Associations Between Daily Mood States and Brain Gray Matter Volume, Resting-State Functional Connectivity and Task-Based Activity in Healthy Adults

Abstract

Numerous studies have shown differences in the functioning in the areas of the frontal-limbic circuitry between depressed patients and controls. However, current knowledge on frontal-limbic neural substrates of individual differences in mood states in everyday life in healthy individuals is scarce. The present study investigates anatomical, resting-state, and functional neural correlates of daily mood states in healthy individuals. We expected to observe associations between mood and the frontal-limbic circuitry and the default-mode network (DMN). A total of 42 healthy adults (19 men, 23 women; 34 ± 1.2 years) regularly followed for behavior and psychosocial functioning since age of 6, underwent a functional magnetic resonance imaging scan, and completed a daily diary of mood states and related cognitions for 5 consecutive days. Results showed that individuals with smaller left hippocampal gray matter volumes experienced more negative mood and rumination in their daily life. Greater resting-state functional connectivity (rsFC) within the DMN, namely between posterior cingulate cortex (PCC) and medial prefrontal cortex regions as well as between PCC and precuneus, was associated with both greater negative and positive mood states in daily life. These rsFC results could be indicative of the role of the DMN regional functioning in emotional arousal, irrespective of valence. Lastly, greater daily positive mood was associated with greater activation in response to negative emotional stimuli in the precentral gyri, previously linked to emotional interference on cognitive control. Altogether, present findings might reflect neural mechanisms underlying daily affect and cognition among healthy individuals.

Adjunct ketamine treatment effects on treatment-resistant depressive symptoms in chronic treatment-resistant schizophrenia patients are short-term and disassociated from regional homogeneity changes in key brain regions – a pilot study

“…Previous studies reporting that a single ketamine treatment may alleviate treatment resistant depression by normalizing aberrant activity in DMN components and the frontal cortex [66][67][68]. Although it is well established that ketamine can decrease functional activity in the DMN and other brain regions [47][48][49][50][51][52][53][54][55][56][57][58][59][60], we found increased ReHo in the DMN in CTRS patients with TRD symptoms in this pilot study. We postulated that this seemingly contradictory finding may be related to neuropathological features of schizophrenia.…”

“…The mPFC, anterior cingulate, posterior cingulate, precuneus, and angular gyrus, which have been identified as components of the DMN, and the OFC, which is part of the affective network, are key regions related to mood processing [47][48][49][50]. Notably, neural activities in the DMN and OFC have been reported to be markedly decreased in depressive patients [51][52][53][54][55][56].…”

Birth weight is associated with adolescent brain development: A multimodal imaging study in monozygotic twins

“…The limbic network included nine nodes: the left and right insula, anterior cingulate cortex, left and right amygdala, left and right hippocampus, and left and right orbitofrontal cortex (OFC). In addition to being core brain regions pertaining to the limbic network and to the DMN, in our previous studies, we noted variations in rs‐FC in those networks in relation to mood in healthy adults (Ismaylova, di Sante, et al, 2018 ). Furthermore, in previous work in the same adolescent cohort, we observed an association between BW and morphological development (Casey et al, 2017; Levesque et al, 2015).…”

Anterior hippocampal volume predicts affect-focused psychotherapy outcome

“…Thus, reduced AH volume might represent a potential treatment target. This neuroanatomical finding could further suggest that, following treatment, anterior hippocampal volume might increase, through neurogenesis, or show greater density, reflecting greater functional connectivity to other brain areas (cf., Ismaylova et al ., 2018). This hypothesis would accord with the affect-focused treatments’ aim of improving clinical symptoms such as affective numbing, which could rely on AH engagement.…”