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ZUSAMMENFASSUNGDas wissenschaftliche Interesse am Endocannabinoidsystem hat in den vergangenen Jahren aufgrund der zunehmenden Legalisierung von medizinischem Cannabis und seiner anxiolytischen Wirkung eine breite Basis von Tierexperimenten und erste translationale Studien zu biologischen, genetischen und neurobiologischen Befunden generiert. Besonders die modulatorische Rolle von Endocannabinoiden im Rahmen von Stress- und Angsterkrankungen steht im Vordergrund und weist auf mögliche Interventionspunkte hin, um vorhandene Therapien zu verbessern. Es fehlen jedoch weiterhin Erkenntnisse und Studien zur Wirkweise am Menschen, um die Implementierung dieser therapeutischen Anknüpfungspunkte umzusetzen. Die folgende Arbeit stellt eine Übersicht mit Schwerpunkt auf der Grundlagenforschung zum Endocannabinoidsystem im Rahmen von stressbezogenen Prozessen dar.

The present functional neuroimaging study focuses on the iconography of mourning. A culture-specific pattern of body postures of mourning individuals, mostly suggesting withdrawal, emerged from a survey of visual material. When used in different combinations in stylized drawings in our neuroimaging study, this material activated cortical areas commonly seen in studies of social cognition (temporo-parietal junction, superior temporal gyrus, and inferior temporal lobe), empathy for pain (somatosensory cortex), and loss (precuneus, middle/posterior cingular gyrus). This pattern of activation developed over time. While in the early phases of exposure lower association areas, such as the extrastriate body area, were active, in the late phases activation in parietal and temporal association areas and the prefrontal cortex was more prominent. These findings are consistent with the conventional and contextual character of iconographic material, and further differentiate it from emotionally negatively valenced and high-arousing stimuli. In future studies, this neuroimaging assay may be useful in characterizing interpretive appraisal of material of negative emotional valence.

Functional imaging studies of affective disorders have demonstrated abnormal activity in the amygdala in response to emotionally salient stimuli. Since in other studies this response has been shown to habituate during the scanning session, it is not clear if it may be of use in monitoring disease progression or remission, or in monitoring the effects of therapy, as habituation may confound normalisation of response. We investigated here amygdala activation in healthy participants exposed to displays of emotional facial expressions in a sample of N = 31 individuals assessed twice in an interval of three weeks. At this interval no habituation could be detected, suggesting the validity of this imaging assay in repeated assessments of amygdalar reactivity. However, the fusiform gyrus and the inferior frontal lobes showed decreases in activations that may be related to the role of these areas in encoding visual and emotional aspects of the stimuli.