Cerebellar Contribution in Emotional Faces Based on a Sample of Sleep-Deprived Healthy Young Men

Autor: Xiangling Chen, Shiyu Lei, Yidan Wang, Kaiming Zhang, Dan Wang, Weihong Lai, Yongcong Shao, Fangfang Liu, Xiechuan Weng, Fan Xu
Rok vydání: 2022
DOI: 10.21203/rs.3.rs-2047232/v1
Popis: Poor sleep is a pervasive public health concern linked to failure in emotion regulation. Brain networks underlying emotional processing are focused on limbic systems and prefrontal and temporal cortices. Clinical cases suggest the role of the cerebellum in affective functioning, yet a few studies have been conducted to investigate this claim in healthy individuals. This study aimed to delineate cerebellar correlation with facial emotional processing using objective facial emotion measurement and two sessions of resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging. Thirty-five healthy men completed 36 h of total sleep deprivation (TSD). The paired-samples t-test revealed decreased arousal levels for both positive and negative emotions. The correlation analysis showed altered cerebellar functional connectivity with the emotional processing centers (e.g., cingulate cortices, middle frontal gyrus, middle temporal gyrus, and paracingulate cortex). The reported cerebellar subregions included Crus2 and lobules VI, V, and VI–IX. The results of this study indicated facial emotional blunting after TSD and cerebellar involvement in altered affective status. Although the existing treatment targets for sleep disturbance (or sleep-induced disorders) are not as effective as expected, the improved understanding of the cerebellar contribution to emotional processing sheds light on future research directions.
Databáze: OpenAIRE