Resting-State Functional Connectivity of the Locus Coeruleus in Humans: In Comparison with the Ventral Tegmental Area/Substantia Nigra Pars Compacta and the Effects of Age.
Resting-State Functional Connectivity of the Locus Coeruleus in Humans: In Comparison with the Ventral Tegmental Area/Substantia Nigra Pars Compacta and the Effects of Age.
复制标题
DOI：
10.1093/cercor/bhv172
复制
发表时间：
2016-08
期刊：
影响因子：
3.7
通讯作者：
Shenmin Zhang;Sien Hu;H. Chao;C. Li
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Shenmin Zhang;Sien Hu;H. Chao;C. Li
蓝斑（LC）提供主要的去甲肾上腺素能输入到大脑皮层。尽管许多动物研究记录了LC的功能，但人类的研究受到中脑核体积小的阻碍。在这里，我们利用一个概率模板，探讨了大脑功能连接的LC与250名健康成年人的静息态功能磁共振成像数据，并验证了调查结果，占生理噪声在另一个数据集。此外，我们对比了LC和腹侧被盖区/黑质腹侧部的连通性。结果强调了这两个中脑结构的共享和不同的连接，以及与双侧杏仁核、枕和右前额叶的相反连接模式。此外，LC与额顶叶皮层和小脑的连接随着年龄的增长而增加，与视觉皮层的连接随着年龄的增长而减少。这些发现可能有助于研究LC在唤醒，显着性反应和认知运动控制以及健康和无序衰老期间的行为和认知表现中的作用。虽然这是第一个证明全脑LC连通性的发现，但这些发现需要用高分辨率成像来证实。
The locus coeruleus (LC) provides the primary noradrenergic inputs to the cerebral cortex. Despite numerous animal studies documenting the functions of the LC, research in humans is hampered by the small volume of this midbrain nucleus. Here, we took advantage of a probabilistic template, explored the cerebral functional connectivity of the LC with resting-state fMRI data of 250 healthy adults, and verified the findings by accounting for physiological noise in another data set. In addition, we contrasted connectivities of the LC and the ventral tegmental area/substantia nigra pars compacta. The results highlighted both shared and distinct connectivity of these 2 midbrain structures, as well as an opposite pattern of connectivity to bilateral amygdala, pulvinar, and right anterior insula. Additionally, LC connectivity to the fronto-parietal cortex and the cerebellum increases with age and connectivity to the visual cortex decreases with age. These findings may facilitate studies of the role of the LC in arousal, saliency responses and cognitive motor control and in the behavioral and cognitive manifestations during healthy and disordered aging. Although the first to demonstrate whole-brain LC connectivity, these findings need to be confirmed with high-resolution imaging.