Peterson Andrew C, Zhang Sheng, Hu Sien, Chao Herta H, Li Chiang-Shan R
Frank H. Netter MD School of Medicine at Quinnipiac University North Haven, CT, USA.
Department of Psychiatry, Yale University School of Medicine New Haven, CT, USA.
Front Hum Neurosci. 2017 Feb 7;11:52. doi: 10.3389/fnhum.2017.00052. eCollection 2017.
Dysfunction of the dopaminergic ventral tegmental area (VTA) and substantia nigra pars compacta (SNc) is implicated in psychiatric disorders including attention-deficit/ hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), addiction, schizophrenia and movement disorders such as Parkinson's disease (PD). Although the prevalence of these disorders varies by age and sex, the underlying neural mechanism is not well understood. The objective of this study was to delineate the distinct resting state functional connectivity (rsFC) of the VTA and SNc and examine the effects of age, from young to middle-adulthood, and sex on the rsFC of these two dopaminergic structures in a data set of 250 healthy adults (18-49 years of age, 104 men). Using blood oxygenation level dependent (BOLD) signals, we correlated the time course of the VTA and SNc to the time courses of all other brain voxels. At a corrected threshold, paired -test showed stronger VTA connectivity to bilateral angular gyrus and superior/middle and orbital frontal regions and stronger SNc connectivity to the insula, thalamus, parahippocampal gyrus (PHG) and amygdala. Compared to women, men showed a stronger VTA/SNc connectivity to the left posterior orbital gyrus. In linear regressions, men but not women showed age-related changes in VTA/SNc connectivity to a number of cortical and cerebellar regions. Supporting shared but also distinct cerebral rsFC of the VTA and SNc and gender differences in age-related changes from young and middle adulthood in VTA/SNc connectivity, these new findings help advance our understanding of the neural bases of many neuropsychiatric illnesses that implicate the dopaminergic systems.
多巴胺能腹侧被盖区（VTA）和黑质致密部（SNc）功能障碍与多种精神疾病有关，包括注意力缺陷多动障碍（ADHD）、成瘾、精神分裂症以及运动障碍，如帕金森病（PD）。尽管这些疾病的患病率因年龄和性别而异，但其潜在的神经机制尚未完全明确。本研究的目的是描绘VTA和SNc独特的静息态功能连接（rsFC），并在一个包含250名健康成年人（年龄在18 - 49岁之间，104名男性）的数据集中，研究从青年到中年的年龄以及性别对这两个多巴胺能结构rsFC的影响。利用血氧水平依赖（BOLD）信号，我们将VTA和SNc的时间进程与所有其他脑体素的时间进程进行了相关性分析。在校正阈值下，配对t检验显示VTA与双侧角回、额上/中回及眶额区的连接更强，而SNc与岛叶、丘脑、海马旁回（PHG）和杏仁核的连接更强。与女性相比，男性的VTA/SNc与左后眶回的连接更强。在线性回归分析中，只有男性的VTA/SNc与多个皮质和小脑区域的连接显示出与年龄相关的变化。这些新发现支持了VTA和SNc共享但又有区别的脑rsFC，以及在青年到中年阶段VTA/SNc连接中与年龄相关变化的性别差异，有助于推动我们对许多涉及多巴胺能系统的神经精神疾病神经基础的理解。
