Altered functional connectivity of the amygdala in Crohn’s disease

Changes in the anterior cingulate cortex in Crohn’s disease: A neuroimaging perspective

“…In addition to changes in the DMN subsystem, Fan et al (Fan et al., 2020) found that FC between the amygdala and the dorsal ACC was decreased in 42 CD patients compared with 35 HCs. Their finding suggests a decreased ability to mediate visceral sensation.…”

Exploring joint patterns of brain structure and function in inflammatory bowel diseases using multimodal data fusion

“…Functional MRI (fMRI) studies in CD have applied experimental study designs that examined the processing of stressful tasks 1,3 or visceral 11 stimuli, or analyzed resting-state data to examine intrinsic brain function. 7,[16][17][18] Considering functional imaging findings in CD, stress-related increased activity in midcingulate cortex 1 and medial temporal lobe regions 3 have been observed. Uncertainty regarding upcoming rectal discomfort was found to be associated with higher activation of cingulate and insular cortex, amygdala, and thalamus in CD patients compared to controls.…”

“…Patients with inflammatory bowel diseases (IBDs) like Crohn's disease (CD) and ulcerative colitis (UC) suffer from an unpredictable disease course and relapsing symptoms of intestinal inflammation such as abdominal pain and diarrhea, but also extraintestinal manifestations (EIM), fatigue, and a high prevalence of coexistent mood disorders. Changes in brain structure and function have repeatedly been described in IBD [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16] with heterogeneous results.…”

“…8 In terms of brain function, reduced amygdala and thalamus activity was found in UC patients in response to positive emotional visual stimuli. 4 It is noteworthy that so far, all MRI brain imaging studies examined patients with either CD [1][2][3]5,7,[10][11][12][13]15 or UC, 4,8 or a mixed IBD group, 9,14 but none have addressed putative differences between the two disorders. Both disorders share some biological features such as immune-mediated gut inflammation and partly overlapping genetic predisposition, but there are still distinct differences like predilection sites, affected layers of the intestinal wall or typical clinical symptoms.…”

“…In addition, it is important to acknowledge that the vast majority of research so far focused on either brain structure or function. To our knowledge, very few studies provide information on both brain structure and function in the same IBD sample, 7,15 mostly using separate analysis approaches. While beyond doubt useful, such approaches may disregard important sources of joint information between modalities.…”