Neural basis of implicit cognitive reappraisal in panic disorder: an event-related fMRI study

Journal of Translational Medicine

Xue-Lin Li¹  Xiao-Pei Sun²  Yi Chang²  Cui-Hong Zhang³  Bing-Wei Zhang⁴  Hai-Yang Wang⁵  Guo-Qing Xu⁶  Ming-Fei Ni⁷ 

[1] Department of Intensive Care Unit, Jining No. 1 People’s Hospital, 272000, Jining, China;Department of Neurology and Psychiatry, The First Affiliated Hospital of Dalian Medical University, No.222, Zhongshan Road, 116011, Dalian, Liaoning Province, China;Department of Neurology and Psychiatry, The First Affiliated Hospital of Dalian Medical University, No.222, Zhongshan Road, 116011, Dalian, Liaoning Province, China;Department of Geriatric Medicine, Huizhou Third People’s Hospital, Guangzhou Medical University, 516000, Huizhou, China;Department of Neurology and Psychiatry, The First Affiliated Hospital of Dalian Medical University, No.222, Zhongshan Road, 116011, Dalian, Liaoning Province, China;Department of Psychology, Dalian Medical University, 116044, Dalian, China;Department of Neurology, Jining No. 1 People’s Hospital, 272000, Jining, China;Department of Neurology and Psychiatry, The First Affiliated Hospital of Dalian Medical University, No.222, Zhongshan Road, 116011, Dalian, Liaoning Province, China;Department of Psychology, Dalian Medical University, 116044, Dalian, China;Department of Radiology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Dalian Medical University, 116011, Dalian, China;

关键词: Panic disorder;    Emotion regulation;    Implicit cognitive reappraisal;    fMRI;    Prefrontal cortex;   

DOI  :  10.1186/s12967-021-02968-2

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundPanic disorder (PD) is thought to be related with deficits in emotion regulation, especially in cognitive reappraisal. According to the cognitive model, PD patients’ intrinsic and unconscious misappraisal strategies are the cause of panic attacks. However, no studies have yet been performed to explore the underlying neuromechanism of cognitive reappraisal that occur on an unconscious level in PD patients.MethodsTwenty-six patients with PD and 25 healthy controls (HC) performed a fully-verified event-block design emotional regulation task aimed at investigating responses of implicit cognitive reappraisal during an fMRI scan. Participants passively viewed negatively valanced pictures that were beforehand neutrally, positively, or adversely portrayed in the task.ResultsWhole-brain analysis of fMRI data showed that PD patients exhibited less activation in the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC) and right dorsomedial prefrontal cortex (dmPFC) compared to HC, but presented greater activation in parietal cortex when negative pictures were preceded by positive/neutral vs negative descriptions. Simultaneously, interactive effects of Group × Condition were observed in the right amygdala across both groups. Furthermore, activation in dlPFC and dmPFC was is negatively correlated to severity of anxiety and panic in PD when negative images were preceded by non-negative vs negative descriptions.ConclusionsEmotional dysregulation in PD is likely the result of deficient activation in dlPFC and dmPFC during implicit cognitive reappraisal, in line with impaired automatic top-down regulation. Correlations between severity of anxiety and panic attack and activation of right dlPFC and dmPFC suggest that the failure to engage prefrontal region during implicit cognitive reappraisal might be associated wtih the severity of anxiety and panic; such functional patterns might be the target of possible treatments.

【 授权许可】

CC BY