The emotional brain: Combining insights from patients and basic science
Howard J. Rosen, Robert W. Levenson in Neurocase, 2020
The medial frontal regions, especially the anterior cingulate cortex, also play a role in emotion. Similar to the amygdala, these regions are active during viewing of emotional faces in fMRI studies (Phan et al., 2002), and during tasks where decisions are in part mediated by the emotional content of the stimulus (Bush et al., 2000). Researchers often distinguish between the more dorsal portion the anterior cingulate cortex, which is thought to play an important role in monitoring of cognitive processing, and the more ventral anterior cingulate, which appears to subserve monitoring of internal sensations related to emotional functions (Vogt et al., 2003). Lesions to ventral and medial frontal regions impair recognition of emotions (Hornak et al., 2003). As will be discussed below, the anterior cingulate also plays an important role in mediating reactions to emotional stimuli.
Principles of cognitive rehabilitation in TBI: An integrative neuroscience approach
Mark J. Ashley, David A. Hovda in Traumatic Brain Injury, 2017
The orbitofrontal circuit has two parallel subcircuits (i.e. lateral and medial). The hallmark of dysfunction in the circuit is personality change. Notable difficulties include irritability, emotional ability, inappropriate responses to social cues, lack of empathy, as well as acquired obsessive-compulsive disorder. …Individuals with damage to the circuit can often perform normally on EF measures. The anterior cingulate circuit generally mediates motivated behaviour and damage typically resulting in an apathetic syndrome. Bilateral lesions may result in akinetic mutism. Symptoms of dysfunction to the anterior cingulate circuit include poverty of spontaneous speech, poor response inhibition, reduced creative thought, and indifference to pain. The dorsolateral prefrontal circuit is the one most closely associated with executive functioning. Damage to the circuit may result in poor organizational strategies, poor memory search strategies, impaired set shifting in maintenance, as well as stimulus bound behaviour and environmental dependency.245
Neuroanatomy and Brain Perfusion in Functional Somatic Syndromes
Peter Manu in The Psychopathology of Functional Somatic Syndromes, 2020
Compared with data obtained in the healthy control group, the severity of pain and the expanse of the painful abdominal surface produced by a 55-mm Hg rectal distention were significantly higher in the irritable bowel syndrome group. Rectal distention produced significant activation of the four brain regions of interest in both groups. In patients with irritable bowel syndrome, but not in the control subjects, the 55-mm Hg (i.e., painful) rectal distention produced greater regional cerebral activation in the anterior cingulate cortex and thalamus than a 30-mm Hg distention. The phenomenon remained constant throughout the series of four distensions at 55 mm Hg, suggesting lack of sensitization or anticipatory response to pain. In the irritable bowel group, the subjective rating of pain severity did not correlate with the degree of cerebral activation. In contrast, the activation of the anterior cingulate cortex correlated significantly with the pain perceptions of the healthy control subjects.
Structural brain changes in first episode mania with and without psychosis: Data from the Systematic Treatment Optimization Program for Early Mania (STOP-EM)
Published in The World Journal of Biological Psychiatry, 2018
Kamyar Keramatian, Taj Dhanoa, Alexander McGirr, Donna J. Lang, William G. Honer, Raymond W. Lam, Lakshmi N. Yatham
The results of VBM analysis showed that, in comparison with healthy subjects, bipolar I patients with psychosis (including both mood-congruent and mood-incongruent psychosis) had a significant decrease in grey matter volume in a rather large cluster (extend = 1610 voxels) encompassing bilateral anterior cingulate and adjacent medial prefrontal cortices (P < .05, family-wise error corrected at the cluster level; Table 2 and Figure 2). No area of significant grey matter volume increase was found in bipolar I patients with psychosis compared to healthy subjects. The comparison of patients without psychosis to healthy subjects did not reveal any area of significant grey matter volume decrease or increase even when we applied a more lenient statistical threshold (P < .001, uncorrected). The results of the confirmatory region of interest analysis of anatomically defined anterior cingulate cortex are shown in Figure 3. Groups were not significantly different in right and left anterior cingulate volumes.
Nitric oxide modulates cognitive, nociceptive and motor functions in a rat model of empathy
Published in International Journal of Neuroscience, 2020
Fatemeh Mohammadi, Meysam Ahmadi-Zeidabadi, Masoud Nazeri, Asghar Ghasemi, Mohammad Shabani
It has already been demonstrated that observing another person in pain leads to the activation of brain regions responsible for processing of the affective component of pain in human. One of these areas is anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) which is involved in emotional regulation, executive function and pain perception [7]. Human imaging studies have also unraveled an important role for the ACC and insular cortex in the empathy process [8]. In addition, animal studies have also demonstrated that even rats showed prosocial empathic behaviors to help each other while seeing a conspecific in distress condition or in pain[1,5,9]. Langford et al. demonstrated that observation of pain in another mice leads to alterations in the sensory modulation of pain and a reduced threshold to noxious stimuli is observed in the mice that observed other mice in pain [10]. Besides that, results of another study showed that both sensory and affective aspects of pain significantly changed following observation of cagemate in pain, which means that in addition to sensory changes following empathic pain, more complex cognitive functions had also been affected by empathy [11]. Furthermore, it has been reported that observing pain in a conspecific leads to anxiety-like behavior and hypernociception in animals [12]. Unfortunately, the molecular mechanisms of empathic pain have not been well understood so far, but the previous studies showed that several mechanisms are involved in pain such as nitric oxide (NO) system [13]. It is also shown that the NOS1 (nitric oxide synthesis 1) gene plays an important role in social behavior including empathy [14].
Intimate partner violence and brain imaging in women: A neuroimaging literature review
Published in Brain Injury, 2023
Jirapat Likitlersuang, David H. Salat, Catherine B. Fortier, Katherine M. Iverson, Kimberly B. Werner, Tara Galovski, Regina E. McGlinchey
A study by Seedat et al. (27) applied pMRS in women with IPV experience who were diagnosed with PTSD, women with IPV experience without PTSD, and women without any history of trauma (control). The study measured brain biomolecules including N-acetylaspartate (NAA), choline (Cho), and myo-inositol (mI) relative to creatine (Cr) in the anterior cingulate. The result reveals that individuals with IPV and PTSD had significantly higher Cho/Cr and mI/Cr than IPV without PTSD. The author speculates that the higher Cho/Cr is due to more severe gray matter atrophy in PTSD, which in turn increases the white matter volume and therefore contributes to higher Cho/Cr ratios. Furthermore, in subjects with PTSD high concentration of myo-inositol in astrocytes (a putative glial cell marker) are observed. This may be associated with cell proliferation. This therefore suggests a physical damage in brain integrity of the anterior cingulate. It should be noted that additional work is needed as no volumetric structural information is provided to support the hypothesis.