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Functional Connectivity of Nucleus Accumbens Is Associated with Lifelong Premature Ejaculation in Male Adults

A Resting-state fMRI Study

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Abstract

Purpose

Ejaculation represents a crucial component of sexual behavior in men, which is involved in reward functions of certain brain areas including the nucleus accumbens (NAcc). Lifelong premature ejaculation (PE) is one of the most prevalent sexual dysfunctions in men. It is suggested to be related to abnormal brain function. This study aimed to explore changes of the functional connectivity patterns of NAcc and possible correlations of the neuroimaging abnormalities with clinical features in lifelong PE patients.

Methods

The sample consisted with 42 lifelong PE patients and 30 healthy controls. All participants underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging scans and clinical symptoms. The functional connectivity (FC) approach was applied to investigate differences of NAcc-seed intrinsic connectivity between two groups and correlation analysis was used to access possible relationships between the imaging findings and clinical features, such as premature ejaculation diagnostic tool (PEDT) or intravaginal ejaculatory latency time (IELT).

Results

Results showed that lifelong PE patients had decreased FC between the NAcc and thalamus, superior temporal pole, superior temporal cortex (STC), inferior frontal gyrus (IFG), orbitofrontal cortex, caudate and putamen. A significantly negative correlation between the PEDT score and NAcc-STC connectivity (r = −0.46) was found in lifelong PE patients, while IELT score positively correlated with the NAcc-IFG connectivity (r = 0.48) and NAcc-thalamus connectivity (r = 0.46).

Conclusion

The findings may facilitate a more sophisticated understanding of neural mechanisms of lifelong PE, particularly associated with the NAcc-related intrinsic connectivity during the resting state.

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Acknowledgements

We thank the Assisted Reproduction Center, Northwest Women and Children Hospital Affiliated to **’an JiaoTong University for behavioral and neuroimaging data acquisition.

Funding

This study was financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 81771918, 62001370, 61971425), Shaanxi National Science Foundation (No.2020JM-197), China Postdoctoral Science Foundation Grant (No. 2019M650985), Development Funds of Shaanxi Science and Technology Agency of China (No. 2018SF/091). The funding sources had no further role in study design, in the collection, analysis and interpretation of data, in the writing of the report, and in the decision to submit the paper for publication.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Life Science Research Center, School of Life Science and Technology, **dian University, 710071, **’an, Shaanxi, China

    Bowen Geng, Jiayu Wu, Chengxiang Liu, Ruiqing Piao, Guang Yang, **ao Zeng & Peng Liu

  2. Engineering Research Center of Molecular and Neuro Imaging Ministry of Education, School of Life Science and Technology, **dian University, **’an, Shaanxi, China

    Bowen Geng, Jiayu Wu, Chengxiang Liu, Ruiqing Piao, Guang Yang, **ao Zeng & Peng Liu

  3. **’An Da**ng Hospital of Shaanxi University of Chinese Medicine, **’an, China

    Ming Gao

  4. Assisted Reproduction Center, Northwest Women and Children Hospital Affiliated to **’an JiaoTong University, **’an, China

    Ming Gao

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  1. Bowen Geng
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  2. Ming Gao
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  3. Jiayu Wu
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  4. Chengxiang Liu
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  6. Guang Yang
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  7. **ao Zeng
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  8. Peng Liu
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Contributions

M. Gao collected data; B. Geng, J. Wu analyzed data; B. Geng and P. Liu interpreted the results; C. Liu, R. Piao, G. Yang and X. Zeng provided valuable input regarding interpretation of the data; B. Geng, M. Gao, P. Liu drafted and revised the manuscript. All authors critically reviewed content and approved the final version for publication.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Peng Liu.

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Conflict of interest

B. Geng, M. Gao, J. Wu, C. Liu, R. Piao, G. Yang, X. Zeng and P. Liu declare that they have no competing interests.

Ethical standards

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants or on human tissue were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1975 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

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Geng, B., Gao, M., Wu, J. et al. Functional Connectivity of Nucleus Accumbens Is Associated with Lifelong Premature Ejaculation in Male Adults. Clin Neuroradiol 32, 655–663 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00062-021-01105-2

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