Brain structural plasticity in survivors of a major earthquake

Lui, Su; Chen, Long; Yao, Li; Xiao, Yuan; Wu, Qi Zhu; Zhang, Jun Ran; Huang, Xiao Qi; Zhang, Wei; Wang, Yu Qin; Chen, Hua Fu; Chan, Raymond C.K.; Sweeney, John A.; Gong, Qiyong

doi:10.1503/jpn.120244

Cited by 19 publications

(19 citation statements)

References 40 publications

(54 reference statements)

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“…Sekiguchi et al revealed that subjects with lower gray matter volume in the ACC before the earthquake were likely to have PTSD symptoms [79]. Thus, combine our results, greater gray matter density in the prefrontal-limbic systems might be associated with the better ability to control the sustained hyper-activation in limbic systems due to the traumatic experience [42]. …”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 67%

“…Moreover, recent studies with nonclinical samples have also found decreased volume in the frontal-limbic regions, such as the hippocampus, anterior cingulate and medial prefrontal cortex, which were related to serious chronic life stress [41], closer proximity to the disaster on 9/11 [10] and more cumulative adverse events [17]. Additionally, some studies have indicated that the experience of acute events has a short-term effect on structure and function [11, 42] in the prefrontal-limbic, parietal and striatal brain systems. As a consequence, it is important to explore the long-term effects of experiences of acute events on brain structure and function and to better understand the neural circuits underlying resilience in these trauma-exposed individuals with no psychiatric disorders.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Long-Term Effects of Acute Stress on the Prefrontal-Limbic System in the Healthy Adult

Liu¹,

Hou²,

Wei³

et al. 2017

PLoS ONE

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Most people are exposed to at least one traumatic event during the course of their lives, but large numbers of people do not develop posttraumatic stress disorders. Although previous studies have shown that repeated and chronic stress change the brain’s structure and function, few studies have focused on the long-term effects of acute stressful exposure in a nonclinical sample, especially the morphology and functional connectivity changes in brain regions implicated in emotional reactivity and emotion regulation. Forty-one months after the 5/12 Wenchuan earthquake, we investigated the effects of trauma exposure on the structure and functional connectivity of the brains of trauma-exposed healthy individuals compared with healthy controls matched for age, sex, and education. We then used machine-learning algorithms with the brain structural features to distinguish between the two groups at an individual level. In the trauma-exposed healthy individuals, our results showed greater gray matter density in prefrontal-limbic brain systems, including the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex, medial prefrontal cortex, amygdala and hippocampus, than in the controls. Further analysis showed stronger amygdala-hippocampus functional connectivity in the trauma-exposed healthy compared to the controls. Our findings revealed that survival of traumatic experiences, without developing PTSD, was associated with greater gray matter density in the prefrontal-limbic systems related to emotional regulation.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 67%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Long-Term Effects of Acute Stress on the Prefrontal-Limbic System in the Healthy Adult

Liu¹,

Hou²,

Wei³

et al. 2017

PLoS ONE

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“…Previous research suggests that meditation practice is associated with greater grey matter volume in the hippocampus/extended amygdala complex (Hölzel et al, 2011; Kurth et al, 2015; Luders, 2009; Luders et al, 2015, 2013) – a region known to play important roles in regulating the cortisol response to stress. Indeed, chronic exposure to psychological stressors is associated with the opposite effect, a reduction in grey matter volume in this area (Hanson et al, 2014, 2011; Luby et al, 2013; Lui et al, 2013). Further, evidence of increased engagement of neural circuits important in regulating emotion has been demonstrated in both experienced meditators (Taylor et al, 2011) and in novice meditators following training (Allen et al, 2012; Goldin and Gross, 2010; Taylor et al, 2011).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Reduced stress and inflammatory responsiveness in experienced meditators compared to a matched healthy control group

Rosenkranz

Lutz

Perlman

et al. 2016

Psychoneuroendocrinology

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Psychological stress is a major contributor to symptom exacerbation across many chronic inflammatory conditions and can acutely provoke increases in inflammation in healthy individuals. With the rise in rates of inflammation-related medical conditions, evidence for behavioral approaches that reduce stress reactivity is of value. Here, we compare 31experienced meditators, with an average of approximately 9,000 lifetime hours of meditation practice (M age = 51 years) to an age- and sex-matched control group (n = 37; M age = 48 years) on measures of stress- and inflammatory responsivity, and measures of psychological health. The Trier Social Stress Test (TSST) was used to induce psychological stress and a neurogenic inflammatory response was produced using topical application of capsaicin cream to forearm skin. Size of the capsaicin-induced flare response and increase in salivary cortisol and alpha amylase were used to quantify the magnitude of inflammatory and stress responses, respectively. Results show that experienced meditators have lower TSST-evoked cortisol (62.62 ± 2.52 vs. 70.38 ± 2.33; p < .05) and perceived stress (4.18 ± .41 vs. 5.56 ± .30; p < .01), as well as a smaller neurogenic inflammatory response (81.55 ± 4.6 vs. 96.76 ± 4.26; p < .05), compared to the control group. Moreover, experienced meditators reported higher levels of psychological factors associated with wellbeing and resilience. These results suggest that the long-term practice of meditation may reduce stress reactivity and could be of therapeutic benefit in chronic inflammatory conditions characterized by neurogenic inflammation.

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“…Additionally there is clear evidence that negative life stressors have an immediate neurobiological impact on both these regions. A study on earthquake survivors observed both amygdala-hippocampal resting state functional connectivity and hippocampal volume to be reduced within 25 days post trauma in survivors [35,36]. …”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Early Exposure to Traumatic Stressors Impairs Emotional Brain Circuitry

et al. 2013

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Exposure to early life trauma (ELT) is known to have a profound impact on mental development, leading to a higher risk for depression and anxiety. Our aim was to use multiple structural imaging methods to systematically investigate how traumatic stressors early in life impact the emotional brain circuits, typically found impaired with clinical diagnosis of depression and anxiety, across the lifespan in an otherwise healthy cohort. MRI data and self-reported histories of ELT from 352 healthy individuals screened for no psychiatric disorders were analyzed in this study. The volume and cortical thickness of the limbic and cingulate regions were assessed for all participants. A large subset of the cohort also had diffusion tensor imaging data, which was used to quantify white matter structural integrity of these regions. We found a significantly smaller amygdala volume and cortical thickness in the rostral anterior cingulate cortex associated with higher ELT exposure only for the adolescence group. White matter integrity of these regions was not affected. These findings demonstrate that exposure to early life trauma is associated with alterations in the gray matter of cingulate-limbic regions during adolescence in an otherwise healthy sample. These findings are interesting in the context that the affected regions are central neuroanatomical components in the psychopathology of depression, and adolescence is a peak period for risk and onset of the disorder.

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Brain structural plasticity in survivors of a major earthquake

Cited by 19 publications

References 40 publications

Long-Term Effects of Acute Stress on the Prefrontal-Limbic System in the Healthy Adult

Long-Term Effects of Acute Stress on the Prefrontal-Limbic System in the Healthy Adult

Reduced stress and inflammatory responsiveness in experienced meditators compared to a matched healthy control group

Early Exposure to Traumatic Stressors Impairs Emotional Brain Circuitry

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