By Terri Janos, Technology Networks, February 15, 2020
In individuals with functional neurological disorder (FND), the brain generally appears structurally normal on clinical MRI scans but functions incorrectly (akin to a computer software crashing), resulting in patients experiencing symptoms including limb weakness, tremor, gait abnormalities and non-epileptic seizures. In some cases, childhood maltreatment may have been a contributing factor, yet links between risk factors such as childhood abuse and brain mechanisms for the development of FND remain poorly understood. In a new study published in Molecular Psychiatry, researchers led by investigators at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) examined the brains of individuals who experienced early-life trauma, some with FND and others without the condition. The findings may provide a better understanding of what happens in the brains of some patients with FND, as well as those with various other trauma-related brain disorders.
In the study of 30 adults with FND and 21 individuals whose clinical depression diagnoses served as controls, some of the participants in both groups had experienced early-life maltreatment, as determined through questionnaires. In FND patients only, differences in the severity of childhood physical abuse correlated with differences in connections between certain regions of the brain—for example, between the limbic regions which control emotions, arousal and survival instincts among other functions, and the primary motor cortex which is involved in voluntary movements.
“Motor and limbic circuits were more strongly interconnected in individuals with FND reporting a greater severity of childhood physical abuse,” explained lead author Ibai Diez, PhD, a senior research fellow in Neurology and Radiology at MGH. This finding may lead to potentially important insights on the plastic brain mechanisms involved in promoting increased cross-talk between motor control circuits and emotion processing circuits.
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