Department of Psychology and Centre for Cognitive Neuroscience, University of Salzburg, Hellbrunnerstr. 34, 5020 Salzburg, Austria.
Psychoneuroendocrinology. 2021 Mar;125:105108. doi: 10.1016/j.psyneuen.2020.105108. Epub 2020 Dec 14.
Frontal and striatal areas are the neuroanatomical basis for working memory (WM), as well as targets for sex steroids. However, up to date little is known regarding menstrual cycle (MC) effects on brain activation and connectivity patterns during verbal WM. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first longitudinal dataset to study dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, putamen and caudate activation and connectivity patterns during a verbal WM task along the natural MC. Thirty-nine naturally cycling healthy women were scanned three times locked to their MC (menses, pre-ovulatory and luteal phase). They performed an N-back task with two trial types, targets and lures, assessing (i) updating and (ii) inhibitory process respectively. Distinct patterns of fronto-striatal activation and connectivity changes were observed for each process. (i) For targets, we observed decreased connectivity between left striatum- and inferior frontal and parietal areas, the circuit underlying phonological WM, in response to elevated progesterone during the luteal phase. Simultaneously, we observed an alleviation of inhibition from fronto-striatal areas on areas related to higher cognitive effort and the salience network. (ii) For lures, negative inter-hemispheric connectivity between fronto-parietal areas during the pre-ovulatory phase, as well as increased connectivity between bilateral dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and posteromedial structures during the luteal phase. Overall, we corroborated a hormone mediated inter-hemispheric decoupling, enhanced frontal activity and disinhibition of the salience brain network and striatum during the luteal phase. In summary, we interpret these results in relation to a differential top-down regulation in higher hormone levels phases and hyperactive bottom-up network during the luteal phase, which could explain the vulnerability of this phase to MC associated disorders.
额皮质和纹状体区域是工作记忆 (WM) 的神经解剖基础，也是性激素的靶点。然而，截至目前，人们对月经周期 (MC) 对言语 WM 期间大脑激活和连通模式的影响知之甚少。据我们所知，这是第一个沿自然 MC 研究背外侧前额叶皮层、纹状体和尾状核在言语 WM 任务期间激活和连通模式的纵向数据集。39 名自然循环健康女性在 3 次扫描中被锁定在她们的 MC（月经期、排卵前和黄体期）。她们执行了一个 N-back 任务，有两种试次类型，目标和诱饵，分别评估（i）更新和（ii）抑制过程。在每个过程中观察到额纹状体激活和连通性变化的不同模式。(i) 对于目标，我们观察到在黄体期孕激素升高时，左侧纹状体与下额叶和顶叶区域之间的连通性降低，这是语音 WM 的基础回路。同时，我们观察到来自额纹状体区域的抑制作用缓解了与更高认知努力和突显网络相关的区域。(ii) 对于诱饵，在排卵前阶段，额顶区域之间的负性半球间连通性，以及在黄体期阶段双侧背外侧前额叶皮层和后内侧结构之间的连通性增加。总的来说，我们证实了激素介导的半球间解耦、额叶活动增强以及在黄体期突显网络和纹状体的抑制作用增强。总之，我们根据在更高激素水平阶段的差异自上而下的调节以及黄体期下激活网络的过度活跃来解释这些结果，这可以解释这个阶段对与 MC 相关的疾病的脆弱性。
