Somatization severity associated with postero-medial complex structures

TY - JOUR

T1 - Somatization severity associated with postero-medial complex structures

AU - Lemche, Erwin

AU - Giampietro, Vincent P.

AU - Brammer, Michael J.

AU - Surguladze, Simon A.

AU - Williams, Steven C. R.

AU - Phillips, Mary

PY - 2013/1/7

Y1 - 2013/1/7

N2 - Somatisation is a frequent problem in various psychiatric disorders, yet the cerebral mechanisms of somatisation remain unexamined. To test if somatisation is susceptible to emotional states, we investigated relationships between somatisation severity, neural effective connectivity, and autonomic responses to emotional facial expressions. Volunteering participants (N = 20) were presented with facial expressions of happy and sad emotion at three intensity levels (0%-50%-100%) in a fast implicit ER-fMRI design with concurrent derivation of skin conductance levels (SCL). Self-reported somatisation severity as assessed with Rief's SOMS-2 index was correlated with neural response controlling for other clinical traits to ascertain brain bases of somatisation. Regression analyses estimated effective connectivity of main clusters so determined with peripheral autonomic responses. Regions in which magnitude of activity correlated with somatisation severity consisted in both happy and sad conditions of the anterior ventral precuneus (BA7), along with posterior cingulate gyrus (PCC, BA23, sad condition) and anteromedial thalamus (happy condition).

AB - Somatisation is a frequent problem in various psychiatric disorders, yet the cerebral mechanisms of somatisation remain unexamined. To test if somatisation is susceptible to emotional states, we investigated relationships between somatisation severity, neural effective connectivity, and autonomic responses to emotional facial expressions. Volunteering participants (N = 20) were presented with facial expressions of happy and sad emotion at three intensity levels (0%-50%-100%) in a fast implicit ER-fMRI design with concurrent derivation of skin conductance levels (SCL). Self-reported somatisation severity as assessed with Rief's SOMS-2 index was correlated with neural response controlling for other clinical traits to ascertain brain bases of somatisation. Regression analyses estimated effective connectivity of main clusters so determined with peripheral autonomic responses. Regions in which magnitude of activity correlated with somatisation severity consisted in both happy and sad conditions of the anterior ventral precuneus (BA7), along with posterior cingulate gyrus (PCC, BA23, sad condition) and anteromedial thalamus (happy condition).

KW - SYSTEMS

KW - SOMATOFORM DISORDERS

KW - BRAIN

KW - FACIAL EXPRESSIONS

KW - MAJOR DEPRESSIVE DISORDER

KW - SEROTONIN

KW - SYMPTOMS

KW - NETWORKS

U2 - 10.1038/srep01032

DO - 10.1038/srep01032

M3 - Article

C2 - 23301153

VL - 3

JO - Scientific Reports

JF - Scientific Reports

M1 - 1032

ER -