Abnormal Resting-state Functional Connectivity of Amygdala in Adults with Insomnia Disorder
Poster No:
1885
Submission Type:
Abstract Submission
Authors:
Tiantian Liu1, Xia Liu1, Zhizhong Jiang1, Wenzhao Deng1, Huihui Niu1, Hongyimei Liu1, Zhongyin Liang1, Xian Shi2, Ruiwang Huang1
Institutions:
1School of Psychology, Key Laboratory of Brain, South China Normal University, Guangzhou, Guangdong, 2Department of Psychiatry, The First Affiliated Hospital of Jinan University, Guangzhou, Guangdong
First Author:
Tiantian Liu
School of Psychology, Key Laboratory of Brain, South China Normal University
Guangzhou, Guangdong
School of Psychology, Key Laboratory of Brain, South China Normal University
Guangzhou, Guangdong
Co-Author(s):
Xia Liu
School of Psychology, Key Laboratory of Brain, South China Normal University
Guangzhou, Guangdong
School of Psychology, Key Laboratory of Brain, South China Normal University
Guangzhou, Guangdong
Zhizhong Jiang
School of Psychology, Key Laboratory of Brain, South China Normal University
Guangzhou, Guangdong
School of Psychology, Key Laboratory of Brain, South China Normal University
Guangzhou, Guangdong
Wenzhao Deng
School of Psychology, Key Laboratory of Brain, South China Normal University
Guangzhou, Guangdong
School of Psychology, Key Laboratory of Brain, South China Normal University
Guangzhou, Guangdong
Huihui Niu
School of Psychology, Key Laboratory of Brain, South China Normal University
Guangzhou, Guangdong
School of Psychology, Key Laboratory of Brain, South China Normal University
Guangzhou, Guangdong
Hongyimei Liu
School of Psychology, Key Laboratory of Brain, South China Normal University
Guangzhou, Guangdong
School of Psychology, Key Laboratory of Brain, South China Normal University
Guangzhou, Guangdong
Zhongyin Liang
School of Psychology, Key Laboratory of Brain, South China Normal University
Guangzhou, Guangdong
School of Psychology, Key Laboratory of Brain, South China Normal University
Guangzhou, Guangdong
Xian Shi
Department of Psychiatry, The First Affiliated Hospital of Jinan University
Guangzhou, Guangdong
Department of Psychiatry, The First Affiliated Hospital of Jinan University
Guangzhou, Guangdong
Ruiwang Huang
School of Psychology, Key Laboratory of Brain, South China Normal University
Guangzhou, Guangdong
School of Psychology, Key Laboratory of Brain, South China Normal University
Guangzhou, Guangdong
Introduction:
Insomnia disorder (ID) is a common sleep disorder that significantly affects individuals' daily life. Previous neuroimaging studies in ID patients showed abnormal functional activity in brain regions associated with emotional regulation (Lancel et al., 2021), including the insula (Xu et al., 2024) and thalamus (Zhao et al., 2023). The amygdala plays crucial role in processing and memorizing emotional information, as well as generating responses (Phelps & LeDoux, 2005). However, it is still unclear how the brain functional connectivity of amygdala affects the ID patients. An overactive amygdala may lead to the increase of sensitivity to sleep-related stimuli, thereby contributing to alertness in individuals with insomnia (Kweon et al., 2023). Therefore, the current study aims to reveal the properties of the resting-state functional connectivity (RSFC) of the amygdala with cortical regions in individuals with insomnia.
Methods:
Subjects: We recruited 62 patients with insomnia disorder (ID, 21M/41F, age = 32.44 ± 8.831 years) and 51 healthy controls (HC, 16M/35F, age = 29.65 ± 8.669 years) from the First Affiliated Hospital of Jinan University (FAHJU). The severity of insomnia was assessed using the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI). The study was approved by the Institutional Review Board (IRB) of the FAHJU. All subjects provided written informed consent before the study.
Data acquisition: All MRI data were acquired on a GE 3T MR scanner in FAHJU. The rs-fMRI data were obtained using a GE-EPI sequence. In addition, the high resolution brain anatomical images were acquired using a T1-weighed 3D BRAVO sequence. For each subject, all the data were obtained in the same session.
Data preprocessing: The rs-fMRI and anatomical data were preprocessed using SPM12 and CONN (ver 22.a) (Whitfield-Gabrieli & Nieto-Castanon, 2012). The steps were as follows: realignment with correction of susceptibility distortion interactions, slice-timing correction, outlier detection, direct segmentation and MNI-space normalization, and smoothing. Confounding effects (e.g., head motion, signals of white matter and CSF) were regressed out, and the functional data were bandpass filtered ( 0.008-0.09 Hz). We selected the bilateral amygdala as seeds to measure its RSFC in the whole brain. Finally, we conducted the group-level analysis to estimate the patterns of RSFC in the ID group and controls. A two sample t-test was used to detect the significant abnormal RSFC of the amygdala in the patients.
Data acquisition: All MRI data were acquired on a GE 3T MR scanner in FAHJU. The rs-fMRI data were obtained using a GE-EPI sequence. In addition, the high resolution brain anatomical images were acquired using a T1-weighed 3D BRAVO sequence. For each subject, all the data were obtained in the same session.
Data preprocessing: The rs-fMRI and anatomical data were preprocessed using SPM12 and CONN (ver 22.a) (Whitfield-Gabrieli & Nieto-Castanon, 2012). The steps were as follows: realignment with correction of susceptibility distortion interactions, slice-timing correction, outlier detection, direct segmentation and MNI-space normalization, and smoothing. Confounding effects (e.g., head motion, signals of white matter and CSF) were regressed out, and the functional data were bandpass filtered ( 0.008-0.09 Hz). We selected the bilateral amygdala as seeds to measure its RSFC in the whole brain. Finally, we conducted the group-level analysis to estimate the patterns of RSFC in the ID group and controls. A two sample t-test was used to detect the significant abnormal RSFC of the amygdala in the patients.
Results:
The RSFC of the amygdala was significantly altered in the ID patients compared to the controls. The right amygdala showed significant higher RSFC with the bilateral lateral occipital cortex, bilateral angular gyrus, precuneus, right middle temporal gyrus and right supramarginal gyrus, and lower RSFC with the right precentral gyrus, right postcentral gyrus right, supplementary motor cortex and right superior parietal lobule, in the patients than the controls. The left amygdala also showed higher RSFC with the right inferior frontal gyrus, right middle frontal gyrus and right frontal pole in the insomnia patients than the controls. The detailed information for these clusters is listed in Table 1.
Conclusions:
We selected the bilateral amygdala as seeds, performed a seed-based RSFC, and revealed the alternation of RSFC in the insomnia patients compared to healthy controls. We found that insomnia disorder is characterized by the altered functional connectivity in brain functional networks involving in attention, self-referential thinking, and emotional processing. The increased RSFC between the amygdala with the visual, cognitive, and frontal regions may reflect heightened arousal and emotional dysregulation, and the decreased RSFC between the amygdala and sensorimotor regions may indicate the disrupted emotion regulation and sensory processing. The findings provide insights into the underlying mechanisms of insomnia.
Modeling and Analysis Methods:
Connectivity (eg. functional, effective, structural) 2
Novel Imaging Acquisition Methods:
BOLD fMRI 1
Keywords:
FUNCTIONAL MRI
Sleep
1|2Indicates the priority used for review
Abstract Information
By submitting your proposal, you grant permission for the Organization for Human Brain Mapping (OHBM) to distribute your work in any format, including video, audio print and electronic text through OHBM OnDemand, social media channels, the OHBM website, or other electronic publications and media.
The Open Science Special Interest Group (OSSIG) is introducing a reproducibility challenge for OHBM 2025. This new initiative aims to enhance the reproducibility of scientific results and foster collaborations between labs. Teams will consist of a “source” party and a “reproducing” party, and will be evaluated on the success of their replication, the openness of the source work, and additional deliverables. Click here for more information. Propose your OHBM abstract(s) as source work for future OHBM meetings by selecting one of the following options:
Please indicate below if your study was a "resting state" or "task-activation” study.
Healthy subjects only or patients (note that patient studies may also involve healthy subjects):
Was this research conducted in the United States?
Were any human subjects research approved by the relevant Institutional Review Board or ethics panel? NOTE: Any human subjects studies without IRB approval will be automatically rejected.
Were any animal research approved by the relevant IACUC or other animal research panel? NOTE: Any animal studies without IACUC approval will be automatically rejected.
Please indicate which methods were used in your research:
Provide references using APA citation style.
Xu, M., Li, B., Wang, S., Chen, C., Liu, Z., Ji, Y., ... & Niu, Y. (2024). The brain in chronic insomnia and anxiety disorder: a combined structural and functional fMRI study. Frontiers in Psychiatry, 15, 1364713.
Zhao, B., Bi, Y., Chen, Y., Zhang, J., Zhang, S., Zhang, D., & Rong, P. (2023). Altered functional connectivity of the thalamus in patients with insomnia disorder after transcutaneous auricular vagus nerve stimulation therapy. Frontiers in Neurology, 14, 1164869.
Phelps, E. A., & LeDoux, J. E. (2005). Contributions of the amygdala to emotion processing: from animal models to human behavior. Neuron, 48(2), 175-187.
Kweon, W., Lee, K. H., Choi, S. H., Shin, J., Seo, M., Jeon, J. E., ... & Lee, Y. J. (2023). Amygdala resting-state functional connectivity alterations in patients with chronic insomnia disorder: correlation with electroencephalography beta power during sleep. Sleep, 46(10), zsad205.
Whitfield-Gabrieli, S., & Nieto-Castanon, A. (2012). Conn: a functional connectivity toolbox for correlated and anticorrelated brain networks. Brain connectivity, 2(3), 125-141.