Altered centromedial amygdala functional connectivity in adults is associated with childhood emotional abuse and predicts levels of depression and anxiety

Aberrant static and dynamic functional connectivity of amygdala subregions in patients with major depressive disorder and childhood maltreatment

“…Previous studies have investigated anomalous sFC or dFC findings in cases of MDD with childhood maltreatment. For instance, one study confirmed the association between childhood maltreatment and abnormal amygdala-based functional networks in healthy adults using sFC analysis ( Luo et al, 2022a , Luo et al, 2022b ). In addition, Luo et al linked the maltreatment history with altered sFC between the lingual and fusiform gyrus in MDD patients with childhood maltreatment, revealing that MDD patients with and without maltreatment are neurobiologically and clinically distinct ( Luo et al, 2022a , Luo et al, 2022b ).…”

“…For instance, one study confirmed the association between childhood maltreatment and abnormal amygdala-based functional networks in healthy adults using sFC analysis ( Luo et al, 2022a , Luo et al, 2022b ). In addition, Luo et al linked the maltreatment history with altered sFC between the lingual and fusiform gyrus in MDD patients with childhood maltreatment, revealing that MDD patients with and without maltreatment are neurobiologically and clinically distinct ( Luo et al, 2022a , Luo et al, 2022b ). Moreover, another study reported that childhood abuse is positively correlated with increased sFC between the brainstem and amygdala among school-aged children, indicating overactivity of fear neurocircuitry in children with a history of abuse.…”

“…Moreover, we aimed to identify the differences between sFC and dFC, further revealing the differential sFC and dFC patterns in MDD patients with childhood maltreatment. Informed by previous FC studies of MDD with childhood maltreatment ( Fan et al, 2021 , Hakamata et al, 2021 , Luo et al, 2022a , Luo et al, 2022b , Wu et al, 2021 ), we hypothesized that (i) relative to MDD patients without childhood maltreatment, aberrant sFC and dFC patterns would be widely detected in the subregions of the amygdala in MDD patients with childhood maltreatment; (ii) compared with MDD patients without childhood maltreatment, abnormal dFC patterns would exist in MeA (related to socio-sexual behavior and adversity related to parental care) in MDD patients with childhood maltreatment; (iii) Between-group differences in sFC and dFC patterns would be exhibited in different brain regions; and (iv) sFC and dFC abnormalities would be associated with childhood maltreatment. To examine our hypothesis, we applied combined sFC and dFC analyses to investigate the association between abnormal FC patterns and the impacts of childhood maltreatment in MDD patients.…”

Oxytocinergic Modulation of Stress-Associated Amygdala-Hippocampus Pathways in Humans Is Mediated by Serotonergic Mechanisms

“…Both OXT and 5-HT have been strongly associated with stress processing and stress reactivity ( Olff et al, 2013 ; Mahar et al, 2014 ) as well as intrinsic amygdala functional networks ( Seeley et al, 2018 ; Zhang et al, 2019 ; Jiang et al, 2021 ). However, the intrinsic amygdala networks have been associated with numerous functional domains, including not only acute stress ( Archer et al, 2018 ) but also, for example, trait anger ( Fulwiler et al, 2012 ), discrimination ( Clark et al, 2018 ), social functioning ( Johns et al, 2019 ), or early-life stress exposure ( Luo et al, 2022 ). We therefore included a measure of perceived stress during the previous month using the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) ( Cohen et al, 1983 ) to explore whether the identified pathways are associated with current stress.…”

Oxytocinergic modulation of stress-associated amygdala-hippocampus pathways in humans is mediated by serotonergic mechanisms

“…However, the intrinsic amygdala networks have been associated with numerous functional domains, including not only acute stress (Archer et al, 2018), but also e.g. trait anger (Fulwiler et al, 2012), discrimination (Clark et al, 2018), social functioning (Johns et al, 2019), or early life stress exposure (Luo et al, 2022). We therefore included a measure of perceived stress during the previous month using the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) (Cohen et al, 1983) to explore whether the identified pathways are associated with current stress.…”