Karen M. von Deneen

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.

FMRI connectivity analysis of acupuncture effects on an amygdala-associated brain network

BackgroundRecently, increasing evidence has indicated that the primary acupuncture effects are mediated by the central nervous system. However, specific brain networks underpinning these effects remain unclear.ResultsIn the present study using fMRI, we employed a within-condition interregional covariance analysis method to investigate functional connectivity of brain networks involved in acupuncture. The fMRI experiment was performed before, during and after acupuncture manipulations on healthy volunteers at an acupuncture point, which was previously implicated in a neural pathway for pain modulation. We first identified significant fMRI signal changes during acupuncture stimulation in the left amygdala, which was subsequently selected as a functional reference for connectivity analyses. Our results have demonstrated that there is a brain network associated with the amygdala during a resting condition. This network encompasses the brain structures that are implicated in both pain sensation and pain modulation. We also found that such a pain-related network could be modulated by both verum acupuncture and sham acupuncture. Furthermore, compared with a sham acupuncture, the verum acupuncture induced a higher level of correlations among the amygdala-associated network.ConclusionOur findings indicate that acupuncture may change this amygdala-specific brain network into a functional state that underlies pain perception and pain modulation.

Dysfunctional connectivity patterns in chronic heroin users: An fMRI study

Recent functional neuroimaging studies have examined cognitive inhibitory control, decision-making and stress regulation in heroin addiction using a cue-reactivity paradigm. Few studies have considered impairments in heroin users from an integrated perspective for evaluation of their brain functions. We hypothesized that the brain regions that are dysregulated in the chronic heroin users during cue-reactivity studies may also show dysfunctional connectivity in memory, inhibition and motivation-related dysfunctions during a resting state free of cues. The present study used resting functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to compare the interaction of brain regions between 12 chronic heroin users and 12 controls by employing a novel graph theory analysis (GTA) method. As a data-driven approach, GTA has the advantage of evaluating the strength as well as the temporal and spatial patterns of interactions among the brain regions. Abnormal topological properties were explored in the brain of chronic heroin users, such as the dysfunctional connectivity in the prefrontal cortex, ACC, SMA, ventral striatum, insula, amygdala and hippocampus. Our results suggest that GTA is a useful tool in defining dysregulated neural networks even during rest. This dysfunctional brain connectivity may contribute to decrease self-control, impaired inhibitory function as well deficits in stress regulation in chronic heroin users.

Intrinsic Brain Network Abnormalities in Migraines without Aura Revealed in Resting-State fMRI

Background Previous studies have defined low-frequency, spatially consistent intrinsic connectivity networks (ICN) in resting functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data which reflect functional interactions among distinct brain areas. We sought to explore whether and how repeated migraine attacks influence intrinsic brain connectivity, as well as how activity in these networks correlates with clinical indicators of migraine. Methods/Principal Findings Resting-state fMRI data in twenty-three patients with migraines without aura (MwoA) and 23 age- and gender-matched healthy controls (HC) were analyzed using independent component analysis (ICA), in combination with a “dual-regression” technique to identify the group differences of three important pain-related networks [default mode network (DMN), bilateral central executive network (CEN), salience network (SN)] between the MwoA patients and HC. Compared with the HC, MwoA patients showed aberrant intrinsic connectivity within the bilateral CEN and SN, and greater connectivity between both the DMN and right CEN (rCEN) and the insula cortex - a critical region involving in pain processing. Furthermore, greater connectivity between both the DMN and rCEN and the insula correlated with duration of migraine. Conclusions Our findings may provide new insights into the characterization of migraine as a condition affecting brain activity in intrinsic connectivity networks. Moreover, the abnormalities may be the consequence of a persistent central neural system dysfunction, reflecting cumulative brain insults due to frequent ongoing migraine attacks.

Structural and functional abnormalities in migraine patients without aura

Migraine is a primary headache disorder characterized by recurrent attacks of throbbing pain associated with neurological, gastrointestinal and autonomic symptoms. Previous studies have detected structural deficits and functional impairments in migraine patients. However, researchers have failed to investigate the functional connectivity alterations of regions with structural deficits during the resting state. Twenty‐one migraine patients without aura and 21 age‐ and gender‐matched healthy controls participated in our study. Voxel‐based morphometric (VBM) analysis and functional connectivity were employed to investigate the abnormal structural and resting‐state properties, respectively, in migraine patients without aura. Relative to healthy comparison subjects, migraine patients showed significantly decreased gray matter volume in five brain regions: the left medial prefrontal cortex (MPFC), dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC), right occipital lobe, cerebellum and brainstem. The gray matter volume of the dACC was correlated with the duration of disease in migraine patients, and thus we chose this region as the seeding area for resting‐state analysis. We found that migraine patients showed increased functional connectivity between several regions and the left dACC, i.e. the bilateral middle temporal lobe, orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) and left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC). Furthermore, the functional connectivity between the dACC and two regions (i.e. DLPFC and OFC) was correlated with the duration of disease in migraine patients. We suggest that frequent nociceptive input has modified the structural and functional patterns of the frontal cortex, and these changes may explain the functional impairments in migraine patients. Copyright

Time-varied characteristics of acupuncture effects in fMRI studies.

When studying the neural responses to acupuncture with a block‐designed paradigm, its temporal dynamics predicted by the general linear model (GLM) conforms to typical “on‐off” variations during a limited period of the experiment manipulation. Despite a lack of direct evidence associating its psychophysiological response, numerous clinical reports suggest that acupuncture can provide pain relief beyond a needling session. Therefore, a typical GLM analysis may be insensitive or inappropriate for identifying altered neural responses resulting from acupuncture. We developed a new approach to investigate the dynamics underlying sustained effects of acupuncture. Specifically, we designed two separate models to evaluate the baseline activities (prior to stimulation) and neural activities in sequential epochs, using three block‐designed functional runs: acupuncture at acupoint ST36, nonmeridian point (NMP) stimulation, and a visual task. We found that the activity patterns during rest were associated with the stimulus types and that the resting activities might be even higher than that of stimulation phases. Such effects of the elevated activity during rest may reduce or eliminate the activity during stimulus conditions or even reverse the sign of brain activation using conventional GLM analysis. Moreover, such sustained responses, followed by acupuncture at ST36 and NMP, exhibited distinct patterns in wide brain structures, particularly in the limbic system and brainstem. These findings may pose great implications for the design and interpretation of a range of acupuncture neuroimaging studies. Hum Brain Mapp, 2009.

Cortical Thickness Abnormalities in Late Adolescence with Online Gaming Addiction

Online gaming addiction, as the most popular subtype of Internet addiction, had gained more and more attention from the whole world. However, the structural differences in cortical thickness of the brain between adolescents with online gaming addiction and healthy controls are not well unknown; neither was its association with the impaired cognitive control ability. High-resolution magnetic resonance imaging scans from late adolescence with online gaming addiction (n = 18) and age-, education- and gender-matched controls (n = 18) were acquired. The cortical thickness measurement method was employed to investigate alterations of cortical thickness in individuals with online gaming addiction. The color-word Stroop task was employed to investigate the functional implications of the cortical thickness abnormalities. Imaging data revealed increased cortical thickness in the left precentral cortex, precuneus, middle frontal cortex, inferior temporal and middle temporal cortices in late adolescence with online gaming addiction; meanwhile, the cortical thicknesses of the left lateral orbitofrontal cortex (OFC), insula, lingual gyrus, the right postcentral gyrus, entorhinal cortex and inferior parietal cortex were decreased. Correlation analysis demonstrated that the cortical thicknesses of the left precentral cortex, precuneus and lingual gyrus correlated with duration of online gaming addiction and the cortical thickness of the OFC correlated with the impaired task performance during the color-word Stroop task in adolescents with online gaming addiction. The findings in the current study suggested that the cortical thickness abnormalities of these regions may be implicated in the underlying pathophysiology of online gaming addiction.

Food addiction and obesity: evidence from bench to bedside.

Abstract Obesity has become a major health problem and epidemic. However, much of the current debate has been fractious and etiologies of obesity have been attributed to eating behavior or fast food, personality issues, depression, addiction, or genetics. One of the interesting new hypotheses for epidemic obesity is food addiction, which is associated with both substance-related disorder and eating disorder. Accumulating evidences have shown that there are many shared neural and hormonal pathways as well as distinct differences that may help researchers find why certain individuals overeat and become obese. Functional neuroimaging studies have further revealed that good or great smelling, looking, tasting, and reinforcing food has characteristics similar to that of drugs of abuse. Many of the brain changes reported for hedonic eating and obesity are also seen in various forms of addictions. Most importantly, overeating and obesity may have an acquired drive like drug addiction with respect to motivation and incentive; craving, wanting, and liking occur after early and repeated exposures to stimuli. The acquired drive for great food and relative weakness of the satiety signal would cause an imbalance between the drive and hunger/reward centers in the brain and their regulation.

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.