IntroductionThe amygdala plays an important role in stress responses and stress-related psychiatric disorders. It is possible that amygdala connectivity may be a neurobiological vulnerability marker for stress responses or stress-related psychiatric disorders and will be useful to precisely identify the vulnerable individuals before stress happens. However, little is known about the relationship between amygdala connectivity and subsequent stress responses. The current study investigated whether amygdala connectivity measured before experiencing stress is a predisposing neural feature of subsequent stress responses while individuals face an emergent and unexpected event like the COVID-19 outbreak.MethodsData collected before the COVID-19 pandemic from an established fMRI cohort who lived in the pandemic center in China (Hubei) during the COVID-19 outbreak were used to investigate the relationship between amygdala connectivity and stress responses during and after the pandemic in 2020. The amygdala connectivity was measured with resting-state functional connectivity (rsFC) and effective connectivity.ResultsWe found the rsFC of the right amygdala with the dorsomedial prefrontal cortex (dmPFC) was negatively correlated with the stress responses at the first survey during the COVID-19 outbreak, and the rsFC between the right amygdala and bilateral superior frontal gyri (partially overlapped with the dmPFC) was correlated with SBSC at the second survey. Dynamic causal modeling suggested that the self-connection of the right amygdala was negatively correlated with stress responses during the pandemic.DiscussionOur findings expand our understanding about the role of amygdala in stress responses and stress-related psychiatric disorders and suggest that amygdala connectivity is a predisposing neural feature of subsequent stress responses.
The amygdala plays an important role in the regulation of stress and anxiety. However, little is known about the relationship between amygdala connectivity and subsequent stress-induced behavior. The current study investigated whether amygdala connectivity measured before experiencing stress is a predisposing neural feature of subsequent stress-induced behavior while individuals face an emergent and unexpected event like the COVID-19 outbreak. Using an fMRI cohort established before the pandemic in Wuhan, Hubei, we found that resting-state functional connectivity (rsFC) of the right amygdala with the dorsomedial prefrontal cortex (dmPFC) was negatively correlated with the stress-induced behavior of these volunteers during the COVID-2019 outbreak in Hubei. Furthermore, the self-connection of the right amygdala, inferred using dynamic causal modeling, was negatively correlated with stress-induced behavior in this cohort. A significant correlation between the right amygdala-dmPFC rsFC and self-connection of the right amygdala was found. Additionally, after three months of the COVID-19 outbreak in Hubei when the stressor weakened - and in another cohort collected in regions outside Hubei where the individuals experienced a lower level of stress - the relationship between the amygdala-dmPFC rsFC and the stress-induced behavior disappeared. Our findings support that amygdala connectivity is a predisposing neural feature of stress-induced behavior in the COVID-19 outbreak in Hubei, suggesting the amygdala connectivity before stress predicts subsequent behavior while facing an emergent and unexpected event. And thus our findings provide an avenue for identifying individuals vulnerable to stress using intrinsic brain function before stress as an indicator.
In this study, the effects of antidepressants on large‐scale brain networks and the neural basis of individual differences in response were explored. A total of 41 patients with major depressive disorder (MDD) and 42 matched healthy controls (HCs) were scanned by resting‐state functional magnetic resonance imaging separately at baseline and after a 12‐week follow‐up. The patients with MDD received escitalopram for 12 weeks. After treatment, patients were classified into those with MDD in remission [MDDr, endpoint 17‐item Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HAMD) total score ≤7] and those in nonremission (MDDnr). The human Brainnetome Atlas was used to define large‐scale networks and compute within‐ and between‐network resting‐state functional connectivity (rsFC). Results showed the decreased subcortical network (SCN)–ventral attention network (VAN) connectivity at baseline increased in patients with MDD after 12‐week treatment, and it was comparable with that of HCs. This change was only observed in patients with MDDr. However, the decreased within‐network rsFC in SCN and default mode network (DMN) persisted in all patients with MDD, including those with MDDr and MDDnr, after treatment. The strength of SCN–VAN connectivity at baseline was significantly negatively correlated with the reduction rate of HAMD score in all patients with MDD. Thus, SCN–VAN connectivity may be an antidepressant target associated with depressive state changes and a predictor of treatment response to serotonin reuptake inhibitors. The within‐network rsFC in SCN and DMN may reflect a trait‐like abnormality in MDD. These findings provide further insights into the mechanism of antidepressants and their individual differences in response. The trial name is “Appropriate technology study of MDD diagnosis and treatment based on objective indicators and measurement” (URL: http://www.chictr.org.cn/showproj.aspx?proj=21377 ; registration number: ChiCTR‐OOC‐17012566).
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