Kogler Lydia, Müller Veronika I, Seidel Eva-Maria, Boubela Roland, Kalcher Klaudius, Moser Ewald, Habel Ute, Gur Ruben C, Eickhoff Simon B, Derntl Birgit
Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Medical School, University of Tübingen, Germany; Jülich-Aachen-Research Alliance, Translational Brain Medicine, Germany; Department of Psychiatry, Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics, RWTH Aachen University, Aachen, Germany.
Institute of Neuroscience und Medicine, INM-1, Research Centre Jülich, Jülich, Germany; Institute of Clinical Neuroscience and Medical Psychology, Medical Faculty, Heinrich Heine University, Düsseldorf, Germany.
Neuroimage. 2016 Jul 1;134:410-423. doi: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2016.03.064. Epub 2016 Apr 1.
Human amygdalae are involved in various behavioral functions such as affective and stress processing. For these behavioral functions, as well as for psychophysiological arousal including cortisol release, sex differences are reported. Here, we assessed cortisol levels and resting-state functional connectivity (rsFC) of left and right amygdalae in 81 healthy participants (42 women) to investigate potential modulation of amygdala rsFC by sex and cortisol concentration. Our analyses revealed that rsFC of the left amygdala significantly differed between women and men: Women showed stronger rsFC than men between the left amygdala and left middle temporal gyrus, inferior frontal gyrus, postcentral gyrus and hippocampus, regions involved in face processing, inner-speech, fear and pain processing. No stronger connections were detected for men and no sex difference emerged for right amygdala rsFC. Also, an interaction of sex and cortisol appeared: In women, cortisol was negatively associated with rsFC of the amygdalae with striatal regions, mid-orbital frontal gyrus, anterior cingulate gyrus, middle and superior frontal gyri, supplementary motor area and the parietal-occipital sulcus. Contrarily in men, positive associations of cortisol with rsFC of the left amygdala and these structures were observed. Functional decoding analyses revealed an association of the amygdalae and these regions with emotion, reward and memory processing, as well as action execution. Our results suggest that functional connectivity of the amygdalae as well as the regulatory effect of cortisol on brain networks differs between women and men. These sex-differences and the mediating and sex-dependent effect of cortisol on brain communication systems should be taken into account in affective and stress-related neuroimaging research. Thus, more studies including both sexes are required.
人类杏仁核参与多种行为功能，如情感和应激处理。对于这些行为功能以及包括皮质醇释放在内的心理生理唤醒，已有性别差异的报道。在此，我们评估了81名健康参与者（42名女性）左右杏仁核的皮质醇水平和静息态功能连接（rsFC），以研究性别和皮质醇浓度对杏仁核rsFC的潜在调节作用。我们的分析显示，女性和男性之间左侧杏仁核的rsFC存在显著差异：女性在左侧杏仁核与左侧颞中回、额下回、中央后回和海马体之间表现出比男性更强的rsFC，这些区域参与面部处理、内心言语、恐惧和疼痛处理。男性未检测到更强的连接，右侧杏仁核rsFC也未出现性别差异。此外，还出现了性别和皮质醇的相互作用：在女性中，皮质醇与杏仁核与纹状体区域、眶额中回、前扣带回、额中回和额上回、辅助运动区以及顶枕沟的rsFC呈负相关。相反，在男性中，观察到皮质醇与左侧杏仁核和这些结构的rsFC呈正相关。功能解码分析揭示了杏仁核与这些区域与情绪、奖赏和记忆处理以及动作执行之间的关联。我们的结果表明，女性和男性之间杏仁核的功能连接以及皮质醇对脑网络的调节作用存在差异。在情感和应激相关的神经影像学研究中，应考虑这些性别差异以及皮质醇对脑通信系统的中介和性别依赖性作用。因此，需要更多纳入两性的研究。
