Brain Functional Changes in Patients with Ulcerative Colitis: A Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging Study on Emotional Processing
Brain Functional Changes in Patients with Ulcerative Colitis: A Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging Study on Emotional Processing
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DOI：
10.1002/ibd.21549
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发表时间：
2011-08-01
影响因子：
4.9
通讯作者：
Campieri, Massimo
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Agostini, Alessandro;Filippini, Nicola;Campieri, Massimo
背景：溃疡性结肠炎（UC）与心理压力和不良情绪功能有关。神经情绪处理涉及到大脑皮层和皮层下多个结构的复杂整合。杏仁核在情绪刺激的神经处理中起着重要作用，是脑-肠轴（BGA）的核心结构，代表了情绪和胃肠道功能之间双向影响的解剖功能基底。本研究的目的是探讨大脑的情绪处理UC患者相比，健康people.Methods：10 UC患者在缓解和10匹配的健康对照进行了功能性磁共振成像（fMRI）扫描，同时执行一项任务，涉及情绪的视觉刺激。一组消极的，积极的，和中性的图片被用来研究大脑相关的情绪responses.Results：一个显着降低的血氧水平依赖（BOLD）信号在UC患者相对于对照组被发现在杏仁核，丘脑区，小脑区（P < 0.05校正多重比较）。组相关的差异被检测到在大脑活动中响应积极的情绪stimulation.Conclusions：UC与情绪功能障碍，其特征在于降低敏感性的情绪与积极的内容。UC患者先前的肠道炎症活动可能决定了我们发现的杏仁核功能改变，另一方面，杏仁核功能障碍可能影响疾病的进程。
Background: Ulcerative colitis (UC) is associated with psychological stress and poor emotional functioning. The neural emotional processing involves the complex integration of several cortical and subcortical brain structures. The amygdala plays a fundamental role in the neural processing of emotional stimuli and is a core structure of the brain-gut axis (BGA) that represents the anatomo-functional substrate for the bidirectional influences between emotions and gastrointestinal functions. The aim of this study was to investigate the brain emotional processing in UC patients compared to healthy people.Methods: Ten UC patients in remission and 10 matched healthy controls underwent a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scan while performing a task involving emotional visual stimuli. A set of negative, positive, and neutral pictures were used to study brain-related emotional responses.Results: A significantly reduced blood oxygen level-dependent (BOLD) signal in UC patients relative to controls was found in the amygdala, thalamic regions, and cerebellar areas (P < 0.05 corrected for multiple comparisons). The group-related differences were detected in the brain activity in response to positive emotional stimuli.Conclusions: UC is associated with an emotional dysfunction characterized by decreased sensitivity to emotions with a positive content. The previous intestinal inflammatory activity in UC patients might have contributed to determine the functional changes of the amygdala that we found. On the other hand, the dysfunction of the amygdala may influence the course of the disease.