PMID- 27656135
OWN - NLM
STAT- PubMed-not-MEDLINE
DCOM- 20160922
LR  - 20201001
IS  - 1662-5153 (Print)
IS  - 1662-5153 (Electronic)
IS  - 1662-5153 (Linking)
VI  - 10
DP  - 2016
TI  - Dorsal Raphe Nucleus Down-Regulates Medial Prefrontal Cortex during Experience of 
      Flow.
PG  - 169
LID - 10.3389/fnbeh.2016.00169 [doi]
LID - 169
AB  - Previous neuroimaging studies have suggested that the experience of flow aligns 
      with a relative increase in activation of the dorsal raphe nucleus (DRN), and 
      relative activation decreases of the medial prefrontal cortex (MPFC) and of the 
      amygdala (AMY). In the present study, Dynamic Causal Modeling (DCM) was used to 
      explore effective connectivity between those brain regions. To test our 
      hypothesis that the DRN causally down-regulates activity of the MPFC and/or of 
      the AMY, 23 healthy male students solved mental arithmetic tasks of varying 
      difficulty during functional magnetic resonance imaging. A "flow" condition, with 
      task demands automatically balanced with participants' skill level, was compared 
      with conditions of "boredom" and "overload". DCM models were constructed modeling 
      full reciprocal endogenous connections between the DRN, the MPFC, the AMY, and 
      the calcarine. The calcarine was included to allow sensory input to enter the 
      system. Experimental conditions were modeled as exerting modulatory effects on 
      various possible connections between the DRN, the MPFC, and the AMY, but not on 
      self-inhibitory connections, yielding a total of 64 alternative DCM models. Model 
      space was partitioned into eight families based on commonalities in the 
      arrangement of the modulatory effects. Random effects Bayesian Model Selection 
      (BMS) was applied to identify a possible winning family (and model). Although BMS 
      revealed a clear winning family, an outstanding winning model could not be 
      identified. Therefore, Bayesian Model Averaging was performed over models within 
      the winning family to obtain representative DCM parameters for subsequent 
      analyses to test our hypothesis. In line with our expectations, Bayesian averaged 
      parameters revealed stronger down-regulatory influence of the DRN on the MPFC 
      when participants experienced flow relative to control conditions. In addition, 
      these condition-dependent modulatory effects significantly predicted 
      participants' experienced degree of flow. The AMY was down-regulated irrespective 
      of condition. The present results suggest a causal role for the DRN in modulating 
      the MPFC, contributing to the experience of flow.
FAU - Ulrich, Martin
AU  - Ulrich M
AD  - Department of Psychiatry, University of Ulm, Ulm Germany.
FAU - Keller, Johannes
AU  - Keller J
AD  - Department of Psychology and Education, University of Ulm, Ulm Germany.
FAU - Gron, Georg
AU  - Gron G
AD  - Department of Psychiatry, University of Ulm, Ulm Germany.
LA  - eng
PT  - Journal Article
DEP - 20160905
PL  - Switzerland
TA  - Front Behav Neurosci
JT  - Frontiers in behavioral neuroscience
JID - 101477952
PMC - PMC5011146
OTO - NOTNLM
OT  - amygdala
OT  - dorsal raphe nucleus
OT  - dynamic causal modeling
OT  - effective connectivity
OT  - flow experience
OT  - functional magnetic resonance imaging
OT  - medial prefrontal cortex
OT  - midbrain
EDAT- 2016/09/23 06:00
MHDA- 2016/09/23 06:01
PMCR- 2016/01/01
CRDT- 2016/09/23 06:00
PHST- 2016/04/27 00:00 [received]
PHST- 2016/08/19 00:00 [accepted]
PHST- 2016/09/23 06:00 [entrez]
PHST- 2016/09/23 06:00 [pubmed]
PHST- 2016/09/23 06:01 [medline]
PHST- 2016/01/01 00:00 [pmc-release]
AID - 10.3389/fnbeh.2016.00169 [doi]
PST - epublish
SO  - Front Behav Neurosci. 2016 Sep 5;10:169. doi: 10.3389/fnbeh.2016.00169. 
      eCollection 2016.