The association among individual gray matter volume of frontal-limbic circuitry, fatigue susceptibility, and comorbid neuropsychiatric symptoms following COVID-19

IF 4.7 2区医学 Q1 NEUROIMAGING

NeuroImage Pub Date : 2025-02-01 DOI:10.1016/j.neuroimage.2025.121011

Xuan Niu , Wenrui Bao , Zhaoyao Luo , Pang Du , Heping Zhou , Haiyang Liu , Baoqi Wang , Huawen Zhang , Bo Wang , Baoqin Guo , Hui Ma , Tao Lu , Yuchen Zhang , Junya Mu , Shaohui Ma , Jixin Liu , Ming Zhang

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引用次数: 0

Abstract

Background

Fatigue is often accompanied by comorbid sleep disturbance and psychiatric distress following the COVID-19 infection. However, identifying individuals at risk for developing post-COVID fatigue remains challenging. This study aimed to identify the neurobiological markers underlying fatigue susceptibility and further investigate their effect on COVID-19-related neuropsychiatric symptoms.

Methods

Individuals following a mild SARS-CoV-2 infection (COV+) underwent neuropsychiatric measurements (n = 335) and MRI scans (n = 271) within 1 month (baseline), and 191 (70.5 %) of the individuals were followed up 3 months after infection. Sixty-seven healthy controls (COV−) completed the same recruitment protocol.

Results

Whole-brain voxel-wise analysis showed that gray matter volume (GMV) during the acute phase did not differ between the COV+ and COV− groups. GMV in the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) and left dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC) were associated with fatigue severity only in the COV+ group at baseline, which were assigned to the frontal system and limbic system, respectively. Furthermore, fatigue mediated the associations between volume differences in fatigue susceptibility and COVID-related sleep, post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety and depression. Crucially, the initial GMV in the right DLPFC can predict fatigue symptoms 3 months after infection.

Conclusions

We provide novel evidence on the neuroanatomical basis of fatigue vulnerability and emphasize that acute fatigue is an important link between early GMV in the frontal-limbic regions and comorbid neuropsychiatric symptoms at baseline and 3 months after infection. Our findings highlight the role of the frontal-limbic system in predisposing individuals to develop post-COVID fatigue.

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个体额边缘回路灰质体积、疲劳易感性和COVID-19后共病神经精神症状之间的关系

背景：COVID-19感染后，疲劳常伴有睡眠障碍和精神困扰。然而，识别有可能患上covid - 19后疲劳症的个体仍然具有挑战性。本研究旨在确定疲劳易感性的神经生物学标志物，并进一步研究其对covid -19相关神经精神症状的影响。方法：轻度SARS-CoV-2感染（COV+）的个体在1个月内（基线）进行神经精神病学测量（n = 335）和MRI扫描（n = 271），并在感染后3个月随访191例（70.5%）。67名健康对照（COV-）完成了相同的招募方案。结果：全脑体素分析显示，急性期脑灰质体积（GMV）在COV+组和COV-组之间没有差异。在基线时，冠状病毒阳性组的右背外侧前额叶皮层（DLPFC）和左背前扣带皮层（dACC） GMV与疲劳程度相关，分别归属于额叶系统和边缘系统。此外，疲劳介导了疲劳易感性的体积差异与新冠肺炎相关睡眠、创伤后应激障碍、焦虑和抑郁之间的关联。关键是，右侧DLPFC的初始GMV可以预测感染后3个月的疲劳症状。结论：我们为疲劳易感性的神经解剖学基础提供了新的证据，并强调急性疲劳是早期额边缘区GMV与基线和感染后3个月共病神经精神症状之间的重要联系。我们的研究结果强调了额边缘系统在使个体易患covid后疲劳中的作用。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

NeuroImage 医学-核医学

CiteScore

11.30

自引率

10.50%

发文量

809

审稿时长

63 days

期刊介绍： NeuroImage, a Journal of Brain Function provides a vehicle for communicating important advances in acquiring, analyzing, and modelling neuroimaging data and in applying these techniques to the study of structure-function and brain-behavior relationships. Though the emphasis is on the macroscopic level of human brain organization, meso-and microscopic neuroimaging across all species will be considered if informative for understanding the aforementioned relationships.