Relationship between nuclei-specific amygdala connectivity and mental health dimensions in humans.
Miriam C Klein-FlüggeDaria E A JensenYu TakagiLuke PriestleyLennart VerhagenStephen M SmithMatthew F S RushworthPublished in: Nature human behaviour (2022)
There has been increasing interest in using neuroimaging measures to predict psychiatric disorders. However, predictions usually rely on large brain networks and large disorder heterogeneity. Thus, they lack both anatomical and behavioural specificity, preventing the advancement of targeted interventions. Here we address both challenges. First, using resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging, we parcellated the amygdala, a region implicated in mood disorders, into seven nuclei. Next, a questionnaire factor analysis provided subclinical mental health dimensions frequently altered in anxious-depressive individuals, such as negative emotions and sleep problems. Finally, for each behavioural dimension, we identified the most predictive resting-state functional connectivity between individual amygdala nuclei and highly specific regions of interest, such as the dorsal raphe nucleus in the brainstem or medial frontal cortical regions. Connectivity in circumscribed amygdala networks predicted behaviours in an independent dataset. Our results reveal specific relations between mental health dimensions and connectivity in precise subcortical networks.
Keyphrases
- resting state
- functional connectivity
- mental health
- magnetic resonance imaging
- mental illness
- single cell
- physical activity
- spinal cord
- sleep quality
- computed tomography
- genome wide
- cross sectional
- neuropathic pain
- cancer therapy
- brain injury
- drug delivery
- dna methylation
- magnetic resonance
- depressive symptoms
- subarachnoid hemorrhage
- data analysis
- diffusion weighted imaging