Luo Yifeng, Liu Yu, Qing Zhao, Zhang Li, Weng Yifei, Zhang Xiaojie, Shan Hairong, Li Lingjiang, Qi Rongfeng, Cao Zhihong, Lu Guangming
Department of Radiology, The Affiliated Yixing Hospital of Jiangsu University, Wuxi, China.
Department of Medical Imaging, Jinling Hospital, Medical School of Nanjing University, Nanjing, China.
Front Hum Neurosci. 2021 Apr 28;15:655044. doi: 10.3389/fnhum.2021.655044. eCollection 2021.
: Losing one's only child may lead to post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), of which re-experiencing is the core symptom. However, neuroimaging studies of sex differences in re-experiencing in the context of the trauma of losing one's only child and PTSD are scarce; comparisons of the functional networks from the hippocampal subfields to the thalamus might clarify the neural basis. : Thirty couples without any psychiatric disorder who lost their only child (non-PTSD group), 55 patients with PTSD, and 50 normal controls underwent resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging. The functional connectivity (FC) from the hippocampal subregions to the thalamus and the correlations of FC with re-experiencing symptoms were analyzed within and between the sexes. : Compared with husbands without PTSD, wives without PTSD had higher re-experiencing symptoms and weaker FC between the right hippocampal cornu ammonis 3 (RCA3) and the right thalamus (RT; RCA3-RT). Moreover, only the correlation between the RCA3-RT FC and re-experiencing in wives without PTSD was significant. Among the three groups, only the RCA3-RT FC in female subjects was markedly different. Additionally, the RCA3-RT FC in wives without PTSD was remarkably lower relative to female patients with PTSD. : Wives without PTSD who lost their only child had worse re-experiencing symptoms relative to their husbands, which was associated with the FC alteration between the hippocampal subregions and the thalamus. Importantly, the low level of the RCA3-RT FC may play a potentially protective role against the development of PTSD in wives who have lost their only child.
失去独子可能会导致创伤后应激障碍（PTSD），其中再次体验是核心症状。然而，关于在失去独子创伤及PTSD背景下再次体验方面性别差异的神经影像学研究较少；对从海马亚区到丘脑的功能网络进行比较可能会阐明其神经基础。30对失去独子且无任何精神障碍的夫妇（非PTSD组）、55名PTSD患者和50名正常对照者接受了静息态功能磁共振成像检查。分析了性别内部和性别之间从海马亚区到丘脑的功能连接（FC）以及FC与再次体验症状的相关性。与无PTSD的丈夫相比，无PTSD的妻子有更高的再次体验症状，且右侧海马角回3（RCA3）与右侧丘脑（RT；RCA3 - RT）之间的FC较弱。此外，仅无PTSD的妻子中RCA3 - RT FC与再次体验之间的相关性显著。在三组中，仅女性受试者的RCA3 - RT FC有明显差异。此外，相对于患有PTSD的女性患者，无PTSD的妻子的RCA3 - RT FC明显更低。失去独子的无PTSD妻子相对于其丈夫有更严重的再次体验症状，这与海马亚区和丘脑之间的FC改变有关。重要的是，RCA3 - RT FC水平较低可能对失去独子的妻子患PTSD起到潜在的保护作用。
