Aberrant Emotion-Cognition Integration in FMR1 Premutation Carriers: A fNIRS Study

Carriers of the FMR1 (Fragile X Messenger Ribonucleoprotein 1) premutation (55-200 CGG repeats on the X chromosome), known as premutation carriers (PMCs), often exhibit executive dysfunction. Yet, the neural mechanism of cognitive and executive dysfunction in PMCs remains underexplored. This study investigated the neural alterations associated with the inhibitory control and conflict processing of PMCs using functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) technique. We recruited 31 participants, including 14 participants with the FMR1 premutation (all females, mean age: 36.93 ± 8.06 years) and 17 controls (3 male and 14 females, mean age, 30.86 ± 5.90 years). Hemodynamic activity of the participants during emotional Go/No-Go and Stroop tasks was recorded using a fNIRS system. The neural activation in response to different tasks was examined. Compared with the control group, the PMCs group exhibited decreased activation in the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC, p = 0.03) during the Stroop task. They also revealed increased activation in the right DLPFC (p = 0.015), right frontopolar cortex (FPC, p = 0.027), right Broca's area (p = 0.013), left premotor and supplementary motor area (SMA, p = 0.013), and visual association cortex (p = 0.044) during the Go/No-Go task. Conversely, the PMCs group exhibited decreased activation in the right premotor and SMA (p = 0.018) and the right somatosensory association cortex (p = 0.013). Our findings revealed atypical neural patterns in response to the Stroop and Go/No-Go tasks, suggesting the underlying neurobiological mechanisms of inhibitory control and conflict processing are disrupted in PMCs, potentially guiding targeted interventions.