fMRI activation in the amygdala and the orbitofrontal cortex in unmedicated subjects with major depressive disorder - PubMed (original) (raw)

fMRI activation in the amygdala and the orbitofrontal cortex in unmedicated subjects with major depressive disorder

Jennifer D Townsend et al. Psychiatry Res. 2010.

Abstract

Although amygdala and frontal lobe functional abnormalities have been reported in patients with mood disorders, the literature regarding major depressive disorder (MDD) is inconsistent. Likely confounds include heterogeneity of patient samples, medication status, and analytic approach. This study evaluated the amygdala and frontal lobe activation in unmedicated MDD patients. Fifteen MDD patients and 15 matched healthy controls were scanned using fMRI during the performance of an emotional face task known to robustly activate the amygdala and prefrontal cortex (PFC). Whole-brain and region of interest analyses were performed, and correlations between clinical features and activation were examined. Significant amygdala and lateral PFC activation were seen within patient and control groups. In a between-group comparison, patients showed significantly reduced activation in the insula, temporal and occipital cortices. In MDD, the presence of anxiety symptoms was associated with decreased orbitofrontal activation. We found robust activation in both the MDD and control groups in fronto-limbic regions with no significant between-group differences using either analytic approach. The current study replicates previous research on unmedicated subjects showing no significant differences in amygdala function in depressed vs. control subjects with respect to simple tasks involving emotion observation.

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Conflict of interest statement

The remaining authors have no conflicts of interest to declare.

Figures

Figure 1

The Emotional Face Matching Paradigm

Figure 2

Within-group analysis during the faces task: match faces vs. match forms (control) task, from slices z=−24 through z=4, reveals extensive activation in both control and unmedicated unipolar depressed subjects. These activations include bilateral inferior frontal cortex (BA47) and bilateral amygdala for both control and patient groups.

Figure 3

Between-group results show significant differences in right temporal and right occipital regions, but not in a priori regions of the amygdala or OFC (Z>2.0, p=0.05 corrected).

Figure 4

ROI Analyses in bilateral amygdala and bilateral BA 47 reveal no significant differences between groups, supporting the lack of significant differences in these region seen in the whole-brain between-group analysis.

Figure 5

MDD subjects without somatic anxiety symptoms (n=9) showed greater activation than MDD subjects with somatic anxiety symptoms (n=6) in left BA47, the only region of significant difference between, these groups (corrected p=0.05, Z>1.7).

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fMRI activation in the amygdala and the orbitofrontal cortex in unmedicated subjects with major depressive disorder - PubMed (original) (raw)