Common alterations of whole and subregion-specific amygdala intrinsic functional connectivity across psychiatric...

The amygdala-centered functional networks are pivotal to the neuropathology of many psychiatric disorders, yet transdiagnostic abnormalities across disorders remain unclear. This neuroimaging meta-analysis examined convergence in whole and subregion-specific amygdala functional connectivity alterations across major psychiatric disorders. We included 96 amygdala functional connectivity studies comprising 8730 individuals across seven diverse diagnostic groups (depression, bipolar disorder, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, schizophrenia, and addiction). Our findings revealed that amygdala functional connectivity alterations converged in the regions associated with sensorimotor, emotional, and cognitive processes identified by behavioral decoding analyses, including the medial prefrontal cortex, hippocampus, insula, inferior and middle temporal gyrus, cuneus, postcentral gyrus, and thalamus. More refined disorder-specific analyses suggested that these overall patterns were shared to varying degrees, with notable differences between psychotic disorders versus nonpsychotic disorders, as well as between anxiety-related disorders versus mood disorders. Follow-up meta-analyses of 27 studies on amygdala subregional functional connectivity further indicated lower connectivity of the subregions with their typical target brain regions across disorders. These findings suggest that amygdala connectivity disruptions may represent a transdiagnostic vulnerability factor in psychopathology and a potential target for therapeutic interventions.