Amygdalar Metabolic Activity Independently Associates With Progression of Visceral Adiposity

Affective brain patterns as multivariate neural correlates of cardiovascular disease risk

“…To elaborate, recent evidence suggests that amygdala functionality may associate with clinically relevant cardiovascular endpoints and surrogate markers of CVD risk (e.g. Tawakol et al., 2017 ; Ishai et al., 2019 ; Osborne et al., 2019 ). Pre-dating the latter evidence were findings that greater amygdala activity to facial expressions of fear and anger was associated with a greater severity of pre-clinical atherosclerosis, suggesting that amygdala ‘hyperactivity’ evoked by affective cues (facial expressions of emotion) may comprise a neural correlate of CVD risk ( Gianaros et al., 2008 ).…”

“…Moreover, individual differences in amygdala function have been associated with clinical cardiovascular endpoints, cardiometabolic outcomes that are conducive to atherosclerotic CVD and even surrogate markers of pre-clinical atherosclerosis that are all presaged by autonomic, immune and neuroendocrine dysregulation. Elevated resting metabolic activity of the amygdala, for example, confers risk for cardiovascular events ( Tawakol et al., 2017 ), incident diabetes ( Osborne et al., 2019 ), the progression of visceral adiposity ( Ishai et al., 2019 ) and non-calcified coronary plaque ( Goyal et al., 2018 ). The latter findings build on earlier cross-sectional evidence that pre-clinical atherosclerosis in the carotid arteries associates with elevated metabolic activity in the medial temporal lobe ( Sojkova et al., 2010 ) and—more specifically—with amygdala reactivity to facial expressions of fear and anger ( Gianaros et al., 2008 ).…”

The fear-defense system, emotions, and oxidative stress

“…The same pathways were elucidated in a sample of patients with psoriasis, a chronic inflammatory skin disease: Increased metabolic activity of the amygdala led to hematopoietic system activation with increased release of activated monocytes stimulating inflammation and atherosclerosis [ 11 ]. Other neuroimaging studies showed that amygdala activity was associated with baseline visceral adiposity as well as an increase in visceral adiposity [ 17 ], and the development of diabetes mellitus independent from adiposity [ 48 ]. Again, these detrimental health effects were primarily mediated by increased pro-inflammatory leukopoiesis [ 17 , 48 ] induced by the activation of the fear-defense system.…”

“…Other neuroimaging studies showed that amygdala activity was associated with baseline visceral adiposity as well as an increase in visceral adiposity [ 17 ], and the development of diabetes mellitus independent from adiposity [ 48 ]. Again, these detrimental health effects were primarily mediated by increased pro-inflammatory leukopoiesis [ 17 , 48 ] induced by the activation of the fear-defense system.…”

The brain connection between stress and heart: a convincing research opportunity to reduce risk and gender disparity in cardiovascular disease

“…2 Starting from the studies on the complex pathways involved in the reception of stress by our brain, various groups have addressed the amygdala as important node of the salience network, implicated in the transfer of stressful stimulations on the cardiovascular system by means of sympathetic or neuroendocrine connections, such as the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis. [8][9][10][11][12][13] In particular, higher levels of stress have been shown to produce an increase in amygdalar activity detected by [ 18 F]-Fluorodeoxyglucose ([ 18 F]FDG) Positron Emission Tomography (PET) imaging. [13][14][15][16] In turn, this augmented activity seems related to various adverse mechanisms, which have unfavorable prognostic effects, such as proinflammatory changes, the occurrence of diabetes, and visceral adiposity.…”