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Brain functional changes in patients with ulcerative colitis
- Source :
- Inflammatory Bowel Diseases. 17:1769-1777
- Publication Year :
- 2011
- Publisher :
- Oxford University Press (OUP), 2011.
-
Abstract
- Ulcerative colitis (UC) is associated with psychological stress and poor emotional functioning. The neural emotional processing involves the complex integration of several cortical and subcortical brain structures. The amygdala plays a fundamental role in the neural processing of emotional stimuli and is a core structure of the brain-gut axis (BGA) that represents the anatomo-functional substrate for the bidirectional influences between emotions and gastrointestinal functions. The aim of this study was to investigate the brain emotional processing in UC patients compared to healthy people. METHODS: Ten UC patients in remission and 10 matched healthy controls underwent a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scan while performing a task involving emotional visual stimuli. A set of negative, positive, and neutral pictures were used to study brain-related emotional responses. RESULTS: A significantly reduced blood oxygen level-dependent (BOLD) signal in UC patients relative to controls was found in the amygdala, thalamic regions, and cerebellar areas (P < 0.05 corrected for multiple comparisons). The group-related differences were detected in the brain activity in response to positive emotional stimuli. CONCLUSIONS: UC is associated with an emotional dysfunction characterized by decreased sensitivity to emotions with a positive content. The previous intestinal inflammatory activity in UC patients might have contributed to determine the functional changes of the amygdala that we found. On the other hand, the dysfunction of the amygdala may influence the course of the disease.
- Subjects :
- Adult
Male
Neuropsychological Tests
Emotional processing
Brain mapping
Amygdala
Thalamus
Cerebellum
Neural Pathways
Humans
Immunology and Allergy
Medicine
Colitis
EMOTIONAL PROCESSING
Brain Mapping
BRAIN FUNCTIONAL CHANGES
Blood-oxygen-level dependent
medicine.diagnostic_test
Mood Disorders
business.industry
Gastroenterology
Magnetic resonance imaging
BRAIN-GUT AXIS
medicine.disease
Magnetic Resonance Imaging
Ulcerative colitis
AMYGDALA
EMOTIONS
medicine.anatomical_structure
ULCERATIVE COLITIS
FMRI
Colitis, Ulcerative
Female
business
Functional magnetic resonance imaging
Neuroscience
Subjects
Details
- ISSN :
- 10780998
- Volume :
- 17
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- Inflammatory Bowel Diseases
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi.dedup.....df93a25b60b9304fb49255133d8a8bcc