Aberrant Intrinsic Brain Network Functional Connectivity During a Face-Matching Task in Women Diagnosed With...

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Psychiatry
• Women's Health

Background:

• Premenstrual dysphoric disorder (PMDD) involves affective, cognitive, and physical symptoms, suggesting brain network alterations.
• Women with PMDD exhibit abnormal facial emotion discrimination and reactivity, particularly during the luteal phase.
• Previous studies on brain reactivity in PMDD have yielded conflicting results.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate differences in brain network function between women with PMDD and controls.
• To examine the default mode network (DMN), salience network (SN), and central executive network (CEN) in PMDD.
• To utilize both region-of-interest (ROI) and functional connectivity (FC) analyses during an emotional processing task.

Main Methods:

• Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was used to scan 24 women with PMDD and 27 controls.
• Participants completed an emotional face-matching task during the mid-follicular and late-luteal phases of their menstrual cycle.
• ROI task-reactivity and seed-voxel FC analyses were performed.

Main Results:

• ROI analysis revealed no significant differences in brain reactivity between groups.
• FC analysis showed decreased DMN and CEN connectivity, and increased SN connectivity in women with PMDD.
• A significant interaction between diagnosis and menstrual cycle phase was observed in the CEN, with stronger FC in the mid-follicular phase for PMDD.

Conclusions:

• Aberrant functional connectivity in the DMN, SN, and CEN is associated with PMDD.
• These network alterations may underlie the vulnerability to affective and cognitive symptoms in PMDD.
• Menstrual cycle phase influences brain network connectivity in women with PMDD.