人脑情绪加工环路的左右半球偏侧化研究

Revealing neural mechanisms of human emotional processing has been a very hot research field in brain science. Two phenomena of emotional processing have been repeatedly reported in human brain: 1) hemispheric lateralization and 2) circuit/network processing pattern. However, the two phenomena were largely studied separately: the majority of previous studies were mainly focused on the lateralization of structural morphometry or functional activity in specific brain areas, and the lateralization of hemispheric circuit/network underlying human emotional processing were largely overlooked. To date, it remains unknown whether and how the human emotional processing-related circuit/network are lateralized, which can enhance our understanding for neural mechanisms underlying human emotional processing. To address this, the present project will comprehensively look into the lateralization patterns of human emotional processing-related circuit/network at the large scale, using cutting-edge magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) techniques and analyzing approaches. Both healthy and major depressive disorder (MDD) subjects will be included and studied. Specifically, this project will carry out three research lines: 1) establishing the methodological framework for computing the lateralization of human emotional processing-related circuit/network with MRI dataset; 2) associating the lateralization of human emotional processing-related circuit/network with emotional processing-related brain activity patterns, as well as with emotional processing abilities; 3) identifying the abnormalities of the lateralization of human emotional processing-related circuit/network in MDD, and revealing how the abnormal alteration relates to clinical characteristics. The research of this project will provide valuable information furthering the quantitative characterization of emotion-related circuits, which is one of the goals of the major research plan.

人类情绪加工的脑机制是国内外脑科学领域广泛关注的研究问题之一。大量研究结果表明，情绪加工呈现出脑半球偏侧化及环路网络机制等特征。但迄今为止，情绪加工的偏侧化研究主要局限于特定脑区的结构特征或功能活动，而情绪加工的环路机制研究则很少考虑左右半脑的偏侧化。结合情绪加工的这两方面特征，开展人脑情绪加工环路的偏侧化研究，将有助于增进对情绪加工脑机制的理解与认识。鉴于此，本项目拟围绕大尺度下的“人脑情绪加工环路/网络的偏侧化”这一主题，采用先进的磁共振成像技术和分析方法，结合大样本的健康人和抑郁症患者数据，开展三方面研究工作：１）人脑情绪加工环路/网络偏侧化的计算与量化研究；２）环路/网络偏侧化与情绪加工的脑功能激活模式及行为表现的关联研究；３）抑郁症患者的环路/网络偏侧化异常及其临床相关性研究。本项目符合“情绪与记忆的神经环路基础”重大研究计划的总体目标，将推动情绪加工环路的结构和功能描述。

人类情绪加工的脑机制是国内外脑科学领域广泛关注的研究问题之一。大量研究结果表明，情绪加工呈现出脑半球偏侧化及环路网络机制等特征。本项目旨在利用多模态磁共振影像技术，开展活体人脑情绪环路偏侧化方面的研究，主要研究内容包括：采集和分析多模态磁共振影像数据，开展针对人脑神经环路计算、优化、半球偏侧化等计算方法学研究，为情绪环路偏侧化研究提供方法支撑；通过多模态影像数据与已有任务态功能激活数据库，开展人脑情绪环路关键脑区及其偏侧化规律的相关研究。通过上述研究，我们已获得两项提升活体人脑环路信息计算精度的发明专利，建立了活体半脑白质结构网络、环路模块、及其左右偏侧化研究的计算框架，并揭示了机器学习算法类型和样本量对于利用神经环路特征预测个体行为的影响及其相关规律。这些方法学成果为神经环路的左右偏侧化以及个体预测研究提供了重要的技术支撑和科学指导。此外，我们揭示了积极、消极情绪以及不同基本情绪类型的相似性与差异性，并发现杏仁核、前脑岛、腹内侧前额叶在情绪任务下的功能激活及其功能连接均存在显著的偏侧化，这些研究结果为理解情绪脑机制提供了偏侧化角度的重要信息。截止目前，项目组共获发明专利2项，发表JCR一区论文3篇，并有多篇论文仍在准备或投稿中。综上，本项目组取得了系列的研究进展，圆满完成了既定研究目标。