Lateral Asymmetry in Weekly Reproducibility of Resting State Amygdala Functional Connectivity
AbstractAbnormal functional connectivity of the amygdala with several other brain regions has been observed in patients with higher anxiety or post-traumatic stress disorder, both in a resting state and threatening conditions. However, findings on the specific connections of the amygdala might be varied due to temporal and individual fluctuations in the resting state functional connectivity (rsFC) of the amygdala and its lateral asymmetry, as well as possible variability in anxiety among healthy subjects. We studied reproducibility of rsFC data for the right and left amygdala, obtained by functional magnetic resonance imaging twice in a one-week interval in 20 healthy volunteers with low to moderate anxiety. We found resting-state amygdala network, which included not only areas involved in the emotion circuit, but regions of the default mode network (DMN) associated with memory and other brain areas involved in motor inhibition and emotion suppression. The amygdala network was stable in time and within subjects, but between-session reproducibility was asymmetrical for the right and left amygdala rsFC. The right amygdala had more significant connections with DMN regions and the right ventrolateral prefrontal cortex. The rsFC values of the right amygdala were more sustained across the week than the left amygdala rsFC. Our results support a hypothesis of functional lateralization of the amygdala. The left amygdala is more responsible for the conscious processing of threats, which may produce more variable rsFC; the right amygdala rsFC is more stable due to its greater engagement in continuous automatic evaluation of stimuli.HighlightsAmygdala resting state network included areas of emotion circuit and motor controlDuring rest amygdala was functionally connected with areas of default mode networkFunctional connectivity of the right amygdala was more sustained across the weekFunctional connections of amygdala network were more stable in the right hemisphere