Abnormal Dynamic Functional Connectivity of the Left Rostral Hippocampus in Predicting Antidepressant Efficacy in Major Depressive Disorder

Objective@#Some pharmacological treatments are ineffective in parts of patients with major depressive disorder (MDD), hence this needs prediction of effective treatment responses. The study aims to examine the relationship between dynamic functional connectivity (dFC) of the hippocampal subregion and antidepressant improvement of MDD patients and to estimate the capability of dFC to predict antidepressant efficacy. @*Methods@#The data were from 70 MDD patients and 43 healthy controls (HC); the dFC of hippocampal subregions was estimated by sliding-window approach based on resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (R-fMRI). After 3 months treatment, 36 patients underwent second R-fMRI scan and were then divided into the response group and non-response group according to clinical responses. @*Results@#The result manifested that MDD patients exhibited lower mean dFC of the left rostral hippocampus (rHipp.l) compared with HC. After 3 months therapy, the response group showed lower dFC of rHipp.l compared with the non-response group. The dFC of rHipp.l was also negatively correlated with the reduction rate of Hamilton Depression Rating Scale. @*Conclusion@#These findings highlighted the importance of rHipp in MDD from the dFC perspective. Detection and estimation of these changes might demonstrate helpful for comprehending the pathophysiological mechanism and for assessment of treatment reaction of MDD.

Aberrant Effective Connectivity of the Ventral Putamen in Boys With Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder

Objective@#The connectivity alterations in the putamen were found in revealing the neural correlates of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), but whether the effective connectivity of the putamen is atypical in ADHD remains unclear. Investigating this abnormality contributes to describing the neural circuit of ADHD at the level of macrostructural organization. @*Methods@#Data were acquired from thirty-two boys with ADHD and fifty-two matched typically developing controls (TDC) from Peking University (Peking) dataset deposited at the Neuroimaging Informatics Tools and Resources Clearinghouse (NITRC) platform. We examined the effective connectivity of the putamen using Granger causality analysis (GCA) and then determined whether these connections could differentiate ADHD from TDC. @*Results@#Compared with TDC, the ADHD group showed decreased effective connectivity from the left ventral rostral putamen (VRP) to left calcarine (CAL), right medial part of the superior frontal gyrus, left orbital part of superior frontal gyrus and left middle occipital gyrus (MOG). Increased effective connectivity from the left inferior occipital gyrus and right lingual gyrus to left VRP was also found in ADHD. The result of the classification accuracy showed that 72.3% of participants were correctly classified using support vector machine. Moreover, GCA values from the left VRP to left CAL and left MOG were significantly correlated with hyper/impulsive scores of patients with ADHD. @*Conclusion@#The findings may help extend our understanding of the ADHD-related neural loops.

Aberrant Effective Connectivity of the Ventral Putamen in Boys With Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder

Objective@#The connectivity alterations in the putamen were found in revealing the neural correlates of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), but whether the effective connectivity of the putamen is atypical in ADHD remains unclear. Investigating this abnormality contributes to describing the neural circuit of ADHD at the level of macrostructural organization. @*Methods@#Data were acquired from thirty-two boys with ADHD and fifty-two matched typically developing controls (TDC) from Peking University (Peking) dataset deposited at the Neuroimaging Informatics Tools and Resources Clearinghouse (NITRC) platform. We examined the effective connectivity of the putamen using Granger causality analysis (GCA) and then determined whether these connections could differentiate ADHD from TDC. @*Results@#Compared with TDC, the ADHD group showed decreased effective connectivity from the left ventral rostral putamen (VRP) to left calcarine (CAL), right medial part of the superior frontal gyrus, left orbital part of superior frontal gyrus and left middle occipital gyrus (MOG). Increased effective connectivity from the left inferior occipital gyrus and right lingual gyrus to left VRP was also found in ADHD. The result of the classification accuracy showed that 72.3% of participants were correctly classified using support vector machine. Moreover, GCA values from the left VRP to left CAL and left MOG were significantly correlated with hyper/impulsive scores of patients with ADHD. @*Conclusion@#The findings may help extend our understanding of the ADHD-related neural loops.

Value of Thermal Tomography in Early Diagnosis of Breast Cancer in Animal Models / 中国医学科学院学报

To obtain ultrasound and thermal tomography images of breast cancer during its growth and to assess the value of thermal tomography in detecting breast cancer. Breast cancer models were established with NOD/SCID mice and SD rats. These animal models were examined by thermal tomography,plain ultrasound,and contrast-enhanced ultrasound. Tumor tissues were stained with CD34 to explore the relationship between tumor heat production and vascular pathology. Thermal tomography detected breast cancer 2-4 days earlier than ultrasound. The expression of CD34 in tumor tissues was increased,along with thickened,increased,and irregular blood vessels. Thermal tomography can detect early breast cancer and is a promising tool for screening breast cancer.

Intranasal Oxytocin Increases Perceptual Salienceof Faces in the Absence of Awareness

Objective@#The neuropeptide oxytocin has been found to improve human social cognition and promote prosocial behavior. However, itis still unclear about the mechanisms underlying these effects of oxytocin on neural processes, such as visual perception and awareness.Especially, it is still unclear whether oxytocin influences perceptual salience of social stimuli in the absence of awareness. @*Methods@#In a randomized double-blind, placebo-controlled trial we applied an interocular suppression paradigm and eye tracking @*methods@#to investigate the influence of intranasally administered oxytocin on perceptual salience of social stimuli. Suppression times andpupillometric data were measured during subjects being presented with gradually introduced pictures of social stimuli (neutral expressionfaces) or nonsocial stimuli (grayscale watch pictures) that were suppressed and invisible in 10 men who were administered 24 IU oxytocinand 10 men who were administered a placebo. @*Results@#The results demonstrated that the oxytocin group perceived social stimuli more quickly accompanied by subsequent larger increasingpupil diameter than nonsocial stimuli, indicating an increased unconscious salience of social stimuli. @*Conclusion@#These findings provided new insights into oxytocin’s modulatory role to social information processing, suggesting that oxytocinmight enhance attentional bias to social stimuli even after removal of awareness. Psychiatry Investig 2020;17(4):292-298

Spontaneous activity in medial orbitofrontal cortex correlates with trait anxiety in healthy male adults / 浙江大学学报（英文版）（B辑：生物医学和生物技术）

Medial orbitofrontal cortex (mOFC) abnormalities have been observed in various anxiety disorders. However, the relationship between mOFC activity and anxiety among the healthy population has not been fully examined. Here, we conducted a resting state functional magnetic resonance imaging (R-fMRI) study with 56 healthy male adults from the Nathan Kline Institute/Rockland Sample (NKI-RS) to examine the relationship between the fractional amplitude of low-frequency fluctuation (fALFF) signals and trait anxiety across the whole brain. A Louvain method for module detection based on graph theory was further employed in the automated functional subdivision to explore subregional correlates of trait anxiety. The results showed that trait anxiety was related to fALFF in the mOFC. Additionally, the resting-state functional connectivity (RSFC) between the right subregions of the mOFC and the precuneus was correlated with trait anxiety. These findings provided evidence about the involvement of the mOFC in anxiety processing among the healthy population.