University of Helsinki and Helsinki University Hospital, Psychiatry, Helsinki, Finland.
Aalto University, School of Science, Department of Neuroscience and Biomedical Engineering, Espoo, Finland; International Laboratory of Social Neurobiology, Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, National Research University Higher School of Economics, Moscow, Russia.
Neuroimage. 2021 Aug 15;237:118110. doi: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2021.118110. Epub 2021 Apr 30.
One-week treatment with escitalopram decreases amygdala responses to fearful facial expressions in depressed patients, but it remains unknown whether it also modulates processing of complex and freely processed emotional stimuli resembling daily life emotional situations. Inter-subject correlation (ISC) offers a means to track brain activity during complex, dynamic stimuli in a model-free manner. Twenty-nine treatment-seeking patients with major depressive disorder were randomized in a double-blind study design to receive either escitalopram or placebo for one week, after which functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was performed. During fMRI the participants listened to spoken emotional narratives. Level of ISC between the escitalopram and the placebo group was compared across all the narratives and separately for the episodes with positive and negative valence. Across all the narratives, the escitalopram group had higher ISC in the default mode network of the brain as well as in the fronto-temporal narrative processing regions, whereas lower ISC was seen in the middle temporal cortex, hippocampus and occipital cortex. Escitalopram increased ISC during positive parts of the narratives in the precuneus, medial prefrontal cortex, anterior cingulate and fronto-insular cortex, whereas there was no significant synchronization in brain responses to positive vs negative events in the placebo group. Increased ISC may imply improved emotional synchronization with others, particularly during observation of positive events. Further studies are needed to test whether this contributes to the later therapeutic effect of escitalopram.
一周的依西酞普兰治疗可降低抑郁患者杏仁核对恐惧面部表情的反应，但尚不清楚它是否也调节类似于日常生活情绪情境的复杂和自由处理的情绪刺激的处理。 个体间相关性（ISC）提供了一种在无模型的方式下跟踪复杂，动态刺激期间大脑活动的方法。 29 名寻求治疗的重度抑郁症患者在双盲研究设计中随机分为依西酞普兰或安慰剂组，接受为期一周的治疗，然后进行功能磁共振成像（fMRI）。 在 fMRI 期间，参与者听了情绪化的叙事。 比较了依西酞普兰组和安慰剂组在所有叙述以及积极和消极情节中的 ISC 水平。 在所有叙述中，依西酞普兰组的大脑默认模式网络以及额颞叶叙事处理区域的 ISC 更高，而中颞叶皮层，海马体和枕叶皮层的 ISC 较低。 依西酞普兰在叙事的积极部分增加了扣带回，内侧前额叶皮质，前扣带和额眶皮质中的 ISC，而安慰剂组对积极和消极事件的大脑反应没有明显的同步性。 增加的 ISC 可能意味着与他人的情绪同步性得到改善，特别是在观察积极事件时。 需要进一步的研究来测试这是否有助于依西酞普兰的后期治疗效果。
