Abstract
Some intrinsic connectivity networks including the default mode network (DMN) and executive control network (ECN) may underlie social anxiety disorder (SAD). Although the cerebellum has been implicated in the pathophysiology of SAD and several networks relevant to higher-order cognition, it remains unknown whether cerebellar areas involved in DMN and ECN exhibit altered resting-state functional connectivity (rsFC) with cortical networks in SAD. Forty-six patients with SAD and 64 healthy controls (HC) were included and submitted to the baseline resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Seventeen SAD patients who completed post-treatment clinical assessments were included after group cognitive behavior therapy (CBT). RsFC of three cerebellar subregions in both groups was assessed respectively in a voxel-wise way, and these rsFC maps were compared by two-sample t tests between groups. Whole-brain voxel-wise regression was performed to examine whether cerebellar connectivity networks can predict response to CBT. Lower rsFC circuits of cerebellar subregions compared with HC at baseline (p < 0.05, corrected by false discovery rate) were revealed. The left Crus I rsFC with dorsal medial prefrontal cortex was negatively correlated with symptom severity. The clinical assessments in SAD patients were significantly decreased after CBT. Higher pretreatment cerebellar rsFC with angular gyrus and dorsal lateral frontal cortex corresponded with greater symptom improvement following CBT. Cerebellar rsFC circuits involving DMN and ECN are possible neuropathologic mechanisms of SAD. Stronger pretreatment cerebellar rsFC circuits involving ECN suggest potential neural markers to predict CBT response.
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Acknowledgements
The authors gratefully acknowledge the contributions of Hehan Tang, Cui Yuan, and Meng Gao.
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The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.
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This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant nos. 81371484, 81222018, 81030027, 81227002, and 81220108013), National Key Technologies R&D Program (program no. 2012BAI01B03), the 863 Program (grant no. 2008AA02Z408), the 973 Project (grant no. 2008CB517407), and the Support Plan of Sichuan (grant nos. 2011SZ0292, 2014GZ0143). This research received no specific grant from any funding agency, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.
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All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.
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Minlan Yuan and Yajing Meng contributed equally to this study.
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MinlanYuan, Meng, Y., Zhang, Y. et al. Cerebellar Neural Circuits Involving Executive Control Network Predict Response to Group Cognitive Behavior Therapy in Social Anxiety Disorder. Cerebellum 16, 673–682 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12311-017-0845-x
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12311-017-0845-x