title: Functional magnetic resonance imaging study reveals differences in the habituation to psychological stress in patients with Crohn's disease versus healthy controls.
abstract: In patients with Crohn's disease (CD) stress is believed to increase the incidence of disease relapse. The brain processes stressful stimuli and triggers the stress-evoked responses. Habituation to stress is an adaptive process that allows minimizing these responses. We hypothesized inadequate habituation to stress in CD patients. The aim of this study was to compare the neural habituation between CD patients and controls. Twenty CD patients and eighteen controls underwent a functional magnetic resonance imaging while performing two repeated runs of a stress-evoking task. The task elicited different neural activity between the groups across runs in (1) amygdala, hippocampus, (2) insula, putamen (3) cerebellar regions, suggesting altered habituation to stress in patients. These structures regulate the neuroendocrine and autonomic stress-evoked responses that control the proinflammatory responses. The inadequate habituation to stress that we found in patients could play a role in the relationship between stress and inflammatory exacerbations in CD.
authors: Department of Psychology, University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy. alessandro.furey@tiscali.it
authors: Alessandro
authors: A
authors: Agostini
authors: Nicola
authors: N
authors: Filippini
authors: Francesca
authors: F
authors: Benuzzi
authors: Angela
authors: A
authors: Bertani
authors: Antonella
authors: A
authors: Scarcelli
authors: Chiara
authors: C
authors: Leoni
authors: Valentina
authors: V
authors: Farinelli
authors: Donatella
authors: D
authors: Riso
authors: Rosy
authors: R
authors: Tambasco
authors: Carlo
authors: C
authors: Calabrese
authors: Fernando
authors: F
authors: Rizzello
authors: Paolo
authors: P
authors: Gionchetti
authors: Mauro
authors: M
authors: Ercolani
authors: Paolo
authors: P
authors: Nichelli
authors: Massimo
authors: M
authors: Campieri
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001921:Brain / Q000503:physiopathology*; D003424:Crohn Disease / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D059907:Functional Neuroimaging; D006185:Habituation, Psychophysiologic / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000503:physiopathology*