1.抑郁障碍和广泛性焦虑障碍患者社会情绪紊乱研究项目
抑郁障碍和广泛性焦虑障碍患者社会情绪紊乱研究项目
项目负责人：Benjamin Becker (教授)
合作单位：四川省医学科学院•四川省人民医院
合作单位负责人：周波（主任）
项目成员： 徐晓雷，赵治瀛，辛斐，罗瑞雪，
项目内容：
广泛性焦虑障碍和抑郁障碍是当前困扰人们的常见精神类疾病，以往研究发现两种障碍的核心症状都是情绪和认知功能受到损害，fMRI研究发现两种患者大脑中与认知和情绪控制有关的边缘-前额叶回路遭到破坏，即前额皮层无法有效的调控边缘脑区从而导致患者情绪失调。虽然焦虑症和抑郁症患者在症状上有很多相似之处，但两种疾病在诊断和治疗上存在着很多不同，因此，通过神经影像的方法直接比较焦虑和抑郁两种精神疾病的共性和特性对寻找两种疾病特异性的生物标记有着重要的临床意义。
该项目拟通过功能性磁共振技术，基因分析技术等手段探索广泛性焦虑障碍和抑郁障碍两种疾病共同的和特异性的生物标记，同时使用由剑桥大学开发的认知测试系统CANTAB的相关测试序列来研究焦虑症和抑郁症患者在认知和行为表现上的差异，从而更好地区分这两种疾病。
该项目的长期计划还包括应用磁共振实时神经功能反馈技术来帮助患者进行特定脑区的自主调节，通过自主的情绪调控方法来改善患者的焦虑和抑郁症状，从而达到治疗目的。
Social-Emotional Dysfunction in Anxiety & Depression (SEDAD) Project
Project leader：Benjamin Becker (Professor)
Cooperation party：SICHUAN ACADEMY OF MEDICAL
SCIENCES & SICHUAN PROVINCIAL PEOPLE’S HOSPITAL
Cooperation party leader：Zhou Bo (Director)
Project members：Xiaolei Xu (Rabby), Fei
Xin (Fayer), Ruixue Luo (Betty), Zhiying Zhao (Charles)
Project content:
Generalized anxiety disorder
and depression disorder are the common psychiatry that a large number of people
suffering from currently. Previous studies found that emotional and cognitive
deficits were the core symptoms of both disorders. fMRI study suggested that
the limbic-prefrontal circuits which have been implicated in cognitive and
emotional control were disrupted in both disorders. Particularly, the
prefrontal cortex failed to regulate limbic regions resulting in affective
disorders (Etkin and Wager, 2007; Hamilton et al., 2012). Even though lots of
similar symptoms are found between depression and anxiety, they are totally
different in diagnosis and therapy. So, finding out the common and specific
biomarkers for depression and anxiety by directly comparing these two disorders
has profound implications.
This
project aims to examine the common and specific biomarkers for depression and
anxiety by fMRI and genetic analysis studies. We also use CANTAB tests which is
developed by Cambridge University to examine the differences in cognition and
behavior between depression and anxiety disorders.
The long-term plan of this project includes appling
the real-time neurofeedback technology to help patients regulating emotion. This
method could help patients alleviate their symptoms by themselves and further
reach the therapeutic aims.
2.杏仁核紊乱项目
杏仁核社会认知功能紊乱的代偿脑机制
——基于皮层镜像神经元系统潜在作用的研究
项目负责人：Keith Kendrick (教授)
合作单位：四川省医学科学院•四川省人民医院
项目来源：国家自然科学基金（NSFC） 重点项目(编号31530032)
项目起止时间：2016.01-2020.12
项目内容：
杏仁核认知功能紊乱与人们的社会与情绪问题密切相关，尤其是情绪识别与共情缺陷，这在健康人群与精神疾病患者中都有体现。我们研究发现，杏仁核两侧受损所致的情绪识别障碍患者，其情绪认知加工能力在某些情况下可以通过部分皮层镜像神经元系统的激活增强进行代偿。镜像神经元系统与情绪识别有关，并且在情绪感染、模仿与共情中发挥着重要作用。本项目旨在找到杏仁核与皮层镜像神经元系统之间的功能上的联系，以及在何种程度上镜像神经元系统可以弥补杏仁核的功能紊乱。为此我们将在健康被试中，通过行为特质区分、药物干预以及神经反馈训练等手段，影响杏仁核功能并识别出其代偿脑机制。之后，结合行为、神经反馈训练与经颅磁刺激等方法找到可以提高杏仁核认知功能紊乱代偿作用的最优方案，从而促进个体的情绪识别、共情以及社交能力。这些研究将有望为探索临床患者的治疗方法提供基础，尤其是自闭症、精神分裂症、心理变态及反社会人格障碍等。
Compensating for
amygdala-based social and cognitive dysfunction:
Investigating potential
contributions of the mirror neuron system
Project
leader：Keith Kendrick (Professor)
Cooperation
party：SICHUAN ACADEMY OF MEDICAL SCIENCES
& SICHUAN PROVINCIAL PEOPLE’S HOSPITAL
Project
Source: Key NSFC (NO. 31530032)
Project Duration：Jan 2016-Dec 2020
Project Content:
Brain amygdala cognitive dysfunction is widely associated with social and emotional problems observed in both the healthy population as well as in many psychiatric disorders, most notably in terms of impaired emotion recognition and empathy. Recently we have observed in rare patients with bilateral amygdala damage that impaired emotional cognitive processing may be compensated in some cases by increased activity in parts of the cortical mirror neuron system also involved in emotion recognition and thought to play a role in emotional contagion/mimicry and empathy. The main objective of the current proposal is to provide a detailed investigation of functional links between the amygdala and cortical mirror neuron system and the brain mechanisms that can functionally compensate for amygdala dysfunction. To achieve this, we will first use healthy human subjects with impaired amygdala function and emotion recognition as a result of having high autistic or anxiety traits, or as a result of reduced amygdala responsivity to emotional stimuli due to pharmacological intervention targeting serotonergic, noradrenergic or oxytocinergic signalling(citalopram/propranolol/oxytocin), or following neurofeedback training using real time functional magnetic imaging/EEG recording methods. Next we will use both behavioral, neurofeedback training and transcranial magnetic stimulation approaches to determine optimal strategies for promoting compensatory changes in different parts of the cortical mirror neuron system which will facilitate emotion recognition and empathy and social interaction skills. A key objective of these studies will be to provide a platform for subsequent therapeutic use in clinical populations, most notably autism, schizophrenia and psychopathy as well as in antisocial disorders such as conduct disorders.