Neuroscience Research Australia, Sydney, NSW, Australia.
School of Psychology, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW, Australia.
Psychol Med. 2023 May;53(7):3187-3199. doi: 10.1017/S0033291721005262. Epub 2022 Jan 11.
While previous studies have suggested that higher levels of cognitive performance may be related to greater wellbeing and resilience, little is known about the associations between neural circuits engaged by cognitive tasks and wellbeing and resilience, and whether genetics or environment contribute to these associations.
The current study consisted of 253 monozygotic and dizygotic adult twins, including a subsample of 187 early-life trauma-exposed twins, with functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging data from the TWIN-E study. Wellbeing was measured using the COMPAS-W Wellbeing Scale while resilience was defined as a higher level of positive adaptation (higher levels of wellbeing) in the presence of trauma exposure. We probed both sustained attention and working memory processes using a Continuous Performance Task in the scanner.
We found significant negative associations between resilience and activation in the bilateral anterior insula engaged during sustained attention. Multivariate twin modelling showed that the association between resilience and the left and right insula activation was mostly driven by common genetic factors, accounting for 71% and 87% of the total phenotypic correlation between these variables, respectively. There were no significant associations between wellbeing/resilience and neural activity engaged during working memory updating.
The findings suggest that greater resilience to trauma is associated with less activation of the anterior insula during a condition requiring sustained attention but not working memory updating. This possibly suggests a pattern of 'neural efficiency' (i.e. more efficient and/or attenuated activity) in people who may be more resilient to trauma.
虽然之前的研究表明，较高的认知表现水平可能与更好的幸福感和适应力相关，但对于认知任务所涉及的神经回路与幸福感和适应力之间的关联，以及遗传和环境因素是否对此有影响，我们知之甚少。
本研究纳入了 253 对同卵和异卵双胞胎，其中包括来自 TWIN-E 研究的 187 对经历过早期生活创伤的双胞胎的子样本。使用 COMPAS-W 幸福感量表来衡量幸福感，而适应力则定义为在经历创伤后具有更高的积极适应水平（更高的幸福感）。我们在扫描仪中使用连续性能任务来探测维持注意力和工作记忆过程。
我们发现，适应力与在维持注意力过程中双侧前岛叶的激活之间存在显著的负相关。多变量双胞胎模型表明，适应力与左、右岛叶激活之间的关联主要受共同遗传因素驱动，分别解释了这两个变量之间总表型相关性的 71%和 87%。在工作记忆更新过程中，幸福感/适应力与神经活动之间没有显著关联。
研究结果表明，在需要维持注意力的条件下，前岛叶的活动减少与创伤后更强的适应力相关，而与工作记忆更新无关。这可能表明，在可能更能适应创伤的人群中，存在一种“神经效率”模式（即更有效和/或减弱的活动）。
