Exposure to Blue Wavelength Light Is Associated With Increases in Bidirectional Amygdala-DLPFC Connectivity at Rest

Anna Alkozei, Natalie S Dailey, Sahil Bajaj, John R Vanuk, Adam C Raikes, William D S Killgore, Anna Alkozei, Natalie S Dailey, Sahil Bajaj, John R Vanuk, Adam C Raikes, William D S Killgore

Abstract

Blue wavelength light has been used successfully as a treatment method for certain mood disorders, but, the underlying mechanisms behind the mood enhancing effects of light remain poorly understood. We investigated the effects of a single dose of 30 min of blue wavelength light (n = 17) vs. amber wavelength light (n = 12) exposure in a sample of healthy adults on subsequent resting-state functional and directed connectivity, and associations with changes in state affect. Individuals who received blue vs. amber wavelength light showed greater positive connectivity between the right amygdala and a region within the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC). In addition, using granger causality, the findings showed that individuals who received blue wavelength light displayed greater bidirectional information flow between these two regions relative to amber light. Furthermore, the strength of amygdala-DLPFC functional connectivity was associated with greater decreases in negative mood for the blue, but not the amber light condition. Blue light exposure may positively influence mood by modulating greater information flow between the amygdala and the DLPFC, which may result in greater engagement of cognitive control strategies that are needed to perceive and regulate arousal and mood.

Keywords: PFC; amygdala; depression; fMRI; light therapy; neuroimaging.

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Copyright © 2021 Alkozei, Dailey, Bajaj, Vanuk, Raikes and Killgore.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
(A) PANAS positive affect (PANAS-P) and (B) negative affect (PANAS-N) scores from pre-light and post-light exposure for both groups.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Blue light led to increased functional connectivity between the right amygdala and a region within the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. Displayed is the significant cluster of voxels (x = −24, y = 46, z = 18, k = 90, volume p-FDR corrected, p < 0.001) from the seed-to-voxel analysis using the right amygdala as the seed region.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Granger Causality (GC)-frequency spectra for (A) feed-forward [right amygdala (R. AMG) to left DLPFC (L. DLPFC)] and (B) feed-backward (L. DLPFC to R. AMG) connections for the amber and blue light groups. The green dotted line here represents the threshold chosen for significant GC strength (~0.0422 at p < 0.0025, permutation test).
Figure 4
Figure 4
Here we are presenting the correlation between raw amygdala-DLPFC connectivity values and raw changes in PANAS negative affect (PANAS-N) scores from pre- to post-light exposure for the blue vs. amber groups (Greater negative values on the PANAS-N change scores indicate greater reduction in negative affect over time). We decided to present the raw scores rather than the Spearman rank order correlation for ease of interpretation, however we have included the trendlines for each group from the original analysis. The figure shows that increased functional connectivity between the amygdala and DLPFC was monotonically associated with reduced PANAS-N scores for the blue light group (ρ = −0.55, p = 0.03) but not the amber light group (ρ = −0.18, p = 0.55).

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