Department of Neurophysiology, Juntendo University School of Medicine, 2-1-1 Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-8421, Japan.
Department of Metabolism and Endocrinology, Juntendo University School of Medicine, 2-1-1 Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-8421, Japan.
Neuroimage. 2017 Nov 15;162:1-12. doi: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2017.08.056. Epub 2017 Aug 24.
The hypothalamus consists of numerous nuclei, and is regarded as the highest center for various autonomic functions. Although each hypothalamic nucleus implements a distinct function, it remains difficult to investigate the human hypothalamus at the nucleus level. In the present high-resolution functional MRI study, we utilized areal parcellation to discriminate individual nuclei in the human hypothalamus based on areal profiles of resting-state functional connectivity. The areal parcellation detected ten foci that were expected to represent hypothalamic nuclei, and the locations of the foci were consistent with those of the hypothalamic nuclei identified in previous histological studies. Regions of interest (ROI) analyses revealed contrasting brain activity changes following glucose ingestion: decrease in the ventromedial hypothalamic nucleus and increase in the lateral hypothalamic area in parallel with blood glucose increase. Moreover, decreased brain activity in the arcuate nucleus predicted future elevation of blood insulin during the first 10 min after glucose ingestion. These results suggest that the hypothalamic nuclei can putatively be determined using areal parcellation, and that the ROI analysis of the human hypothalamic nuclei is useful for future scientific and clinical investigations into the autonomic functions.
下丘脑由众多核团组成，被视为各种自主功能的最高中枢。尽管每个下丘脑核团执行着独特的功能，但要在核团水平上研究人类下丘脑仍然具有挑战性。在本项高分辨率功能磁共振成像研究中，我们利用区域分割，根据静息态功能连接的区域分布来区分人类下丘脑的各个核团。区域分割检测到十个焦点，这些焦点预计代表下丘脑核团，并且这些焦点的位置与之前组织学研究中确定的下丘脑核团的位置一致。感兴趣区域（ROI）分析揭示了葡萄糖摄入后大脑活动的变化：随着血糖升高，腹内侧下丘脑核团的活动减少，外侧下丘脑区域的活动增加。此外，在葡萄糖摄入后的前 10 分钟内，弓状核的脑活动减少预示着随后血液胰岛素水平的升高。这些结果表明，使用区域分割可以推测出下丘脑核团，并且对人类下丘脑核团的 ROI 分析有助于未来对自主功能进行科学和临床研究。
