Aberrant Intrinsic Brain Network Functional Connectivity During a Face-Matching Task in Women Diagnosed With Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder

Background Premenstrual dysphoric disorder (PMDD) is characterized by affective, cognitive and physical symptoms, suggesting alterations at the brain-network level. Women with PMDD demonstrate aberrant discrimination of facial emotions during the luteal phase of the menstrual cycle, and altered reactivity to emotional stimuli. However, previous studies assessing emotional task-related brain reactivity using region of interest (ROI) or whole-brain analysis report conflicting findings. Therefore, we utilized both ROI task-reactivity and seed-voxel functional connectivity (FC) approaches, to seek differences in the Default-Mode Network (DMN), Salience Network (SN) and Central-Executive Network (CEN) between PMDD and controls during an emotional-processing task yielding an optimal setup for investigating brain-network changes in PMDD. Methods Twenty-four women with PMDD and twenty-seven controls were classified according to the Daily Record of Severity of Problems. Participants underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scans using the emotional face-matching task during the mid-follicular and late-luteal phases of their menstrual cycle. Results No significant between-group differences in brain reactivity were found using ROI analysis. Applying the FC analysis, a main effect of diagnosis was found showing decreased DMN connectivity, increased SN connectivity and decreased CEN connectivity in PMDD compared to controls. A significant interaction between menstrual-cycle phase and diagnosis was found in the CEN for the right posterior parietal cortex and the left inferior lateral occipital cortex connectivity. A post-hoc analysis revealed stronger FC during the mid-follicular relative to the late-luteal phase in PMDD. Conclusion Aberrant FC in the three brain networks in PMDD may indicate vulnerability to affective and cognitive. Premenstrual dysphoric disorder (PMDD) is characterized by affective, cognitive and physical symptoms, suggesting alterations at the brain-network level. Women with PMDD demonstrate aberrant discrimination of facial emotions during the luteal phase of the menstrual cycle, and altered reactivity to emotional stimuli. However, previous studies assessing emotional task-related brain reactivity using region of interest (ROI) or whole-brain analysis report conflicting findings. Therefore, we utilized both ROI task-reactivity and seed-voxel functional connectivity (FC) approaches, to seek differences in the Default-Mode Network (DMN), Salience Network (SN) and Central-Executive Network (CEN) between PMDD and controls during an emotional-processing task yielding an optimal setup for investigating brain-network changes in PMDD. Twenty-four women with PMDD and twenty-seven controls were classified according to the Daily Record of Severity of Problems. Participants underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scans using the emotional face-matching task during the mid-follicular and late-luteal phases of their menstrual cycle. No significant between-group differences in brain reactivity were found using ROI analysis. Applying the FC analysis, a main effect of diagnosis was found showing decreased DMN connectivity, increased SN connectivity and decreased CEN connectivity in PMDD compared to controls. A significant interaction between menstrual-cycle phase and diagnosis was found in the CEN for the right posterior parietal cortex and the left inferior lateral occipital cortex connectivity. A post-hoc analysis revealed stronger FC during the mid-follicular relative to the late-luteal phase in PMDD. Aberrant FC in the three brain networks in PMDD may indicate vulnerability to affective and cognitive.