The amygdala processes valenced stimuli, influences emotion, and exhibits aberrant activity across anxiety disorders, depression, and PTSD. Interventions modulating amygdala activity hold promise as transdiagnostic psychiatric treatments. In 45 healthy participants, we investigated whether transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) elicits indirect changes in amygdala activity when applied to ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (vlPFC), a region important for emotion regulation. Harnessing in-scanner interleaved TMS/functional MRI (fMRI), we reveal that vlPFC neurostimulation evoked acute and focal modulations of amygdala fMRI BOLD signal. Larger TMS-evoked changes in the amygdala were associated with higher fiber density in a vlPFC–amygdala white matter pathway when stimulating vlPFC but not an anatomical control, suggesting this pathway facilitated stimulation-induced communication between cortex and subcortex. This work provides evidence of amygdala engagement by TMS, highlighting stimulation of vlPFC–amygdala circuits as a candidate treatment for transdiagnostic psychopathology. More broadly, it indicates that targeting cortical-subcortical structural connections may enhance the impact of TMS on subcortical neural activity and, by extension, subcortex-subserved behaviors.

中文翻译：

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皮质-皮质下结构连接支持杏仁核的经颅磁刺激接合


杏仁核处理价刺激、影响情绪，并在焦虑症、抑郁症和创伤后应激障碍中表现出异常活动。调节杏仁核活动的干预措施有望成为跨诊断的精神病治疗方法。在 45 名健康参与者中，我们研究了经颅磁刺激 (TMS) 应用于腹外侧前额叶皮层 (vlPFC)（一个对情绪调节很重要的区域）时是否会引起杏仁核活动的间接变化。利用扫描仪内交错 TMS/功能 MRI (fMRI)，我们发现 vlPFC 神经刺激引起杏仁核 fMRI BOLD 信号的急性和局灶性调制。当刺激 vlPFC 时，TMS 诱发的杏仁核较大变化与 vlPFC-杏仁核白质通路中较高的纤维密度相关，但与解剖学控制无关，表明该通路促进了刺激诱导的皮层和皮层下之间的通讯。这项工作提供了 TMS 参与杏仁核的证据，强调刺激 vlPFC-杏仁核回路作为跨诊断精神病理学的候选治疗方法。更广泛地说，它表明针对皮质-皮质下结构连接可能会增强 TMS 对皮质下神经活动的影响，进而增强皮质下行为的影响。