title: Aberrant Functional Connectivity between the Amygdala and the Temporal Pole in Drug-Free Generalized Anxiety Disorder.
abstract: The amygdala and the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) play important roles in "emotion dysregulation," which has a profound impact on etiologic research of generalized anxiety disorder (GAD). The present study analyzed both eyes-open and eyes-closed resting state functional MRI (rs-fMRI) of 43 subjects (21 GAD patients with medicine free and 22 matched healthy controls). The amygdala and the DLPFC were defined as regions of interest (ROI) to analyze functional connectivity (FC) in GAD patients compared with healthy controls. The main findings revealed GAD patients had increased FC between the amygdala and the temporal pole compared to healthy controls, which was found in both eyes-open and eyes-closed rs-fMRI. And altered FC between the ROIs and brain regions that mainly belonged to the default mode network (DMN) were found. These findings suggest that the abnormal FC between the amygdala and the temporal pole may contribute to the pathophysiology of GAD, and provide insights into the current understanding of the emotion dysregulation of anxiety disorders.
authors.affiliation: Shanghai Key Laboratory of Psychotic Disorders, Shanghai Mental Health Center, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine Shanghai, China.
authors.forename: Wei
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Shanghai Key Laboratory of Psychotic Disorders, Shanghai Mental Health Center, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine Shanghai, China.
authors.forename: Huiru
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Cui
authors.affiliation: Shanghai Key Laboratory of Psychotic Disorders, Shanghai Mental Health Center, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine Shanghai, China.
authors.forename: Zhipei
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Zhu
authors.affiliation: College of Education, Shanghai Normal University Shanghai, China.
authors.forename: Li
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Kong
authors.affiliation: Shanghai Key Laboratory of Psychotic Disorders, Shanghai Mental Health Center, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine Shanghai, China.
authors.forename: Qian
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Guo
authors.affiliation: Shanghai Key Laboratory of Psychotic Disorders, Shanghai Mental Health Center, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine Shanghai, China.
authors.forename: Yikang
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zhu
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Qiqihar Mental Health Center Qiqihar, China.
authors.forename: Qiang
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Hu
authors.affiliation: Guangji Hospital of Suzhou Suzhou, China.
authors.forename: Lanlan
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Shanghai Key Laboratory of Psychotic Disorders, Shanghai Mental Health Center, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine Shanghai, China.
authors.forename: Hui
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Tongji Hospital of Tongji University Shanghai, China.
authors.forename: Qingwei
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Shanghai Key Laboratory of Psychotic Disorders, Shanghai Mental Health Center, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine Shanghai, China.
authors.forename: Jiangling
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Jiang
authors.affiliation: Nathan S. Kline Institute for Psychiatric Research New York, NY, USA.
authors.forename: Jordan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Meyers
authors.affiliation: Shanghai Key Laboratory of Magnetic Resonance, Department of Physics, East China Normal University Shanghai, China.
authors.forename: Jianqi
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Shanghai Key Laboratory of Psychotic Disorders, Shanghai Mental Health Center, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of MedicineShanghai, China; Key Laboratory for the Genetics of Developmental and Neuropsychiatric Disorders, Bio-X Institutes, Ministry of Education, Shanghai Jiao Tong UniversityShanghai, China; Brain Science and Technology Research Center, Shanghai Jiao Tong UniversityShanghai, China.
authors.forename: Jijun
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: CAS Key Laboratory of Behavioral Science and MRI Research Center, Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Zhi
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.affiliation: Shanghai Key Laboratory of Psychotic Disorders, Shanghai Mental Health Center, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of MedicineShanghai, China; Key Laboratory for the Genetics of Developmental and Neuropsychiatric Disorders, Bio-X Institutes, Ministry of Education, Shanghai Jiao Tong UniversityShanghai, China; Brain Science and Technology Research Center, Shanghai Jiao Tong UniversityShanghai, China.
authors.forename: Chunbo
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Li
keywords: DLPFC; DMN; amygdala; functional connectivity; generalized anxiety disorder; temporal pole