Patients With Drug-Naive, First-Episode Somatization Disorder.

ABSTRACT: The nucleus accumbens (NAc) plays an important role in the reward circuit, and abnormal regional activities of the reward circuit have been reported in various psychiatric disorders including somatization disorder (SD). However, few researches are designed to analyze the NAc connectivity in SD. This study was designed to explore the NAc connectivity in first-episode, drug-naive patients with SD using the bilateral NAc as seeds. Twenty-five first-episode, drug-naive patients with SD and 28 healthy controls were recruited. Functional connectivity (FC) was designed to analyze the images. LIBSVM (a library for support vector machines) was used to identify whether abnormal FC could be utilized to discriminate the patients from the controls. The patients showed significantly increased FC between the left NAc and the right gyrus rectus and left medial prefrontal cortex/anterior cingulate cortex (MPFC/ACC), and between the right NAc and the left gyrus rectus and left MPFC/ACC compared with the controls. The patients could be separated from the controls through increased FC between the left NAc and the right gyrus rectus with a sensitivity of 88.00% and a specificity of 82.14%. The findings reveal that patients with SD have increased NAc connectivity with the frontal regions of the reward circuit. Increased left NAc-right gyrus rectus connectivity can be used as a potential marker to discriminate patients with SD from healthy controls. The study thus highlights the importance of the reward circuit in the neuropathology of SD.

SUBMITTER: Ou Y

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6706814 | biostudies-literature | 2019

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Increased Nucleus Accumbens Connectivity in Resting-State Patients With Drug-Naive, First-Episode Somatization Disorder.

Ou Yangpan Y Su Qinji Q Liu Feng F Ding Yudan Y Chen Jindong J Zhang Zhikun Z Zhao Jingping J Guo Wenbin W

Frontiers in psychiatry 20190816

The nucleus accumbens (NAc) plays an important role in the reward circuit, and abnormal regional activities of the reward circuit have been reported in various psychiatric disorders including somatization disorder (SD). However, few researches are designed to analyze the NAc connectivity in SD. This study was designed to explore the NAc connectivity in first-episode, drug-naive patients with SD using the bilateral NAc as seeds. Twenty-five first-episode, drug-naive patients with SD and 28 health ...[more]

PMID: 31474890

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Project description:Background: Anatomical and functional deficits in the cortico-limbic-cerebellar circuit are involved in the neurobiology of somatization disorder (SD). The present study was performed to examine causal connectivity of the cortico-limbic-cerebellar circuit related to structural deficits in first-episode, drug-naive patients with SD at rest. Methods: A total of 25 first-episode, drug-naive patients with SD and 28 healthy controls underwent structural and resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging. Voxel-based morphometry and Granger causality analysis (GCA) were used to analyze the data. Results: Results showed that patients with SD exhibited decreased gray matter volume (GMV) in the right cerebellum Crus I, and increased GMV in the left anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), right middle frontal gyrus (MFG), and left angular gyrus. Causal connectivity of the cortico-limbic-cerebellar circuit was partly affected by structural alterations in the patients. Patients with SD showed bidirectional cortico-limbic connectivity abnormalities and bidirectional cortico-cerebellar and limbic-cerebellar connectivity abnormalities. The mean GMV of the right MFG was negatively correlated with the scores of the somatization subscale of the symptom checklist-90 and persistent error response of the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST) in the patients. A negative correlation was observed between increased driving connectivity from the right MFG to the right fusiform gyrus/cerebellum IV, V and the scores of the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire extraversion subscale. The mean GMV of the left ACC was negatively correlated with the WCST number of errors and persistent error response. Negative correlation was found between the causal effect from the left ACC to the right middle temporal gyrus and the scores of WCST number of categories achieved. Conclusions: Our findings show the partial effects of structural alterations on the cortico-limbic-cerebellar circuit in first-episode, drug-naive patients with SD. Correlations are observed between anatomical alterations or causal effects and clinical variables in patients with SD, and bear clinical significance. The present study emphasizes the importance of the cortico-limbic-cerebellar circuit in the neurobiology of SD.

Project description:BackgroundUsing balanced placebo designs, seminal alcohol administration research has shown individuals' beliefs about whether they have consumed alcohol, irrespective of the actual presence of alcohol, can determine level of alcohol consumption and impact social behavior. Despite the known effect of expecting alcohol on drinking behavior, few studies have used the placebo manipulation to directly investigate the neural underpinnings of the expectancy-related effects that occur following perceived alcohol consumption in humans. The present paper examined placebo responses in the laboratory to better understand the neural basis for the psychological phenomenon of expectancies.MethodsAs part of a larger within-subjects study design, healthy young adults (N = 22, agemean+SD=23 +1) completed resting state fMRI scans and measures of subjective response before and after consuming placebo beverages. Effect of placebo beverage consumption (pre- versus post-beverage consumption) on functional connectivity within prefrontal cortical networks was examined using the CONN Toolbox. Relations between perceived subjective response to alcohol with functional connectivity response following placebo beverage consumption were examined.ResultsCompared to pre-beverage scan, placebo beverage consumption was associated with increased positive functional connectivity between right nucleus accumbens - ventromedial prefrontal cortex and subcallosal cingulate cortex (pFDR<0.05). Subjective ratings of intoxication (i.e., feeling 'drunk') positively correlated with placebo beverage-related increases in nucleus accumbens - subcallosal cingulate cortex functional connectivity.ConclusionResults suggest placebo response to alcohol is associated with increased functional connectivity within a key reward network (nucleus accumbens - ventromedial prefrontal cortex and subcallosal cingulate cortex) and put forth a mechanism by which alcohol expectancies may contribute to the subjective experience of intoxication.

Project description:IMPORTANCE:Individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) exhibit severe difficulties in social interaction, motor coordination, behavioral flexibility, and atypical sensory processing, with considerable interindividual variability. This heterogeneous set of symptoms recently led to investigating the presence of abnormalities in the interaction across large-scale brain networks. To date, studies have focused either on constrained sets of brain regions or whole-brain analysis, rather than focusing on the interaction between brain networks. OBJECTIVES:To compare the intrinsic functional connectivity between brain networks in a large sample of individuals with ASD and typically developing control subjects and to estimate to what extent group differences would predict autistic traits and reflect different developmental trajectories. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS:We studied 166 male individuals (mean age, 17.6 years; age range, 7-50 years) diagnosed as having DSM-IV-TR autism or Asperger syndrome and 193 typical developing male individuals (mean age, 16.9 years; age range, 6.5-39.4 years) using resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Participants were matched for age, IQ, head motion, and eye status (open or closed) in the MRI scanner. We analyzed data from the Autism Brain Imaging Data Exchange (ABIDE), an aggregated MRI data set from 17 centers, made public in August 2012. MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES:We estimated correlations between time courses of brain networks extracted using a data-driven method (independent component analysis). Subsequently, we associated estimates of interaction strength between networks with age and autistic traits indexed by the Social Responsiveness Scale. RESULTS:Relative to typically developing control participants, individuals with ASD showed increased functional connectivity between primary sensory networks and subcortical networks (thalamus and basal ganglia) (all t???3.13, P?<?.001 corrected). The strength of such connections was associated with the severity of autistic traits in the ASD group (all r???0.21, P?<?.0067 corrected). In addition, subcortico-cortical interaction decreased with age in the entire sample (all r???-0.09, P?<?.012 corrected), although this association was significant only in typically developing participants (all r???-0.13, P?<?.009 corrected). CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE:Our results showing ASD-related impairment in the interaction between primary sensory cortices and subcortical regions suggest that the sensory processes they subserve abnormally influence brain information processing in individuals with ASD. This might contribute to the occurrence of hyposensitivity or hypersensitivity and of difficulties in top-down regulation of behavior.

Dataset Information

Increased Nucleus Accumbens Connectivity in Resting-State Patients With Drug-Naive, First-Episode Somatization Disorder.

Publications

Increased Nucleus Accumbens Connectivity in Resting-State Patients With Drug-Naive, First-Episode Somatization Disorder.

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