Ming Gao1, Nana Feng2, Boda Guo3, Jiayu Wu2, Jianhua Sun4, Lei Zhang5, Xiao Zeng2, Jun Guo6, Jianlin Yuan5, Peng Liu7. 1. Assisted Reproduction Center, Northwest Women and Children Hospital Affiliated to Xi'an JiaoTong University, Xi'an, China; Department of Andrology, XiYuan Hospital, China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences, Beijing, China. 2. Life Science Research Center, School of Life Science and Technology, Xidian University, Xi'an, Shaanxi, China; Engineering Research Center of Molecular and Neuro Imaging Ministry of Education, School of Life Science and Technology, Xidian University, Xi'an, Shaanxi, China. 3. Department of Urology, Beijing Hospital, National Center of Gerontology, Beijing 100730, China; Graduate School of Peking Union Medical College, Beijing 100730, China. 4. Assisted Reproduction Center, Northwest Women and Children Hospital Affiliated to Xi'an JiaoTong University, Xi'an, China. 5. Department of Urology, Xijing Hospital, Fourth Military Medical University, Xi'an, China. 6. Department of Andrology, XiYuan Hospital, China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences, Beijing, China. 7. Life Science Research Center, School of Life Science and Technology, Xidian University, Xi'an, Shaanxi, China; Engineering Research Center of Molecular and Neuro Imaging Ministry of Education, School of Life Science and Technology, Xidian University, Xi'an, Shaanxi, China. Electronic address: liupengphd@gmail.com.
Abstract
OBJECTIVE: To investigate abnormal intrinsic connectivity of striatum in lifelong premature ejaculation (PE) patients compared with healthy controls (HCs). METHODS: Forty-seven lifelong PE patients and 30 healthy controls were enrolled in the present study and underwent resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging. The functional connectivity (FC) analysis and 2-sample t tests were applied to investigate the alterations of striatum-related connectivity in patients compared with HCs (significant threshold at P < .05, false discovery rate corrected), and during which Fisher's r-to-z transformation was adopted and the resulting z values were used as the statistical FC values. Correlation analysis was performed to test possible relationships between the imaging findings and clinical characteristics in the patient group (P < .05, Bonferroni correction). RESULTS: The results showed that compared with HCs, lifelong PE patients had significantly decreased FC between the right caudate and insula, superior temporal pole (STP) and orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) as well as decreased FC between the bilateral putamen and insula, STP and middle cingulate cortex (MCC). Meanwhile, patients had significantly increased FC between the left caudate and OFC, and increased FC between the right putamen and fusiform. The mean FC value from the caudate-OFC, caudate-insula, and caudate-STP connectivity negatively correlated with the Premature Ejaculation Diagnostic Tool score, separately. CONCLUSION: The current study showed the functional abnormality of lifelong PE in multiple brain regions implicated in sensation, motivation, and ejaculation-related inhibitory control, which may improve our understanding of the abnormal striatum-related neural mechanisms in lifelong PE patients.
OBJECTIVE: To investigate abnormal intrinsic connectivity of striatum in lifelong premature ejaculation (PE) patients compared with healthy controls (HCs). METHODS: Forty-seven lifelong PE patients and 30 healthy controls were enrolled in the present study and underwent resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging. The functional connectivity (FC) analysis and 2-sample t tests were applied to investigate the alterations of striatum-related connectivity in patients compared with HCs (significant threshold at P < .05, false discovery rate corrected), and during which Fisher's r-to-z transformation was adopted and the resulting z values were used as the statistical FC values. Correlation analysis was performed to test possible relationships between the imaging findings and clinical characteristics in the patient group (P < .05, Bonferroni correction). RESULTS: The results showed that compared with HCs, lifelong PE patients had significantly decreased FC between the right caudate and insula, superior temporal pole (STP) and orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) as well as decreased FC between the bilateral putamen and insula, STP and middle cingulate cortex (MCC). Meanwhile, patients had significantly increased FC between the left caudate and OFC, and increased FC between the right putamen and fusiform. The mean FC value from the caudate-OFC, caudate-insula, and caudate-STP connectivity negatively correlated with the Premature Ejaculation Diagnostic Tool score, separately. CONCLUSION: The current study showed the functional abnormality of lifelong PE in multiple brain regions implicated in sensation, motivation, and ejaculation-related inhibitory control, which may improve our understanding of the abnormal striatum-related neural mechanisms in lifelong PE patients.