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Involvement in Sports, Hippocampal Volume, and Depressive Symptoms in Children.

ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND:Recent studies have found that higher levels of exercise are associated with fewer symptoms of depression among young people. In addition, research suggests that exercise may modify hippocampal volume, a brain region that has been found to show reduced volume in depression. However, it is not clear whether this relationship emerges as early as preadolescence. METHODS:We examined data from a nationwide sample of 4191 children 9 to 11 years of age from the Adolescent Brain and Cognitive Development Study. The parents of the children completed the Child Behavior Checklist, providing data about the child's depressive symptoms, and the Sports and Activities Questionnaire, which provided data about the child's participation in 23 sports. Children also took part in a structural magnetic resonance imaging scan, providing us with measures of bilateral hippocampal volume. RESULTS:Sports involvement interacted with sex to predict depressive symptoms, with a negative relationship found in boys only (t = -5.257, ? = -.115, p < .001). Sports involvement was positively correlated with hippocampal volume in both boys and girls (t = 2.810, ? = .035, p = .007). Hippocampal volume also interacted with sex to predict depressive symptoms, with a negative relationship in boys (t = -2.562, ? = -.070, p = .010), and served as a partial mediator for the relationship between involvement in sports and depressive symptoms in boys. CONCLUSIONS:These findings help illuminate a potential neural mechanism for the impact of exercise on the developing brain, and the differential effects in boys versus girls mirror findings in the animal literature. More research is needed to understand the causal relationships between these constructs.

SUBMITTER: Gorham LS

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6500760 | biostudies-literature | 2019 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Involvement in Sports, Hippocampal Volume, and Depressive Symptoms in Children.

Gorham Lisa S LS Jernigan Terry T Hudziak Jim J Barch Deanna M DM

Biological psychiatry. Cognitive neuroscience and neuroimaging 20190204 5

<h4>Background</h4>Recent studies have found that higher levels of exercise are associated with fewer symptoms of depression among young people. In addition, research suggests that exercise may modify hippocampal volume, a brain region that has been found to show reduced volume in depression. However, it is not clear whether this relationship emerges as early as preadolescence.<h4>Methods</h4>We examined data from a nationwide sample of 4191 children 9 to 11 years of age from the Adolescent Brai ...[more]

PMID: 30905689

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Project description:BackgroundDepression, a condition commonly comorbid with multiple sclerosis (MS), is associated more generally with elevated inflammatory markers and hippocampal pathology. We hypothesized that neuroinflammation in the hippocampus is responsible for depression associated with MS. We characterized the relationship between depressive symptoms and hippocampal microglial activation in patients with MS using the 18-kDa translocator protein radioligand [(18)F]PBR111. To evaluate pathophysiologic mechanisms, we explored the relationships between hippocampal neuroinflammation, depressive symptoms, and hippocampal functional connectivities defined by resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging.MethodsThe Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) was administered to 11 patients with MS and 22 healthy control subjects before scanning with positron emission tomography and functional magnetic resonance imaging. We tested for higher [(18)F]PBR111 uptake in the hippocampus of patients with MS relative to healthy control subjects and examined the correlations between [(18)F]PBR111 uptake, BDI scores, and hippocampal functional connectivities in the patients with MS.ResultsPatients with MS had an increased hippocampal [(18)F]PBR111 distribution volume ratio relative to healthy control subjects (p = .024), and the hippocampal distribution volume ratio was strongly correlated with the BDI score in patients with MS (r = .86, p = .006). Hippocampal functional connectivities to the subgenual cingulate and prefrontal and parietal regions correlated with BDI scores and [(18)F]PBR111 distribution volume ratio.ConclusionsOur results provide evidence that hippocampal microglial activation in MS impairs the brain functional connectivities in regions contributing to maintenance of a normal affective state. Our results suggest a rationale for the responsiveness of depression in some patients with MS to effective control of brain neuroinflammation. Our findings also lend support to further investigation of the role of inflammatory processes in the pathogenesis of depression more generally.

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Involvement in Sports, Hippocampal Volume, and Depressive Symptoms in Children.

Publications

Involvement in Sports, Hippocampal Volume, and Depressive Symptoms in Children.

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