Brain Network Convergence of Abnormal Gray Matter and Functional Activity of Pathological Dissociative Symptoms.

Authors

Xuhan Cui, Leyi Zhang, Yangpan Ou, Yong Liu, Bing Lang, Wenbin Guo

Published in

Psychiatry and clinical neurosciences. Aug 29, 2026. Epub Aug 29, 2026.

Abstract

Pathological dissociation is a complex clinical symptom widely observed across various psychiatric disorders. Dissociative symptoms prolong the duration of hospitalization and are associated with a poor clinical prognosis. Although several pathological models (e.g., the frontal-limbic overmodulation model and the defense cascade model) have been proposed to interpret dissociative symptoms, heterogeneous regional-level imaging findings impede our comprehension of the neural changes underlying dissociative symptoms across diagnoses.
Using the functional connectivity network mapping method, this study systematically screened 45 cross-diagnostic reports of dissociation-related structural and functional brain changes. By integrating resting-state imaging data from healthy individuals (n = 872), we constructed dissociative task-induced activation, gray matter volume (GMV), and resting-state activity impairment networks. Additionally, we performed spatial correlation analyses between the damage networks and 19 neurotransmitter distribution maps.
The task-induced damage network showed the largest proportional overlap with the anterior salience network (SN, 12.25%), basal ganglia network (BGN, 13.57%), and dorsal default mode network (DMN, 17.74%). For the GMV damage network, the main overlap proportions were observed with the dorsal DMN (12.33%) and the anterior SN (7.67%). The resting-state activity damage network showed the greatest overlap with the anterior SN (5.17%), posterior SN (5.73%), auditory (5.47%), and sensorimotor network (4.50%). Spatial correlation analyses found associations between network changes and the distribution of N-methyl-D-aspartate receptors, vesicular acetylcholine transporter, cannabinoid receptor CB1, serotonin transporter, and mu-opioid receptor.
This study further elucidated the neuroimaging changes underlying across-diagnostic dissociation and provided new insights for identifying network intervention targets to improve dissociative symptoms.

PMID:
42667207
Bibliographic data and abstract were imported from PubMed on 29 Aug 2026.

Read full publication at:
Please sign in to see all details.

Stats

1-terrible, 9-excellent. How would you rate this publication? Sign in in to submit your rating.

Post a comment

You need to be signed in to post comments. You can sign in here.

Comments

There are no comments yet.