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. 2012 Jun;200(6):508-9.
doi: 10.1192/bjp.bp.111.092460. Epub 2012 Apr 26.

Brain structure and joint hypermobility: relevance to the expression of psychiatric symptoms

Jessica A Eccles  1 , Felix D C Beacher, Marcus A Gray, Catherine L Jones, Ludovico Minati, Neil A Harrison, Hugo D Critchley
Affiliations

Brain structure and joint hypermobility: relevance to the expression of psychiatric symptoms

Jessica A Eccles et al. Br J Psychiatry. 2012 Jun.

Abstract

Joint hypermobility is overrepresented among people with anxiety and can be associated with abnormal autonomic reactivity. We tested for associations between regional cerebral grey matter and hypermobility in 72 healthy volunteers using voxel-based morphometry of structural brain scans. Strikingly, bilateral amygdala volume distinguished those with from those without hypermobility. The hypermobility group scored higher for interoceptive sensitivity yet were not significantly more anxious. Our findings specifically link hypermobility to the structural integrity of a brain centre implicated in normal and abnormal emotions and physiological responses. Our observations endorse hypermobility as a multisystem phenotype and suggest potential mechanisms mediating clinical vulnerability to neuropsychiatric symptoms.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of interest

None.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
(a) Regions of grey-matter volume difference in hypermobile participants compared with the non-hypermobile group (white areas; threshold P<0.001 uncorrected). (b) Significant group differences in right and left amygdala volumes.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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