Page 169 - Like me, or else... - Michelle Achterberg

Subcortical-PFC resting state connectivity
167
samples showed pronounced consistent positive connectivity with vACC, vmPFC, thalamus, insula, inferior temporal gyrus, parietal operculum cortex, putamen, pallidum, caudate, nucleus accumbens, amygdala, and the OFC (Table 3). Negative connectivity was consistent over two samples between VS and dACC, dlPFC, paracingulate gyrus, para-hippocampus, and hippocampus (Table 3).
Amygdala
Whole brain functional connectivity with the AMY as seed for sample I is displayed in Fig 2b (left top panel) and Table S3. Whole brain results for sample II are displayed in Fig 2b (right top panel) and Table S4. As visualized in Fig 2b, whole brain AMY connectivity patterns showed overlap across the two samples, showing pronounced positive connectivity with the thalamus, pallidum, putamen, caudate, hippocampus, para-hippocampus, brainstem, frontal pole, insula, inferior frontal gyrus (IFG), fusiform cortex, and superior temporal gyrus (STG) (Table 3). Moreover, we found consistent negative connectivity between AMY and dmPFC, dlPFC, paracingulate gyrus, precuneus cortex, parietal cortex, posterior cingulate cortex, and lateral occipital cortex (Table 3).
Post-Hoc Examination of Subcortical-Cortical Connectivity
We investigated limbic/subcortical-cortical brain connectivity in more detail by visualizing connectivity patterns between subcortical seeds (VS and AMY) and prefrontal cortical ROIs of the vmPFC, dmPFC, vACC, dACC, OFC, and dlPFC. Connectivity patterns replicated across sample I and II, with the exception of VS- dmPFC and AMY-vACC connectivity (Fig 3a, Table S5). Overall, subcortical regions exhibited positive connectivity with ventral cortical regions (vmPFC, vACC, OFC) and negative connectivity with dorsal cortical regions (dmPFC, dACC, dlPFC), see Fig 3a. Paired sample t-tests were used to investigate differences in VS-PFC and AMY-PFC connectivity. For the vmPFC and vACC, positive connectivity with the VS was significantly stronger than connectivity with AMY (Table 4). Note that connectivity between AMY and the vmPFC and vACC was not significantly different from zero in one of the samples (Table S6). There were no differences between the VS and the AMY in connectivity with the OFC. The VS and AMY showed pronounced negative connectivity with dorsal cortical regions (Fig 3a). For the dlPFC and dmPFC, negative connectivity with the AMY was significantly stronger than connectivity with the VS (Fig 3a, Table 4). Note that connectivity between VS and the dmPFC was not significantly different from zero in one of the samples (Table S6). Connectivity between dACC and AMY was stronger than connectivity between dACC and VS in sample II, but not in sample I (Table 4). There were no significant gender or age-related differences in subcortical-cortical connectivity (sample I and II combined).
6