Huaxi MR Research Center (HMRRC), Department of Radiology, West China Hospital of Sichuan University, Chengdu, 610041, China.
Department of Psychoradiology, Chengdu Mental Health Center, Chengdu, 610036, China.
Hum Brain Mapp. 2018 Oct;39(10):3943-3955. doi: 10.1002/hbm.24222. Epub 2018 Jun 19.
As a hot research topic in the field of psychology and psychiatry, trait optimism reflects the tendency to expect positive outcomes in the future. Consistent evidence has demonstrated the role of trait optimism in reducing anxiety among different populations. However, less is known about the neural bases of trait optimism and the underlying mechanisms for how trait optimism protects against anxiety in the healthy brain. In this investigation, we examined these issues in 231 healthy adolescent students by assessing resting-state brain activity (i.e., fractional amplitude of low-frequency fluctuations, fALFF) and connectivity (i.e., resting-state functional connectivity, RSFC). Whole-brain correlation analyses revealed that higher levels of trait optimism were linked with decreased fALFF in the right orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) and increased RSFC between the right OFC and left supplementary motor cortex (SMC). Mediation analyses further showed that trait optimism mediated the influence of the right OFC activity and the OFC-SMC connectivity on anxiety. Our results remained significant even after excluding the impact of head motion, positive and negative affect and depression. Taken together, this study reveals that fALFF and RSFC are functional neural markers of trait optimism and provides a brain-personality-symptom pathway for protection against anxiety in which fALFF and RSFC affect anxiety through trait optimism.
作为心理学和精神病学领域的热门研究课题，特质乐观反映了对未来积极结果的预期倾向。一致的证据表明，特质乐观在降低不同人群的焦虑方面发挥了作用。然而，关于特质乐观的神经基础以及特质乐观如何在健康大脑中预防焦虑的潜在机制知之甚少。在这项研究中，我们通过评估静息态脑活动（即低频振幅分数，fALFF）和连接性（即静息态功能连接性，RSFC），在 231 名健康青少年学生中研究了这些问题。全脑相关分析表明，较高的特质乐观与右侧眶额皮层（OFC）的 fALFF 降低和右侧 OFC 与左侧辅助运动皮层（SMC）之间的 RSFC 增加有关。中介分析进一步表明，特质乐观介导了右侧 OFC 活动和 OFC-SMC 连接对焦虑的影响。即使排除了头部运动、积极和消极情绪以及抑郁的影响，我们的结果仍然具有统计学意义。总之，这项研究揭示了 fALFF 和 RSFC 是特质乐观的功能神经标志物，并为预防焦虑提供了一种脑-人格-症状途径，其中 fALFF 和 RSFC 通过特质乐观影响焦虑。
