Reduced ventral anterior cingulate and amygdala volumes in medication-naïve females with major depressive disorder: A voxel-based morphometric magnetic resonance imaging study

Functional connectivity between the amygdala and prefrontal cortex in medication-naive individuals with major depressive disorder

“…4 Morphological magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and conventional functional MRI (fMRI) activation analyses provide evidence of morphological and functional abnormalities within the PFC and the amygdala in adults with MDD. 5,6 We previously found morphological abnormalities in the amygdala in medication-naive individuals with MDD. 5 Other groups have demonstrated excessive responses of the amygdala to negative emotion, especially fearful facial expressions, in medicated individuals with MDD.…”

“…5,6 We previously found morphological abnormalities in the amygdala in medication-naive individuals with MDD. 5 Other groups have demonstrated excessive responses of the amygdala to negative emotion, especially fearful facial expressions, in medicated individuals with MDD. 7,8 Studies of the role of the PFC suggest that functional imbalance between the left and right PFC in emotion processing may also be involved in the neuropathophysiology of MDD.…”

Anterior Cingulate Volumes in Never-Treated Patients with Major Depressive Disorder

“…In contrast to Bremner et al (2002) and Pizzagalli et al (2004), who found no differences in BA25 or in BA32 (Bremner et al, 2002) volume between MDD patients and healthy controls, Coryell et al (2005) subsequently reported a reduction in left subcallosal gyrus volume in patients with MDD relative to controls. Finally, a number of studies demonstrate smaller gray (Lavretsky et al, 2007;Caetano et al, 2006;Ballmaier et al, 2004) and white (Ballmaier et al, 2004) matter volume in 'total' and in ventral (Tang et al, 2007) ACC in patients with MDD relative to controls; however, the cingulate regions assayed in these studies varied widely. A small number of studies have relied upon voxel-based morphometry (Pizzagalli et al, 2004;Chen et al, 2007;Tang et al, 2007) as opposed to manual delineation, as is common across the majority of studies.…”

“…Finally, a number of studies demonstrate smaller gray (Lavretsky et al, 2007;Caetano et al, 2006;Ballmaier et al, 2004) and white (Ballmaier et al, 2004) matter volume in 'total' and in ventral (Tang et al, 2007) ACC in patients with MDD relative to controls; however, the cingulate regions assayed in these studies varied widely. A small number of studies have relied upon voxel-based morphometry (Pizzagalli et al, 2004;Chen et al, 2007;Tang et al, 2007) as opposed to manual delineation, as is common across the majority of studies. Further confounding these issues is the inclusion of mixed samples of patients with MDD and bipolar disorder (eg, Hirayasu et al, 1999) in studies reporting volumetric reductions in SGPFC.…”

Brain anatomy of major depression II. Focus on amygdala

“…It is a key component for affective modulation (such as negative emotions and fear), memory encoding and social behaviour (Baxter & Murray, 2002). Several magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) studies have found reduced amygdala volumes in patients suffering from depression (Sheline et al 1998(Sheline et al , 1999Campbell et al 2004;Hickie et al 2007), specifically in children (Rosso et al 2005), unmedicated (Caetano et al 2004;Tang et al 2007;Kronenberg et al 2009), multiple episode (Bremner et al 2000;Caetano et al 2004;Hastings et al 2004;Monkul et al 2007), psychotic and female patients (Sheline et al 1999;Hastings et al 2004;Tang et al 2007;Keller et al 2008;Lorenzetti et al 2009). In this regard, chronic or recurrent MDD patients are persistently exposed to stress-induced glucocorticoids, which may have neurotoxic effects, potentially leading to amygdala shrinkage (Hamidi et al 2004).…”