Dataset Information

Inflammation negatively correlates with amygdala-ventromedial prefrontal functional connectivity in association with anxiety in patients with depression: Preliminary results.

ABSTRACT: Biomarkers of inflammation, including inflammatory cytokines and the acute-phase reactant C-reactive protein (CRP), are reliably increased in a subset of patients with depression, anxiety disorders and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Administration of innate immune stimuli to laboratory subjects and the associated release of inflammatory cytokines has been shown to affect brain regions involved in fear, anxiety and emotional processing such as the amygdala. However, the role of inflammation in altered circuitry involving amygdala and other brain regions and its subsequent contribution to symptom severity in depression, anxiety disorders and PTSD is only beginning to be explored. Herein, medically-stable, currently unmedicated outpatients with a primary diagnosis of major depressive disorder (MDD; n?=?48) underwent resting-state functional MRI (rfMRI) to determine whether altered connectivity between the amygdala and whole brain was observed in a subset of patients with high inflammation and symptoms of anxiety. Whole-brain, voxel-wise functional connectivity analysis of the right and left amygdala as a function of inflammation (plasma CRP concentrations) revealed that increased CRP predicted decreased functional connectivity between right amygdala and left ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) (corrected p?

SUBMITTER: Mehta ND

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6129411 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

ACCESS DATA

Publications

Inflammation negatively correlates with amygdala-ventromedial prefrontal functional connectivity in association with anxiety in patients with depression: Preliminary results.

Mehta Neeti D ND Haroon Ebrahim E Xu Xiaodan X Woolwine Bobbi J BJ Li Zhihao Z Felger Jennifer C JC

Brain, behavior, and immunity 20180801

Biomarkers of inflammation, including inflammatory cytokines and the acute-phase reactant C-reactive protein (CRP), are reliably increased in a subset of patients with depression, anxiety disorders and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Administration of innate immune stimuli to laboratory subjects and the associated release of inflammatory cytokines has been shown to affect brain regions involved in fear, anxiety and emotional processing such as the amygdala. However, the role of inflammati ...[more]

PMID: 30076980

Similar Datasets

Project description:BACKGROUND:Connectivity between the amygdala and ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) is compromised in multiple psychiatric disorders, many of which emerge during adolescence. To identify to what extent the deviations in amygdala-vmPFC maturation contribute to the onset of psychiatric disorders, it is essential to characterize amygdala-vmPFC connectivity changes during typical development. METHODS:Using an accelerated cohort longitudinal design (1-3 time points, 10-25 years old, n = 246), we characterized developmental changes of the amygdala-vmPFC subregion functional and structural connectivity using resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging and diffusion-weighted imaging. RESULTS:Functional connectivity between the centromedial amygdala and rostral anterior cingulate cortex (rACC), anterior vmPFC, and subgenual cingulate significantly decreased from late childhood to early adulthood in male and female subjects. Age-associated decreases were also observed between the basolateral amygdala and the rACC. Importantly, these findings were replicated in a separate cohort (10-22 years old, n = 327). Similarly, structural connectivity, as measured by quantitative anisotropy, significantly decreased with age in the same regions. Functional connectivity between the centromedial amygdala and the rACC was associated with structural connectivity in these same regions during early adulthood (22-25 years old). Finally, a novel time-varying coefficient analysis showed that increased centromedial amygdala-rACC functional connectivity was associated with greater anxiety and depression symptoms during early adulthood, while increased structural connectivity in centromedial amygdala-anterior vmPFC white matter was associated with greater anxiety/depression during late childhood. CONCLUSIONS:Specific developmental periods of functional and structural connectivity between the amygdala and the prefrontal systems may contribute to the emergence of anxiety and depressive symptoms and may play a critical role in the emergence of psychiatric disorders in adolescence.

Project description:Prenatal depression is common, underrecognized, and undertreated. It has negative consequences on child behavior and brain development, yet the relationships among prenatal depression, child behavior, and children's brain structure remain unclear. The aim of this study was to determine whether altered brain connectivity mediates relationships between prenatal maternal depressive symptoms and child behavior. This study included 54 human mother-child pairs. Mothers completed the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale during the second and third trimesters of pregnancy and 3 months postpartum. Their children had diffusion MRI at age 4.1 ± 0.8 years, and children's behavior was assessed using the Child Behavior Checklist within 6 months of their MRI scan. Structural brain connectivity of the amygdala, fornix, uncinate fasciculus, and cingulum was assessed using fractional anisotropy and mean diffusivity and analyzed with maternal prenatal depressive symptoms as well as child behavior. Third trimester maternal Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale scores were positively associated with mean diffusivity in the amygdala-frontal tract and the cingulum, controlling for postpartum depression. Externalizing behavior had a sex interaction in the amygdala-frontal pathway; weaker connectivity (lower fractional anisotropy, higher mean diffusivity) was associated with worse behavior in boys. Amygdala-frontal connectivity mediated the relationship between third trimester depressive symptoms and child externalizing behavior in males. These findings suggest that altered brain structure is a mechanism via which prenatal depressive symptoms can impact child behavior, highlighting the importance of both recognition and intervention in prenatal depression.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Understanding how prenatal maternal depression impacts child behavior is critical for appropriately treating prenatal maternal mental health problems and improving child outcomes. Here, we show white matter changes in young children exposed to maternal prenatal depressive symptoms. Children of mothers with worse depressive symptoms had weaker white matter connectivity between areas related to emotional processing. Furthermore, connectivity between the amygdala and prefrontal cortex mediated the relationship between maternal depressive symptoms and externalizing behavior in boys, showing that altered brain structure is a possible mechanism via which maternal prenatal depression impacts children's behavior. This provides important information for understanding why children of depressed mothers may be more vulnerable to depression themselves and may help shape future guidelines on maternal prenatal care.

Dataset Information

Inflammation negatively correlates with amygdala-ventromedial prefrontal functional connectivity in association with anxiety in patients with depression: Preliminary results.

Publications

Inflammation negatively correlates with amygdala-ventromedial prefrontal functional connectivity in association with anxiety in patients with depression: Preliminary results.

Similar Datasets

OmicsDI is part of the ELIXIR infrastructure

Tweets