Institute of Radiation Medicine, Academy of Military Medical Sciences, Beijing, 100850, China; Institute of Military Cognition and Brain Sciences, Academy of Military Medical Sciences, Beijing, 100850, China.
Department of Radiology, Seventh Medical Center of the Chinese PLA General Hospital, Beijing, 100700, China.
J Affect Disord. 2020 Sep 1;274:231-238. doi: 10.1016/j.jad.2020.05.123. Epub 2020 May 23.
Previous studies have suggested that the right anterior insula (rAI) plays a vital role in salience processing and stress-related disorders. In this study, we aimed to investigate the relationship between rAI functional connectivity changes and individual differences in cortisol responses after acute stress, in order to provide insights into psychiatric illness vulnerabilities.
Thirty-five young men were enrolled in a randomized, counterbalanced two-session study, with aversive movie clip combined with electrical shocks as stress stimulation and the neutral movie clip as control stimulation. Resting-state fMRI data was acquired after movie exposure. The rAI was chosen as seed for functional connectivity analysis. We then examined the effect of acute stress on rAI functional connectivity and its association with individuals' cortisol response.
We found decreased rAI functional connectivity in the fronto-parietal regions, but increased functional connectivity in the visual and somatosensory areas following acute stress. Moreover, stress-induced cortisol response was significantly positively correlated with the rAI functional connectivity in the medial prefrontal cortex, and negatively correlated with the orbital-frontal cortex, lingual gyrus, and middle temporal gyrus.
Only young Chinese males without any trauma experience were recruited in this study.
The results suggested tight link between specific rAI functional connectivity alterations and individual stress reactivity, which may help elucidate the potential neurobiological mechanism underlying vulnerability to stress-related disorders.
先前的研究表明，右侧前脑岛（rAI）在突显处理和与应激相关的障碍中起着至关重要的作用。在这项研究中，我们旨在研究 rAI 功能连接变化与急性应激后皮质醇反应个体差异之间的关系，以深入了解精神疾病的易感性。
35 名年轻男性被纳入一项随机、平衡的两阶段研究，使用令人厌恶的电影片段结合电击作为应激刺激，中性电影片段作为对照刺激。在观看电影后采集静息态 fMRI 数据。选择 rAI 作为功能连接分析的种子点。然后，我们检查了急性应激对 rAI 功能连接的影响及其与个体皮质醇反应的关系。
我们发现，急性应激后，rAI 与额顶区域的功能连接减少，但与视觉和躯体感觉区域的功能连接增加。此外，应激诱导的皮质醇反应与内侧前额叶皮层的 rAI 功能连接呈显著正相关，与眶额皮层、舌回和颞中回的 rAI 功能连接呈显著负相关。
本研究仅招募了无创伤经历的年轻中国男性。
这些结果表明，特定的 rAI 功能连接改变与个体应激反应之间存在紧密联系，这可能有助于阐明与应激相关障碍易感性相关的潜在神经生物学机制。
