Neuropsychiatric Disease and Treatment (Jul 2020)

Altered Function of Superior Parietal Lobule Associated with Perceptive Awareness in First-Episode Drug-Naïve Panic Disorders: A Preliminary fMRI Study

  • Jin H,
  • Zhang B,
  • Cui H,
  • Li W,
  • Li H,
  • Hu Q,
  • Wang J,
  • Li C

Journal volume & issue
Vol. Volume 16
pp. 1653 – 1659

Abstract

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Haiyan Jin,1,2,* Bin Zhang,3,4,* Huiru Cui,1 Wei Li,1 Hui Li,1 Qiang Hu,1 Jijun Wang,1,5,6 Chunbo Li1,5,6 1Shanghai Key Laboratory of Psychotic Disorders, Shanghai Mental Health Center, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, People’s Republic of China; 2Rui Jin Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, People’s Republic of China; 3The Affiliated Brain Hospital of Guangzhou Medical University (Guangzhou Huiai Hospital), Guangzhou, People’s Republic of China; 4Guangdong Engineering Technology Research Center for Translational Medicine of Mental Disorders, Guangzhou, People’s Republic of China; 5Center for Excellence in Brain Science and Intelligence Technology (CEBSIT), Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, People’s Republic of China; 6Brain Science and Technology Research Center, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, People’s Republic of China*These authors contributed equally to this workCorrespondence: Chunbo LiShanghai Mental Health Center, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Wanpingnan Road 600, Shanghai 200030, People’s Republic of ChinaEmail [email protected] ZhangThe Affiliated Brain Hospital of Guangzhou Medical University (Guangzhou Huiai Hospital), Mingxin Road 35, Guangzhou 510370, People’s Republic of ChinaTel +862281268203Email [email protected]: Biased fear-related perception is one main characteristic in patients with panic disorder (PD) and their prominent cardiovascular symptoms associated with enhanced heartbeat perception.Patients and Methods: We investigated interoceptive perception in 18 first-onset drug-naïve PD patients and 21 age- and gender-matched healthy controls (HC). Moreover, we compared blood oxygen level-dependent (BOLD) responses between the two groups during a heartbeat perception (interoception) task to assess task-evoked activity and its relationship with heartbeat perception scores (HPSs).Results: We found that patients with PD compared to HCs revealed a trend higher but insignificant HPSs. Higher activity in the bilateral superior parietal lobule (SPL) was observed in PD patients compared to HCs during the perception of both heartbeats and pure tones compared to rest. Furthermore, patients with PD exhibited a significant positive correlation between BOLD activity in the left SPL during heartbeat > resting-state and HPS.Conclusion: Using a sample of first-episode drug-naïve patients, our study reports that patients with PD show altered activation in the bilateral SPL during both interoceptive and exteroceptive perception. The increased activation during interoceptive stimuli might render PD patients more engaged in processing information associated with their internal states.Keywords: panic disorder, MRI, perception, superior parietal lobule

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