Department of Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychotherapy, Central Institute of Mental Health , Mannheim , Germany ; Medical Faculty Mannheim, Heidelberg University , Mannheim , Germany.
Institute of Psychology, Leiden University , Leiden , Netherlands ; Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition (LIBC) , Leiden , Netherlands.
Front Hum Neurosci. 2014 Oct 28;8:848. doi: 10.3389/fnhum.2014.00848. eCollection 2014.
Working memory is critically involved in ignoring emotional distraction while maintaining goal-directed behavior. Antagonistic interactions between brain regions implicated in emotion processing, e.g., amygdala, and brain regions involved in cognitive control, e.g., dorsolateral and dorsomedial prefrontal cortex (dlPFC, dmPFC), may play an important role in coping with emotional distraction. We previously reported prolonged reaction times associated with amygdala hyperreactivity during emotional distraction in interpersonally traumatized borderline personality disorder (BPD) patients compared to healthy controls (HC): Participants performed a working memory task, while neutral versus negative distractors (interpersonal scenes from the International Affective Picture System) were presented. Here, we re-analyzed data from this study using psychophysiological interaction analysis. The bilateral amygdala and bilateral dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC) were defined as seed regions of interest. Whole-brain regression analyses with reaction times and self-reported increase of dissociation were performed. During emotional distraction, reduced amygdala connectivity with clusters in the left dorsolateral and ventrolateral PFC was observed in the whole group. Compared to HC, BPD patients showed a stronger coupling of both seeds with a cluster in the right dmPFC and stronger positive amygdala connectivity with bilateral (para)hippocampus. Patients further demonstrated stronger positive dACC connectivity with left posterior cingulate, insula, and frontoparietal regions during emotional distraction. Reaction times positively predicted amygdala connectivity with right dmPFC and (para)hippocampus, while dissociation positively predicted amygdala connectivity with right ACC during emotional distraction in patients. Our findings suggest increased attention to task-irrelevant (emotional) social information during a working memory task in interpersonally traumatized patients with BPD.
工作记忆对于在保持目标导向行为的同时忽略情绪干扰至关重要。涉及情绪处理的大脑区域（例如杏仁核）和涉及认知控制的大脑区域（例如背外侧和背内侧前额叶皮层）之间的拮抗相互作用，可能在应对情绪干扰方面发挥重要作用。我们之前报道了在人际创伤后边缘性人格障碍（BPD）患者中，与健康对照组（HC）相比，在情绪干扰期间杏仁核过度活跃与延长的反应时间相关：参与者执行工作记忆任务，同时呈现中性与负面的分心物（国际情感图片系统中的人际场景）。在这里，我们使用心理生理交互分析重新分析了来自该研究的数据。双侧杏仁核和双侧背侧前扣带皮层（dACC）被定义为感兴趣的种子区域。使用反应时间和自我报告的分离增加进行了全脑回归分析。在情绪干扰期间，整个组中观察到杏仁核与左背外侧和腹外侧前额叶皮层的连接减少。与 HC 相比，BPD 患者表现出双侧种子与右侧 dmPFC 中的簇更强的耦合，以及双侧（副）海马的正杏仁核连接增强。患者在情绪干扰期间进一步表现出右侧 dmPFC 和双侧（副）海马与左侧后扣带、岛叶和额顶叶区域更强的正 dACC 连接。反应时间与右 dmPFC 和（副）海马的杏仁核连接呈正相关，而在情绪干扰期间，分离与右 ACC 的杏仁核连接呈正相关。我们的研究结果表明，在人际创伤的 BPD 患者中，在工作记忆任务期间，对与任务无关的（情绪）社交信息的注意力增加。
