Prediction Of Autonomic Nervous Response To Motion Stress Based On Multimodal Brain Imaging Data

Stress events are very common in our daily life,such as being questioned in class,preparing for temporary speeches,and being frightened.At this point,there will be a series of physiological changes in the autonomic nervous system: faster heartbeat,pupil dilation and digestive disorders.Rapid and accurate response to these stress events can activate our body and ensure individuals' adaptation and survival in complex environments.Motion sickness is a classic and common stress event,which is troublesome for most people's life and even brings about safety hazards.In some special fields,such as sports,aerospace and military,the susceptibility to motion sickness has been used as a reference indicator for talent screening.Therefore,it has been a research hotspot that exploring the ability of the human brain structure to predict the autonomic response under motion stress and finding some methods to reduce its negative effects.In fact,the symptoms of motion sickness vary from person to person.The brain physiological mechanism that causes this difference is worth exploring.After summing up the recent studies,some brain-centered pathways were found based on single-modality imaging and multiple experimental designs,but these studies still did not fully explain the brain-neural mechanisms.Therefore,with the multi-modality magnetic resonance imaging technologies,this study attempted to obtain the three brain traits,including resting state brain function connection,brain white matter structure and cerebral cortex morphological attributes,to construct reasonable forecast models,which was helpful to explore the underlying neural mechanisms.Firstly,the data of resting state of brain function connection and the change of autonomic response before and after motion sickness were used to do correlation analysis,then a linear regression prediction model was constructed based on the relevant results.The final model showed: brain regions associated with sympathetic responses under the motion stress: amygdala,frontal lobe,cingulate gyrus and insula.Brain regions associated with parasympathetic responses include: lingual gyrus,parahippocampal gyrus,amygdala,calcarine cortex,frontal lobes and insula.The model showed that the cooperation of multiple brain areas,regulating the complex information exchange of visual,emotions,memory and internal sensation,may be related to motion stress.The functional connectivity between these regions showed good predictive power.Then,the integrity of every white matter fiber was also applied to the analysis with autonomic responses under motion stress.Results showed that there was a significant positive correlation between some white matter fibers,but only the anterior corona radiata and sagittal stratum remained in the final regression model.Subjects with stronger autonomic responses under motion stress showed higher integrity of these two fibers.Higher integrity indicated that a fiber was more efficient in information transmission between the relevant brain regions,which led to the more sensitive response.The model showed that the white matter fibers,which were between the visual cortex and visceral sensory cortex,had a power to predict the autonomic response under motion stress.Thirdly,this study also used the cortical morphometry to perform the same correlation analysis and prediction modeling,aiming to explore the cerebral mechanism under motion stress.It was found that cortical morphological characteristics of the cingulate gyrus and precuneus gyrus were related to sympathetic regulation,while temporal lobe,frontal lobe and spindle were associated with parasympathetic regulation.The results demonstrated that the visual motor cortex,limbic system,and advanced cognitive cortex have a strong predictive power for autonomic response under the motion stress.We speculated that these regions cooperated to complete related information processing under the motion stress,which echoed the results of the previous two chapters,further improving the conclusions of this article.Finally,this study integrated the data of three modalities and tried to construct a comprehensive predictive model.It was found that brain function connection,white matter integrity,and cortical morphological properties in brain regions involved in visual motion,cognitive memory,and visceral sensation,had a strong predictive power,which can be used to evaluate potential imaging indicators of motion stress.