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. 2010 Jan;49(1):42-51.
doi: 10.1097/00004583-201001000-00008.

Adolescents with major depression demonstrate increased amygdala activation

Tony T Yang  1 , Alan N Simmons, Scott C Matthews, Susan F Tapert, Guido K Frank, Jeffrey E Max, Amanda Bischoff-Grethe, Amy E Lansing, Gregory Brown, Irina A Strigo, Jing Wu, Martin P Paulus
Affiliations

Adolescents with major depression demonstrate increased amygdala activation

Tony T Yang et al. J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry. 2010 Jan.

Abstract

Objective: Functional neuroimaging studies have led to a significantly deeper understanding of the underlying neural correlates and the development of several mature models of depression in adults. In contrast, our current understanding of the underlying neural substrates of adolescent depression is very limited. Although numerous studies have consistently demonstrated a hyperactive amygdala in depressed adults, the few published pediatric studies have reported opposite results in the amygdala. Thus, the main purpose of this study was to further our knowledge of the underlying neural substrates of adolescent depression by examining the bilateral amygdala specifically and the whole brain in depressed adolescents compared to healthy controls.

Method: Twelve unmedicated adolescents diagnosed with current major depressive disorder without a comorbid psychiatric disorder and 12 well-matched controls ages 13 to 17 years performed a facial-emotion matching task during functional magnetic resonance imaging at 3 T.

Results: Region-of-interest analyses demonstrated: (1) significant bilateral amygdala activation in depressed and healthy adolescents, and (2) significantly greater left amygdala activation in depressed adolescents compared to controls. Whole-brain analysis revealed areas of significantly different brain activity in depressed adolescents compared to controls.

Conclusions: These results suggest that (1) depressed adolescents without a comorbid psychiatric disorder exhibit an abnormally hyperactive amygdala compared to healthy controls; (2) models of adult depression might be extended to include depressed adolescents; and (3) neuropsychiatric interventions that have been developed in depressed adults should be further examined in adolescents.

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Conflict of interest statement

Disclosure: Drs. Yang, Simmons, Matthews, Tapert, Frank, Max, Bischoff-Grethe, Lansing, Brown, Strigo, and Paulus, and Mr. Wu report no biomedical financial interests or potential conflicts of interest.

Figures

FIGURE 1
FIGURE 1
Facial-emotion matching task. Interspersed blocks of fixation crosses with varying time lengths were inserted between the face (angry, happy, fearful) and shape (oval/circle) blocks. Note: TR = repetition time.
FIGURE 2
FIGURE 2
Coronal image showing left and right amygdala activation to the fearful, angry, happy, and all-faces versus all-shapes condition for the healthy control (CTL) and depressed (MDD) adolescents. The analyses were conducted within all (MDD plus CTL) participants and then graphed separately. Each individual task condition (fearful, angry, happy) was extracted from the cluster of activation that was defined for the all-faces versus all-shapes contrast. Bar graphs depict the percent signal change in the left and right amygdala for the CTL and adolescents with MDD. Error bars represent SE.
FIGURE 3
FIGURE 3
Coronal image demonstrating greater activation in the left amygdala for the depressed (MDD) adolescents compared to the healthy controls (CTL). Each task condition (fearful, angry, happy) was extracted from the cluster of activation that was defined for the all-faces versus all-shapes contrast. Bar graphs show the extracted percent signal change in the left amygdala for each of the task conditions (fearful, angry, happy) and the combined all-faces versus all-shapes contrast. Error bars represent SE.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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