Pfleiderer Bettina, Zinkirciran Sariye, Arolt Volker, Heindel Walter, Deckert Juergen, Domschke Katharina
Department of Radiology, University of Muenster, Muenster, Germany.
World J Biol Psychiatry. 2007;8(4):269-72. doi: 10.1080/15622970701216673.
Previous studies on neuronal activation correlates of panic attacks were mostly based on challenge tests, sensory-related stimulation or fear conditioning in healthy subjects. In the present study, we report on a female patient with panic disorder experiencing a spontaneous panic attack under an auditory habituation paradigm in the last stimulation block with sine tones captured with fMRI at 3T. The panic attack was associated with a significantly increased activity in the right amygdala. This is the first report on neuronal activation correlates of a spontaneous panic attack in a patient with panic disorder as measured by fMRI, which lends further support to a pivotal role of the amygdala in the pathogenesis of the disease.
先前关于惊恐发作的神经元激活相关性的研究大多基于对健康受试者的激发试验、感觉相关刺激或恐惧条件反射。在本研究中，我们报告了一名患有惊恐障碍的女性患者，在3T功能磁共振成像（fMRI）捕捉到的正弦音调听觉习惯化范式下，于最后一个刺激块中经历了一次自发性惊恐发作。这次惊恐发作与右侧杏仁核活动显著增加有关。这是首篇通过fMRI测量惊恐障碍患者自发性惊恐发作的神经元激活相关性的报告，进一步支持了杏仁核在该疾病发病机制中的关键作用。
