Institute for Drug and Alcohol Studies, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, Virginia; Department of Radiology, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, Virginia.
Institute for Drug and Alcohol Studies, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, Virginia; Department of Psychiatry, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, Virginia.
Biol Psychiatry Cogn Neurosci Neuroimaging. 2020 Jan;5(1):84-96. doi: 10.1016/j.bpsc.2019.05.013. Epub 2019 Jun 5.
Cannabis use is associated with an increased risk of stress-related adverse cardiovascular events. Because brain regions of the central autonomic network largely overlap with brain regions related to the neural response to emotion and stress, the central autonomic network may mediate the autonomic response to negative emotional stimuli. We aimed to obtain evidence to determine whether neural connectivity of the central autonomic network is altered in individuals with cannabis use disorder (CUD) when they are exposed to negative emotional stimuli.
Effective (directional) connectivity (EC) analysis using dynamic causal modeling was applied to functional magnetic resonance imaging data acquired from 23 subjects with CUD and 23 control subjects of the Human Connectome Project while they performed an emotional face-matching task with interleaving periods of negative-face (fearful/angry) and neutral-shape stimuli. The EC difference (modulatory change) was measured during the negative-face trials relative to the neutral-shape trials.
The CUD group was similar to the control group in nonimaging measures and brain activations but showed greater modulatory changes in left amygdala to hypothalamus EC (positively associated with Perceived Stress Scale score), right amygdala to bilateral fusiform gyri ECs (positively associated with Perceived Stress Scale score), and left ventrolateral prefrontal cortex to bilateral fusiform gyri ECs (negatively associated with Perceived Stress Scale score).
Left amygdala to hypothalamus EC and right amygdala to bilateral fusiform gyri ECs are possibly part of circuits underlying the risk of individuals with CUD to stress-related disorders. Correspondingly, left ventrolateral prefrontal cortex to bilateral fusiform gyri ECs are possibly part of circuits reflecting a protective mechanism.
大麻使用与与压力相关的不良心血管事件风险增加有关。由于中央自主神经网络的大脑区域与与情绪和压力的神经反应相关的大脑区域大部分重叠，因此中央自主神经网络可能介导对负面情绪刺激的自主反应。我们旨在获得证据，以确定大麻使用障碍（CUD）患者在暴露于负面情绪刺激时，中央自主神经网络的神经连通性是否发生改变。
使用动态因果建模对来自 23 名 CUD 患者和 23 名人类连接组计划对照受试者的功能磁共振成像数据进行有效（有向）连接（EC）分析，同时进行情绪面孔匹配任务，其中穿插负面面孔（恐惧/愤怒）和中性形状刺激。在负面面孔试验期间测量 EC 差异（调节变化）相对于中性形状试验。
CUD 组在非成像测量和大脑激活方面与对照组相似，但显示出左杏仁核到下丘脑 EC 的调节变化更大（与感知压力量表评分呈正相关），右杏仁核到双侧梭状回 EC 的调节变化更大（与感知压力量表评分呈正相关），以及左腹外侧前额叶到双侧梭状回 EC 的调节变化更大（与感知压力量表评分呈负相关）。
左杏仁核到下丘脑 EC 和右杏仁核到双侧梭状回 EC 可能是 CUD 个体与压力相关障碍风险相关的回路的一部分。相应地，左腹外侧前额叶到双侧梭状回 EC 可能是反映保护机制的回路的一部分。
