Jinbo Sun

Microstructure abnormalities in adolescents with internet addiction disorder.

Background Recent studies suggest that internet addiction disorder (IAD) is associated with structural abnormalities in brain gray matter. However, few studies have investigated the effects of internet addiction on the microstructural integrity of major neuronal fiber pathways, and almost no studies have assessed the microstructural changes with the duration of internet addiction. Methodology/Principal Findings We investigated the morphology of the brain in adolescents with IAD (N = 18) using an optimized voxel-based morphometry (VBM) technique, and studied the white matter fractional anisotropy (FA) changes using the diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) method, linking these brain structural measures to the duration of IAD. We provided evidences demonstrating the multiple structural changes of the brain in IAD subjects. VBM results indicated the decreased gray matter volume in the bilateral dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC), the supplementary motor area (SMA), the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC), the cerebellum and the left rostral ACC (rACC). DTI analysis revealed the enhanced FA value of the left posterior limb of the internal capsule (PLIC) and reduced FA value in the white matter within the right parahippocampal gyrus (PHG). Gray matter volumes of the DLPFC, rACC, SMA, and white matter FA changes of the PLIC were significantly correlated with the duration of internet addiction in the adolescents with IAD. Conclusions Our results suggested that long-term internet addiction would result in brain structural alterations, which probably contributed to chronic dysfunction in subjects with IAD. The current study may shed further light on the potential brain effects of IAD.

Regional homogeneity abnormalities in patients with interictal migraine without aura: a resting-state study.

Previous studies have provided evidence of structural and task‐related functional changes in the brains of patients with migraine without aura. Resting‐state brain activity in patients with migraine provides clues to the pathophysiology of the disease. However, few studies have focused on the resting‐state abnormalities in patients with migraine without aura. In the current study, we employed a data‐driven method, regional homogeneity (ReHo), to analyze the local features of spontaneous brain activity in patients with migraine without aura during the resting state. Twenty‐six patients with migraine without aura and 26 age‐, education‐ and gender‐matched healthy volunteers participated in this study. Compared with healthy controls, patients with migraine without aura showed a significant decrease in ReHo values in the right rostral anterior cingulate cortex (rACC), the prefrontal cortex (PFC), the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) and the supplementary motor area (SMA). In addition, we found that ReHo values were negatively correlated with the duration of disease in the right rACC and PFC. Our results suggest that the resting‐state abnormalities of these regions may be associated with functional impairments in pain processing in patients with migraine without aura. We hope that our results will improve the understanding of migraine. Copyright

Gray matter deficits and resting-state abnormalities in abstinent heroin-dependent individuals.

Previous neuroimaging studies have demonstrated both structural and functional damages in heroin-dependent individuals. However, few studies investigated gray matter deficits and abnormal resting-state networks together in heroin-dependent individuals. In the present study, voxel-based morphometry (VBM) was used to identify brain regions with gray matter density reduction. Resting-state fMRI connectivity analysis was employed to assess potential functional abnormalities during resting-state. All clinical significances were investigated by examining their association with duration of heroin use. Compared with healthy subjects, heroin-dependent individuals showed significant reduction in gray matter density in the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) and a decrease in resting-state functional connectivity between the right DLPFC and left inferior parietal lobe (IPL). The gray matter density of the right DLPFC and its resting-state functional connectivity with the left IPL both showed significantly negative correlation with duration of heroin use, which were likely to be related to the functional impairments in decision-making and cognitive control exhibited by heroin-dependent individuals. Our findings demonstrated that long heroin dependence impairs the right DLPFC in heroin-dependent individuals, including structural deficits and resting-state functional impairments.

Altered small-world brain functional networks and duration of heroin use in male abstinent heroin-dependent individuals

Although previous studies reported addiction-related alteration in resting-state brain connectivity, it is unclear whether these resting-state connectivity alterations were associated with chronic heroin use. In the current study, graph theory analysis (GTA) was applied to detect abnormal topological properties in heroin-dependent individuals. Several statistical parameters, such as degree (D), clustering coefficient (C) and shortest absolute path length (L), were included to test whether or not there was significant correlation between these parameters and the duration of heroin use. Our results demonstrated abnormal topological properties in several brain regions among our heroin-dependent subjects. Some of these regions are key areas of drug addiction-related circuits (control, reward, motivation/drive and memory), while others are involved in stress regulation. In addition, the duration of heroin use was positively correlated with the parameter D in the right parahippocampal gyrus, left putamen and bilateral cerebellum, but negatively correlated with the parameter L in the same regions. Our findings suggested that there is abnormal functional organization in heroin-dependent individuals and that the duration of heroin use is a critical factor leading to the altered brain connectivity.

Influence of Acupuncture Treatment on Cerebral Activity in Functional Dyspepsia Patients and Its Relationship With Efficacy

OBJECTIVES:Acupuncture is a commonly used therapy for treating functional dyspepsia (FD), although the mechanism remains unclear. The objectives of this study were to investigate the differences in cerebral glycometabolism changes evoked by acupuncture and sham acupuncture and to explore the possible correlations between brain responses and clinical efficacy.METHODS:In all, 72 FD patients were randomly assigned to receive either acupuncture or sham acupuncture treatment for 4 weeks. Ten patients in each group were randomly selected for fluorine-18 fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography computed tomography scans to detect cerebral glycometabolism changes. The Nepean Dyspepsia Index (NDI) and Symptom Index of Dyspepsia (SID) were used to evaluate the therapeutic effect.RESULTS:(i) The clinical data showed that after treatment the decrease in SID score in the acupuncture group was significantly greater than that in the sham acupuncture group (P<0.05). The increase in NDI score between the two groups did not differ (P>0.05), and only the improvement in NDI score in the acupuncture group was clinically significant. (ii) The neuroimaging data indicated that after treatment the acupuncture group showed extensive deactivation in cerebral activities compared with the sham acupuncture group. In the acupuncture group, the deactivations of the brainstem, anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), insula, thalamus, and hypothalamus were nearly all related to the decrease in SID score and the increase in NDI score (P<0.05, corrected). In the sham acupuncture group, the deactivations of the brainstem and thalamus tended to be associated with the increase in NDI score (P<0.1, corrected).CONCLUSIONS:Acupuncture and sham acupuncture have relatively different clinical efficacy and brain responses. Acupuncture treatment more significantly improves the symptoms and quality of life of FD patients. The more remarkable modulation on the homeostatic afferent network, including the insula, ACC, and hypothalamus, might be the specific mechanism of acupuncture.

Combining spatial and temporal information to explore resting-state networks changes in abstinent heroin-dependent individuals

Majority of previous heroin fMRI studies focused on abnormal brain function in heroin-dependent individuals. However, few fMRI studies focused on the resting-state abnormalities in heroin-dependent individuals and assessed the relationship between the resting-state functional connectivity changes and duration of heroin use. In the present study, discrete cosine transform (DCT) was employed to explore spatial distribution of low frequency BOLD oscillations in heroin-dependent individuals and healthy subjects during resting-state; meanwhile resting-state functional connectivity analysis was used to investigate the temporal signatures of overlapping brain regions obtained in DCT analysis among these two groups. Main finding of the present study is that the default mode network (DMN) and rostral anterior cingulate cortex (rACC) network of heroin-dependent individuals were changed compared with healthy subjects. More importantly, these changes negatively correlated with duration of heroin use. These resting-state functional abnormalities in heroin-dependent individuals provided evidence for abnormal functional organization in heroin-dependent individuals, such as functional impairments in decision-making and inhibitory control.

Axonal loss of white matter in migraine without aura: a tract-based spatial statistics study.

Aim Multiple diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) derived indices may help to deduce the pathophysiological type of white matter (WM) changes and provide more specific biomarkers of WM neuropathology in the whole brain of migraine patients without aura (MWoA). Methods Twenty MWoA and 20 age-, education- and gender-matched healthy volunteers participated in this study. Tract-based spatial statistics (TBSS) was employed to investigate the WM abnormalities in MWoA by integrating multiple indices, including fractional anisotropy (FA), mean diffusivity (MD), radial diffusivity (RD), and axial diffusivity (AD). Results Compared with healthy controls, MWoA showed significantly lower FA, MD and AD in multiple brain regions, whereas no difference in RD was observed. Specifically, the overlap among the lower FA, MD, and AD was found in the genu, body, and splenium part of the corpus callosum (CC), the right anterior limb of the internal capsule (ALIC) and the posterior limb of the internal capsule (PLIC) in MWoA compared with healthy controls. Additionally, some of the above WM findings were significantly correlated with duration and headache frequency in MWoA. Conclusion Given that decreased AD may suggest axonal loss, our findings may reveal axonal loss in MWoA.

Alterations in regional homogeneity assessed by fMRI in patients with migraine without aura stratified by disease duration.

BackgroundAdvanced neuroimaging approaches have been employed to prove that migraine was a central nervous system disorder. This study aims to examine resting-state abnormalities in migraine without aura (MWoA) patients stratified by disease duration, and to explore the neuroimaging markers for reflecting the disease duration.Methods40 eligible MWoA patients and 20 matched healthy volunteers were included in the study. Regional homogeneity (ReHo) analysis was used to identify the local features of spontaneous brain activity in MWoA patients stratified by disease duration, and analysis was performed to investigate the correlation of overlapped brain dysfunction in MWoA patients with different disease duration (long-term and short-term) and course of disease.ResultsCompared with healthy controls, MWoA patients with long-term disease duration showed comprehensive neuronal dysfunction than patients with short-term disease duration. In addition, increased average ReHo values in the thalamus, brain stem, and temporal pole showed significantly positive correlations with the disease duration. On the contrary, ReHo values were negatively correlated with the duration of disease in the anterior cingulate cortex, insula, posterior cingulate cortex and superior occipital gyrus.ConclusionsOur findings of progressive brain damage in relation to increasing disease duration suggest that migraine without aura is a progressive central nervous disease, and the length of the disease duration was one of the key reasons to cause brain dysfunction in MwoA patients. The repeated migraine attacks over time result in resting-state abnormalities of selective brain regions belonging to the pain processing and cognition. We predict that these brain regions are sensitive neuroimaging markers for reflecting the disease duration of migraine patients without aura.

Gender-Related Differences in the Dysfunctional Resting Networks of Migraine Suffers

Background Migraine shows gender-specific incidence and has a higher prevalence in females. However, little is known about gender-related differences in dysfunctional brain organization, which may account for gender-specific vulnerability and characteristics of migraine. In this study, we considered gender-related differences in the topological property of resting functional networks. Methodology/Principal Findings Data was obtained from 38 migraine patients (18 males and 20 females) and 38 healthy subjects (18 males and 20 females). We used the graph theory analysis, which becomes a powerful tool in investigating complex brain networks on a whole brain scale and could describe functional interactions between brain regions. Using this approach, we compared the brain functional networks between these two groups, and several network properties were investigated, such as small-worldness, network resilience, nodal centrality, and interregional connections. In our findings, these network characters were all disrupted in patients suffering from chronic migraine. More importantly, these functional damages in the migraine-affected brain had a skewed balance between males and females. In female patients, brain functional networks showed worse resilience, more regions exhibited decreased nodal centrality, and more functional connections revealed abnormalities than in male patients. Conclusions These results indicated that migraine may have an additional influence on females and lead to more dysfunctional organization in their resting functional networks.

Impact of Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor Val66Met Polymorphism on Cortical Thickness and Voxel-Based Morphometry in Healthy Chinese Young Adults

Background Following voxel-based morphometry (VBM), brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) Val66Met polymorphism (rs6265) has been shown to affect human brain morphology in Caucasians. However, little is known about the specific role of the Met/Met genotype on brain structure. Moreover, the relationship between BDNF Val66Met polymorphism and Chinese brain morphology has not been studied. Methodology/Principal Findings The present study investigated brain structural differences among three genotypes of BDNF (rs6265) for the first time in healthy young Chinese adults via cortical thickness analysis and VBM. Brain differences in Met carriers using another grouping method (combining Val/Met and Met/Met genotypes into a group of Met carriers as in most previous studies) were also investigated using VBM. Dual-approach analysis revealed less gray matter (GM) in the frontal, temporal, cingulate and insular cortices in the Met/Met group compared with the Val/Val group (corrected, P<0.05). Areas with less GM in the Val/Met group were included in the Met/Met group. VBM differences in Met carriers were only found in the middle cingulate cortex. Conclusions/Significance The current results indicated a unique pattern of brain morphologic differences caused by BDNF (rs6265) in young Chinese adults, in which the Met/Met genotype markedly affected the frontal, temporal, cingulate, and insular regions. The grouping method with Met carriers was not suitable to detect the genetic effect of BDNF Val66Met polymorphism on brain morphology, at least in the Chinese population, because it may hide some specific roles of Met/Met and Val/Met genotypes on brain structure.