Altered amygdalar volume and functional connectivity in primary dysmenorrhoea during the menstrual cycle

2019 ◽  
Vol 23 (5) ◽  
pp. 994-1005 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ling Yang ◽  
Wanghuan Dun ◽  
Kang Li ◽  
Jing Yang ◽  
Ke Wang ◽  
...  
Author(s):  
Archana Kamble

The diseases related to female genital system are elaborated under umbrella of ‘Yonivyapad’ in Ayurveda.  Vitiated Vatadosha causes pain during menstruation and subsides after menstruation. This condition is explained as Udavartini Yonivyapad in Charaka Samhita. Both Primary dysmenorrhea as per modern gynaecology and Udavartini Yonivyapad from Ayurveda show similarities in their signs and symptoms, especially pain during menstruation. After deliberation of Charaka Samhita, effect of oral administration of Rasnadi Ksheera and local Guduchyadi Kwatha Parisheka were considered for their textual reference on ‘Yonishoola’. For this single arm, open labelled, prospective study; 30 married females between the age of 18 to 42 years with Pratyatma Lakshana (cardinal features) of Udavartini Yonivyapad & signs and symptoms of primary dysmenorrhea were selected. They were given Rasnadi Ksheera 80 ml orally in Apana Kala (i.e. Before lunch & dinner) for two months. Guduchyadi Kwatha Parisheka (Vaginal Douche) was performed in Rutukala for 8 days duration (i.e. from 5th day of menstrual cycle to 12th day of menstrual cycle) for two consecutive cycles. The assessment was done on basis of standard parameters before treatment and after treatment. The subjective parameters such as Spasmodic pain in abdomen, Lumbo-sacral backache, Pain radiating to thigh, Vomiting, Constipation were assessed. The study data generated and collected was put to statistical analysis to reach to the final results and conclusions.  It was concluded that oral administration of Rasnadi Ksheera and local Guduchyadi Kwatha Parisheka were highly effective in symptomatic management of Udavarta Yonivyapad W. S. R. to primary dysmenorrhea.


2020 ◽  
Vol 46 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. S284-S285
Author(s):  
Handan Noyan ◽  
Andaç Hamamcı ◽  
Zeynep Fırat ◽  
Ayşegül Sarsılmaz Oygen ◽  
Alp Üçok

Abstract Background The menstrual cycle is a favorable model for examining the influence of ovarian hormones on cognition, emotion and brain functions. Ovarian hormones have substantial effects on task-related brain activity, but their impacts on functional connectivity at rest have been investigated by a few studies conducted with healthy individuals and these pre-existing findings are inconsistent. As for schizophrenia, different influences of ovarian hormones were reported. For instance, the estrogen hypothesis of schizophrenia has suggested that estrogen plays a neuroprotective role in the pathophysiology of this disorder. The present study investigates resting state functional connectivity (RS-FC) alterations related to menstrual cycle phase and/or hormone levels in patients with schizophrenia and healthy controls and aims to contribute to the understanding of the effects of ovarian hormones on the pathogenesis of schizophrenia and brain functions. Methods The study was conducted with 13 women with schizophrenia (the mean of age: 32 ± 7.67) and 13 healthy women (the mean of age: 30.08 ± 7.27). Resting state functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) scanning, as well as hormonal and clinical assessments, were applied to each participant twice, during two menstrual cycle phases: early follicular (Days 2–6; low estrogen/progesterone) and mid-luteal (Days 20–22; high estrogen/progesterone). The serum hormone levels of estradiol, progesterone, prolactin (only in the patients), follicle-stimulating and luteinizing were assessed. The clinical assessment interviews included the Brief Psychiatric Rating Scales, the Clinical Global Impression (only for the patients), the Global Assessment of Functioning and the Calgary Depression Rating Scale for Schizophrenia (for both groups). Results Our findings revealed that no cycle phase-related alterations existed in RS-FC in both groups. However, specific correlations between each hormone and RS-FC were found in both cycle phases for two groups. In the patients, estrogen was positively correlated with the auditory network (AN) connectivity in the left amygdala at the early follicular phase. In the controls, the positive correlations to progesterone were found in the precuneus for the connectivity of the posterior default mode network (DMN) and the left-frontoparietal network (FPN) during the early follicular phase. Also, progesterone was negatively correlated with the executive control network (ECN) connectivity in the right superior frontal gyrus at the mid-luteal phase in the controls. Furthermore, the patients had lower progesterone levels during the mid-luteal phase compared to the controls (p<0.05). The severity of the psychotic symptoms of the patients didn’t change between the cycle phases. Discussion To our knowledge, this is the first study to examine the influence of the menstrual cycle on the brain’s RS-FC in schizophrenia. Our results indicated that the effects of the menstrual cycle on RS-FC were more prominent in the controls rather than the patients with schizophrenia; and that the findings for the patient group may be associated with the additional mechanisms responsible from schizophrenia. This might imply that differentiating the menstrual cycle effects is difficult in a complex disorder such as schizophrenia. The results obtained from the controls are consistent with the previous findings indicating that the menstrual cycle effects might be associated with the connectivity of the DMN and cognition-related networks. Moreover, our results suggested that estrogen might have a modulating effect on the intrinsic functional connectivity changes in the patients, while progesterone, might mediate to that in the controls.


NeuroImage ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 118 ◽  
pp. 154-162 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nina Lisofsky ◽  
Johan Mårtensson ◽  
Anne Eckert ◽  
Ulman Lindenberger ◽  
Jürgen Gallinat ◽  
...  

2020 ◽  
Vol 225 (2) ◽  
pp. 591-605 ◽  
Author(s):  
Esmeralda Hidalgo-Lopez ◽  
Karsten Mueller ◽  
TiAnni Harris ◽  
Markus Aichhorn ◽  
Julia Sacher ◽  
...  

AbstractIncreasing evidence suggests that endogenous sex steroid changes affect human brain functional connectivity, which could be obtained by resting-state fMRI (RS-fMRI). Nevertheless, RS studies on the menstrual cycle (MC) are underrepresented and yield inconsistent results. We attribute these inconsistencies to the use of various methods in exploratory approaches and small sample sizes. Hormonal fluctuations along the MC likely elicit subtle changes that, however, may still have profound impact on network dynamics when affecting key brain nodes. To address these issues, we propose a ROI-based multimodal analysis approach focusing on areas of high functional relevance to adequately capture these changes. To that end, sixty naturally cycling women underwent RS-fMRI in three different cycle phases and we performed the following analyses: (1) group-independent component analyses to identify intrinsic connectivity networks, (2) eigenvector centrality (EC) as a measure of centrality in the global connectivity hierarchy, (3) amplitude of low-frequency fluctuations (ALFF) as a measure of oscillatory activity and (4) seed-based analyses to investigate functional connectivity from the ROIs. For (2)–(4), we applied a hypothesis-driven ROI approach in the hippocampus, caudate and putamen. In the luteal phase, we found (1) decreased intrinsic connectivity of the right angular gyrus with the default mode network, (2) heightened EC for the hippocampus, and (3) increased ALFF for the caudate. Furthermore, we observed (4) stronger putamen–thalamic connectivity during the luteal phase and stronger fronto-striatal connectivity during the pre-ovulatory phase. This hormonal modulation of connectivity dynamics may underlie behavioural, emotional and sensorimotor changes along the MC.


2020 ◽  
Vol 14 ◽  
Author(s):  
Timothy J. Meeker ◽  
Dieuwke S. Veldhuijzen ◽  
Michael L. Keaser ◽  
Rao P. Gullapalli ◽  
Joel D. Greenspan

The role of gonadal hormones in neural plasticity remains unclear. This study aimed to examine the effects of naturally fluctuating hormone levels over the menstrual cycle in healthy females. Gray matter, functional connectivity (FC) and white matter changes over the cycle were assessed by using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), resting state fMRI, and structural MRIs, respectively, and associated with serum gonadal hormone levels. Moreover, electrocutaneous sensitivity was evaluated in 14 women in four phases of their menstrual cycle (menstrual, follicular, ovulatory, and luteal). Electrocutaneous sensitivity was greater during follicular compared to menstrual phase. Additionally, pain unpleasantness was lower in follicular phase than other phases while pain intensity ratings did not change over the cycle. Significant variations in cycle phase effects on gray matter volume were found in the left inferior parietal lobule (IPL) using voxel-based morphometry. Subsequent Freesurfer analysis revealed greater thickness of left IPL during the menstrual phase when compared to other phases. Also, white matter volume fluctuated across phases in left IPL. Blood estradiol was positively correlated with white matter volume both in left parietal cortex and whole cortex. Seed-driven FC between left IPL and right secondary visual cortex was enhanced during ovulatory phase. A seed placed in right IPL revealed enhanced FC between left and right IPL during the ovulatory phase. Additionally, we found that somatosensory cortical gray matter was thinner during follicular compared to menstrual phase. We discuss these results in the context of likely evolutionary pressures selecting for enhanced perceptual sensitivity across modalities specifically during ovulation.


2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicole Petersen ◽  
Dara G. Ghahremani ◽  
Andrea J. Rapkin ◽  
Steven M. Berman ◽  
Noor Wijker ◽  
...  

Abstract Background Premenstrual dysphoric disorder (PMDD) is an understudied, debilitating disorder of women. Given evidence for prefrontal cortical and limbic dysfunction in PMDD, we compared intrinsic connectivity of the executive control network (ECN), default mode network (DMN), and amygdala in women with PMDD vs. controls. Methods Thirty-six women (18 PMDD, 18 control) participated in fMRI during the follicular and luteal phases of the menstrual cycle. At each time, resting-state functional connectivity was evaluated both before and after participants performed an emotion regulation task. The ECN was identified using independent components analysis, and connectivity of left and right amygdala seeds was also evaluated. Results Nonparametric permutation testing identified a cluster in the left middle temporal gyrus (MTG) with significantly stronger connectivity to the left ECN in women with PMDD vs. controls in all four fMRI sessions. Women with PMDD exhibited no difference in functional connectivity between menstrual cycle phases. Amygdala connectivity did not differ between the groups but differed significantly with menstrual phase, with left amygdala connectivity to cingulate cortex being significantly stronger during the follicular vs. luteal phase. Right amygdala connectivity to the middle frontal gyrus was also stronger during the follicular vs. luteal phase, with no group differences. These findings suggest that women with PMDD have different intrinsic network dynamics in the left executive control network compared to healthy controls.


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