Abnormal Neural Responses to Emotional Stimuli but Not Go/NoGo and Stroop Tasks in Adults with a History of Childhood Nocturnal Enuresis

BackgroundNocturnal enuresis (NE) is a common disorder in school-aged children. Previous studies have reported that children with NE exhibit structural, functional and neurochemical abnormalities in the brain, suggesting that children with NE may have cognitive problems. Additionally, children with NE have been shown to process emotions differently from control children. In fact, most cases of NE resolve with age. However, adults who had experienced NE during childhood may still have potential cognitive or emotion problems, and this possibility has not been thoroughly investigated.Methodology/Principal FindingsIn this work, we used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to evaluate brain functional changes in adults with a history of NE. Two groups, consisting of 21 adults with NE and 21 healthy controls, were scanned using fMRI. We did not observe a significant abnormality in activation during the Go/NoGo and Stroop tasks in adults with a history of NE compared with the control group. However, compared to healthy subjects, young adults with a history of NE mainly showed increased activation in the bilateral temporoparietal junctions, bilateral dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, and bilateral anterior cingulate cortex while looking at negative vs. neutral pictures.Conclusions/SignificanceOur results demonstrate that adults with a history of childhood NE have no obvious deficit in response inhibition or cognitive control but showed abnormal neural responses to emotional stimuli.

背景：夜间遗尿症（Nocturnal enuresis, NE）是学龄儿童常见病症。既往研究表明，罹患夜间遗尿症的儿童存在大脑结构、功能及神经化学层面的异常，提示该类儿童可能存在认知问题。此外，已有研究证实，夜间遗尿症儿童的情绪加工模式与健康对照儿童存在显著差异。事实上，多数夜间遗尿症病例会随年龄增长自行缓解。然而，曾在儿童期罹患夜间遗尿症的成年人，仍可能存在潜在的认知或情绪问题，这一可能性尚未得到充分研究。

方法/主要结果：本研究采用功能磁共振成像（functional magnetic resonance imaging, fMRI）技术，评估有儿童期夜间遗尿症病史的成年人的脑功能变化。研究纳入21名有夜间遗尿症病史的成年人与21名健康对照者，所有受试者均接受功能磁共振成像扫描。与健康对照组相比，有夜间遗尿症病史的成年人在Go/NoGo任务与Stroop任务中未出现显著的激活异常。但在观看负性图片与中性图片的对比任务中，该组年轻成年人主要表现出双侧颞顶联合区、双侧背外侧前额叶皮层及双侧前扣带回皮层的激活增强。

结论与意义：本研究结果显示，有儿童期夜间遗尿症病史的成年人在反应抑制或认知控制方面无明显缺陷，但在面对情绪性刺激时存在异常的神经反应。