Metabolic mapping reveals sex-dependent involvement of default mode and salience network in alexithymia.
Alexithymia, a personality construct marked by difficulties in processing one's emotions, has been linked to the altered activity in the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC). Although longitudinal studies reported sex differences in alexithymia, what mediates them is not known. To investigate sex-specific associations of alexithymia and neuronal markers, we mapped metabolites in four brain regions involved differentially in emotion processing using a point-resolved spectroscopy MRS sequence in 3 Tesla. Both sexes showed negative correlations between alexithymia and N-acetylaspartate (NAA) in pregenual ACC (pgACC). Women showed a robust negative correlation of the joint measure of glutamate and glutamine (Glx) to NAA in posterior cingulate cortex (PCC), whereas men showed a weak positive association of Glx to NAA in dorsal ACC (dACC). Our results suggest that lowered neuronal integrity in pgACC, a region of the default mode network (DMN), might primarily account for the general difficulties in emotional processing in alexithymia. Association of alexithymia in women extends to another region in the DMN-PCC, while in men a region in the salience network (SN) was involved. These observations could be representative of sex specific regulation strategies that include diminished internal evaluation of feelings in women and cognitive emotion suppression in men.
Clinical Affective Neuroimaging Laboratory, Magdeburg, Germany Leibniz Institute for Neurobiology, Magdeburg, Germany.
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Colic
Clinical Affective Neuroimaging Laboratory, Magdeburg, Germany Department of Neurology, Otto von Guericke University of Magdeburg, Magdeburg, Germany.
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Demenescu
Clinical Affective Neuroimaging Laboratory, Magdeburg, Germany Department of Neurology, Otto von Guericke University of Magdeburg, Magdeburg, Germany.
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Li
Department of Neurology, Otto von Guericke University of Magdeburg, Magdeburg, Germany.
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Kaufmann
Clinical Affective Neuroimaging Laboratory, Magdeburg, Germany Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Otto von Guericke University of Magdeburg, Magdeburg, Germany.
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Krause
Leibniz Institute for Neurobiology, Magdeburg, Germany Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Otto von Guericke University of Magdeburg, Magdeburg, Germany Institute for Cognitive Neurology and Dementia Research (IKND), Magdeburg, Germany.
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Metzger
Clinical Affective Neuroimaging Laboratory, Magdeburg, Germany Leibniz Institute for Neurobiology, Magdeburg, Germany Department of Neurology, Otto von Guericke University of Magdeburg, Magdeburg, Germany Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Otto von Guericke University of Magdeburg, Magdeburg, Germany Center for Behavioral Brain Sciences, Magdeburg, Germany martin.walter@med.ovgu.de.
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Walter
D000328:Adult; D000342:Affective Symptoms / Q000378:metabolism / Q000503:physiopathology*; D001224:Aspartic Acid / Q000031:analogs & derivatives / Q000378:metabolism; D001931:Brain Mapping; D004644:Emotions / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D018698:Glutamic Acid / Q000378:metabolism; D006179:Gyrus Cinguli / Q000378:metabolism / Q000503:physiopathology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009415:Nerve Net / Q000378:metabolism / Q000503:physiopathology*; D012727:Sex Characteristics
D001224:Aspartic Acid; D018698:Glutamic Acid; C000179:N-acetylaspartate
alexithymia; anterior cingulate cortex (ACC); magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS); sex differences