A failed top-down control from the prefrontal cortex to the amygdala in generalized anxiety disorder: Evidence from resting-state fMRI with Granger causality analysis

NEUROSCIENCE LETTERS

卷:707

Article

Dong, Mengshi¹  Xia, Likun²  Lu, Min²  Li, Chao¹  Xu, Ke¹  Zhang, Lina¹ 

[1] China Med Univ, Affiliated Hosp 1, Dept Radiol, Shenyang 110001, Liaoning, Peoples R China

[2] Peoples Hosp Yuxi City, Dept Magnet Resonance Imaging, Yuxi 653100, Peoples R China

关键词: Generalized anxiety disorder;    Effective connectivity;    Granger causality analysis;    Amygdala;    Prefrontal cortex;   

DOI  :  10.1016/j.neulet.2019.134314

来源: Elsevier

【 摘 要 】

In generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), abnormal top-down control from the prefrontal cortex (PFC) to the amygdala is a widely accepted hypothesis through which an emotional dysregulation model may be explained. However, whether and how the PFC directly exerts abnormal top-down control on the amygdala remains largely unknown. We aimed to investigate the amygdala-based effective connectivity by using Granger causality analysis (GCA). Thirty-five drug-naive patients with GAD and thirty-six healthy controls (HC) underwent restingstate functional MR imaging. We used seed-based Granger causality analysis to examine the effective connectivity between the bilateral amygdala and the whole brain. The amygdala-based effective connectivity was compared between the HC and GAD groups. The results showed that, in the HC group, the left middle frontal gyrus exerted an inhibitory influence on the right amygdala, while in the GAD group, this influence was disrupted (single voxel P < 0.001, Gaussian random field corrected with P < 0.01). Our findings support and advance the insufficient top-down control hypothesis by identifying a failed top-down control from the prefrontal cortex to the amygdala in GAD.

【 授权许可】

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