Hormonal contraceptive exposure relates to changes in resting state functional connectivity of anterior cingulate cortex and amygdala

Esmeralda Hidalgo-Lopez; Isabel Noachtar; Belinda Pletzer

doi:10.3389/fendo.2023.1131995

Hormonal contraceptive exposure relates to changes in resting state functional connectivity of anterior cingulate cortex and amygdala

Front Endocrinol (Lausanne). 2023 Jul 13:14:1131995. doi: 10.3389/fendo.2023.1131995. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Esmeralda Hidalgo-Lopez^{1

2}, Isabel Noachtar^{1

2}, Belinda Pletzer^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ Centre for Cognitive Neuroscience, University of Salzburg, Salzburg, Austria.
² Department of Psychology, University of Salzburg, Salzburg, Austria.

Abstract

Introduction: Hormonal contraceptives (HCs), nowadays one of the most used contraceptive methods, downregulate endogenous ovarian hormones, which have multiple plastic effects in the adult brain. HCs usually contain a synthetic estrogen, ethinyl-estradiol, and a synthetic progestin, which can be classified as androgenic or anti-androgenic, depending on their interaction with androgen receptors. Both the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) and the amygdala express steroid receptors and have shown differential functionality depending on the hormonal status of the participant and the use of HC. In this work, we investigated for the first time the relationship between ACC and amygdala resting state functional connectivity (rs-FC) and HC use duration, while controlling for progestin androgenicity.

Methods: A total of 231 healthy young women participated in five different magnetic resonance imaging studies and were included in the final analysis. The relation between HC use duration and (i) gray matter volume, (ii) fractional amplitude of low-frequency fluctuations, and (iii) seed-based connectivity during resting state in the amygdalae and ACC was investigated in this large sample of women.

Results: In general, rs-FC of the amygdalae with frontal areas, and between the ACC and temporoparietal areas, decreased the longer the HC exposure and independently of the progestin's androgenicity. The type of HC's progestin did show a differential effect in the gray matter volume of left ACC and the connectivity between bilateral ACC and the right inferior frontal gyrus.

Keywords: amygdala; anterior cingulate cortex; brain connectivity; hormonal contraceptives; progestins; resting state fMRI.

Grants and funding

This research was funded by the Austrian Science Fund (FWF) Project P32276 supporting BP; the PhD Programme “Imaging the Mind: Connectivity and Higher Cognitive Function” [W 1233-G17] supporting EH-L and IN; and the European Research Council (ERC) Starting Grant 850953 supporting BP and EH-L.