Huaxi MR Research Center (HMRRC), Department of Radiology, West China Hospital of Sichuan University, Chengdu, China.
Research Unit of Psychoradiology, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, Chengdu, China.
Psychol Med. 2023 Aug;53(11):5155-5166. doi: 10.1017/S0033291722002173. Epub 2022 Jul 26.
Persistent psychological distress associated with the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has been well documented. This study aimed to identify pre-COVID brain functional connectome that predicts pandemic-related distress symptoms among young adults.
Baseline neuroimaging studies and assessment of general distress using the Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale were performed with 100 healthy individuals prior to wide recognition of the health risks associated with the emergence of COVID-19. They were recontacted for the Impact of Event Scale-Revised and the Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Checklist in the period of community-level outbreaks, and for follow-up distress evaluation again 1 year later. We employed the network-based statistic approach to identify connectome that predicted the increase of distress based on 136-region-parcellation with assigned network membership. Predictive performance of connectome features and causal relations were examined by cross-validation and mediation analyses.
The connectome features that predicted emergence of distress after COVID contained 70 neural connections. Most within-network connections were located in the default mode network (DMN), and affective network-DMN and dorsal attention network-DMN links largely constituted between-network pairs. The hippocampus emerged as the most critical hub region. Predictive models of the connectome remained robust in cross-validation. Mediation analyses demonstrated that COVID-related posttraumatic stress partially explained the correlation of connectome to the development of general distress.
Brain functional connectome may fingerprint individuals with vulnerability to psychological distress associated with the COVID pandemic. Individuals with brain neuromarkers may benefit from the corresponding interventions to reduce the risk or severity of distress related to fear of COVID-related challenges.
与 2019 年冠状病毒病（COVID-19）大流行相关的持续心理困扰已有大量记录。本研究旨在确定 COVID 前大脑功能连接组，以预测年轻人与大流行相关的困扰症状。
在 COVID-19 相关健康风险得到广泛认识之前，对 100 名健康个体进行了基线神经影像学研究和使用抑郁、焦虑和压力量表（Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale）进行一般困扰评估。在社区层面爆发期间，他们再次接受修订后的事件影响量表（Impact of Event Scale-Revised）和创伤后应激障碍检查表（Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Checklist）的调查，并在 1 年后再次进行随访困扰评估。我们采用基于网络的统计方法，根据 136 个区域划分来识别连接组，根据网络成员分配预测基于连接组的困扰增加。通过交叉验证和中介分析检验了连接组特征和因果关系的预测性能。
预测 COVID 后出现困扰的连接组特征包含 70 个神经连接。大多数内联网连接位于默认模式网络（DMN）中，情感网络-DMN 和背侧注意网络-DMN 连接主要构成了网络间对。海马体作为最关键的枢纽区域出现。连接组的预测模型在交叉验证中仍然稳健。中介分析表明，与 COVID 相关的创伤后应激部分解释了连接组与一般困扰发展的相关性。
大脑功能连接组可能可以识别出与 COVID 大流行相关的心理困扰易感性个体。具有大脑神经标志物的个体可能受益于相应的干预措施，以降低与 COVID 相关挑战的恐惧相关的困扰的风险或严重程度。
