【作者】 吴燕；

【导师】 蒋田仔；

【作者基本信息】 电子科技大学 ， 生物医学工程， 2016， 博士

【摘要】 情绪调节是个体对情绪知觉、体验和反应过程施加影响的一种能力。这种能力可以有效地帮助个体理解和调节情绪,对于个体的身心健康极为重要。而在个体对情绪的知觉、体验和反应的调节过程中存在极大的性别差异。这种性别差异可能是造成男女易患不同精神疾病或情绪障碍的关键原因。然而,对这种情绪调节性别差异的生理机制我们仍然知之甚少。前人研究发现情绪调节涉及两条脑网络环路,第一条体现为前额叶对负性情绪产生系统的抑制,前额叶活动增强,导致杏仁核、脑岛活动减弱,这种负相关关系与成功的情绪调节有关;第二条体现为前额叶对正性情绪的激发,前额叶活动增强,导致伏隔核活动增强,这种正相关关系与成功的情绪调节有关。因此,本论文采用静息态功能磁共振技术,基于杏仁核、脑岛和伏隔核等情绪相关脑区的更精细图谱,考察了性别与情绪调节能力相关的脑网络差异模式,探讨男女情绪调节能力个体差异背后的生理机制。本研究主要创新点如下：1.基于杏仁核精细分区的静息态功能连接模式,结果发现情绪调节能力相关的性别差异仅表现在中央内侧杏仁核(Centromedial, CM)相关的静息态功能网络上。女性更高的情绪调节能力主要与背侧前脑岛和颞上回与CM的功能连接增强有关；而男性更高的情绪调节能力主要与内侧额上回与CM的功能连接增强有关。2.基于脑岛精细分区的静息态功能连接模式,结果发现男女情绪调节能力相关的性别差异仅表现在背侧前脑岛相关的静息态功能网络上。女性情绪调节能力越强,腹内侧眶额皮层和右侧背侧前脑岛连接越强；男性情绪调节能力越强,外侧眶额皮层和左侧背侧前脑岛的连接越弱。3.利用脑网络组图谱(Brainnetome atlas)和静息态功能连接分析方法,研究了左右侧伏隔核与脑网络组图谱中其余244个脑区之间的功能连接是否存在情绪调节能力的性别差异。研究发现情绪调节能力越强的男性,其右侧伏隔核与右侧后扣带的连接越强：情绪调节能力越强的女性,其右侧伏隔核与颞中回、背侧前脑岛的连接越强,以及左侧伏隔核与右侧额下回和背侧前脑岛的连接越强。4.在情绪面孔识别任务中,高情绪调节能力的男性对于情绪信息的加工更加有效率,高情绪调节能力的女性对于情绪信息加工的时间更长,可能涉及更多精细加工;在情绪调节任务中,高情绪调节能力的女性对负性情绪的调节更有效,高情绪调节能力男性对正性情绪的调节更有效；高情绪调节能力的男性认知重评得分显著高于低情绪调节能力的男性,而高情绪调节能力的女性的表达抑制得分约低于低情绪调节能力的女性。综上,我们利用静息态功能连接的方法,基于情绪调节环路核心脑区的精细图谱,系统地研究了男女情绪调节能力在情绪相关脑网络上的表征,并在行为上验证了情绪调节能力不同的男女在情绪知觉和调节过程中的性别差异。静息态的研究发现情绪调节的性别差异主要表现在中央内侧杏仁核、背侧前脑岛和伏隔核相关的神经环路上,并且男女具有不同的神经环路。男性涉及到自上而下的认知描述评估系统(主要是内侧额上回和后扣带)对中央内侧杏仁核和伏隔核的调节,以及自上而下的结果评估系统(主要是外侧眶额皮层)对背侧前脑岛的调节；女性涉及到自上而下的结果评估系统(主要是右侧额下回)、自下而上的知觉评估系统(主要是颞上回和颞中回)与情感评估系统(主要是背侧前脑岛)对中央内侧杏仁核和伏隔核的调节,以及自上而下的结果评估系统(主要是腹内侧眶额皮层)对背侧前脑岛的调节有关。可见对情绪的调节,男性主要是自上而下的系统参与,女性不仅有自上而下的系统,还涉及更多自下而上的系统参与,这可能是行为研究中高情绪调节能力的男性对于情绪信息的加工比女性更加有效率的原因。该研究的发现能够帮助我们更好地理解男女情绪调节个体差异的表象以及背后的生理机制,有助于针对不同性别制定更有效的改善方案,以改善个体的情绪调节能力,为治疗和避免情绪失调为主要特征的相关精神疾病提供参考。更多还原

【Abstract】 Emotion regulation (ER) refers to the affective and cognitive processes by which the individual influence emotional perception, appraisal and response. An individual’s capacity for emotional regulation may relate to both healthy and pathological variations in general well-being and social behaviour. Numerous studies have demonstrated sex-related differencesin emotional perception, experience, response, and regulation. In particular, sex-related differences in emotional regulation could be an important factor for the divergence in vulnerability in neuropsychiatric disorders between men and women. However, the neural basis of sex differences in ER remains poorly understood. Previous studies have suggested that there are at least two separable pathways linking prefrontal cortical activities with reductions in negative emotion during reappraisal:one through the nucleus accumbens/ventral striatum (NAcc/VS), which may generate positive appraisals, and one through amygdala and insula, which may generate or enhance negative appraisals. Therefore, the current thesis mainly investigated the neural basis of sex differences in ER based on its connectivity patterns of the amygdala, insula and NAcc, respectively.The four major innovative works of this thesis are as follow:1. The first study examined the neural basis of sex-related differences in ER on the basis of amygdaloidal subregion and found that the sex-specific functional connectivity changes associated with ERlevel were only seeded in the centromedial amygdala (CM). Women with a higher ER score had stronger resting state functional connectivity (rsFC) between the right CM and the anterior insula (AI) and the superior temporal gyrus (STG). But the association between a higher ER score with stronger rsFC for men was identified between the right CM and the mdial superior frontal gyrus (mSFG)..2. The second study aimed to test sex-related alterations in the intrinsic functional connectivity of the insula subregions. We found that the sex-specific functional connectivity patterns associated with ER were only seeded in the dorsal anterior insula (dAI). Specifically, women with a higher ER score had a stronger rsFC between the right dAI and the ventromedial orbital frontal cortex (vmOFC), whereasmen with a higher ER score had a weaker rsFC between the left dAI and the lateral orbital frontal cortex (lOFC).3. The third study, using brainnetome atlas, investigated sex-related alterations in the intrinsic functional connectivity between the left and right NAcc and the other 244 brain areas. We found that men with a higher ER scores had a stronger rsFC between the right NAcc and the posterior cingulate cortex (PCC), whereas women with a higher ER scores was associated with stronger rsFC between the right NAcc and the posterior middle temporal gyrus(pMTG) and dorsal anterior insula(dAI), and also between the left NAcc and the right inferior frontal gyrus(IFG) and dAI..4. Finally, the laststudy in current thesis aimed to examine sex-related difference in the behavioral studies. The results showed that men with a higher ER score were more quickly in recognizing emotiortal face, and more efficient in positive emotion regulation than women. In addition, the men with a higher ER score reported higher reappraisal scores than the men with a lower ER score. However, the women with a higher ER score took long time in recognizing emotional face, more efficient in negative emotion regulation than men and reported lower expressive inhibition scores than the women with a lower ER score.Inconclusion, using rsFC methods our studies established the relationship of the ER ability and sex-related neural circuits and verified on the behavior of sex difference in the emotional processing and regulation.the three rsFC studies found the sex-specific functional connectivity patterns associated with ER were seeded in the CM, dAI and NAcc. For the two pathways of reducing negative appraisal and enhancing positive appraisal in ER, the CM and NAcc were modulated via the top-down description-based appraisal system (mSFG, PCC) in men, whereas in women, the modulation of ER was achieved by the bottom-up perceptual appraisal system (STG, pMTG)and affective appraisal (AI) system. The dAI was modulated via the different top-down outcome-based appraisal system in men(IOFC) and women(vmOFC). These results suggested that men’s ER ability was associated with top-down processing and women’s ER ability was associated with both top-down and bottom-up processing, that may explain why men with a higher ER score were more efficient during emotional processing.Our findings will provide a better understanding of the mechanisms underlying sex difference with regard to ER ability and facilitate future studies in these areas of sex-related difference in psychiatry with emotion dysregulation.更多还原