Individual differences in social network size linked to nucleus accumbens and hippocampal volumes in functional neurological disorder: A pilot study

Journal of Affective Disorders
Juan Pablo OspinaDavid L Perez

Abstract

In the biopsychosocial formulation of functional neurological (conversion) disorder (FND), little is known about relationships between social behavior and brain anatomy. We hypothesized that social behavior would relate to brain areas implicated in affiliative behaviors and that social network size would correlate with symptom severity and predisposing vulnerabilities in FND. This neuroimaging pilot probed how social network size, as measured by the Social Network Index, related to structural brain profiles in 23 patients with motor FND (15 woman and 8 men). FreeSurfer cortical thickness and subcortical volumetric analyses were performed correcting for multiple comparisons. Stratified analyses compared FND patients with a low social network size to matched healthy controls. Secondary exploratory analyses in an expanded sample of 38 FND patients investigated relationships between social network size, risk factors and patient-reported symptom severity. Adjusting for age and gender, neuroimaging analyses showed that social network size positively correlated with left nucleus accumbens and hippocampal volumes in patients with FND; stratified analyses did not show any group-level differences. In individuals with FND, social network ...Continue Reading

Citations

Sep 29, 2020·Neuropsychiatric Disease and Treatment·Aneeta SaxenaDavid L Perez
Dec 29, 2020·Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews·Maria Gloria RossettiPaolo Brambilla
Dec 4, 2020·Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews·Monika I Roydeva, Antje A T S Reinders

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