Association between depression severity and
amygdala reactivity during sad face viewing in depressed preschoolers: An fMRI study
Amygdala reactivity predicts adolescent antisocial behavior but not callous - unemotional traits.
Dissecting the role of
amygdala reactivity in antisocial behavior in a sample of young, low - income, urban men.
Their results showed that antisocial behavior was related to increased
amygdala reactivity to angry facial expressions, whereas CU traits or the interaction between CU traits and antisocial behavior were not significantly related to
amygdala reactivity for neither angry nor fearful faces.
In contrast, Hyde et al. (2016a, b) found, this time in a sample of young, low - income, urban men, that antisocial behavior (but not CU traits) was negatively related to
amygdala reactivity to fearful faces.
Several investigations found that conduct problems coupled with low levels of CU traits are associated with increased
amygdala reactivity to fearful and angry facial expressions (Viding et al., 2012; Hyde et al., 2013; Blair et al., 2014; Sebastian et al., 2014), while those coupled with high levels of CU traits are correlated with decreased
amygdala reactivity to emotional stimuli, particularly fearful facial expressions (Odgers et al., 2008; Jones et al., 2009).
Because a nurturant early environment has been tied to better regulation of stress responses, a viable hypothesis is that a supportive family environment will be tied to greater cortical responses to threat and consequent lesser
amygdala reactivity; activity in the amygdala and the right ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (RVLPFC) have been found to be negatively related in response to threat cues (17).
The fine line between «brave» and «reckless»:
amygdala reactivity and regulation predict recognition of risk
Amygdala reactivity and anterior cingulate habituation predict posttraumatic stress disorder symptom maintenance after acute civilian trauma Stevens JS, Kim YJ, Galatzer - Levy IR, Reddy R, Ely TD, Nemeroff CB, Hudak LA, Jovanovic T, Rothbaum BO, Ressler KJ.
The analyses revealed an even stronger link between methylation and
amygdala reactivity.
To the group's surprise, even small methylation variations between individuals were sufficient to create differences between individuals»
amygdala reactivity, said lead author Yuliya Nikolova, a graduate student in Hariri's group.
Not exact matches
The greater the methylation of an individual's serotonin transporter gene, the greater the
reactivity of the
amygdala, the study found.
The study, conducted by Francesca Filbey, Ph.D., Director of Cognitive Neuroscience Research of Addictive Behaviors at the Center for BrainHealth and her colleagues, shows that risk - taking teens exhibit hyperconnectivity between the
amygdala, a center responsible for emotional
reactivity, and specific areas of the prefrontal cortex associated with emotion regulation and critical thinking skills.
Traumatric stress
reactivity promotes excessive alcohol drinking and alters the balance of prefrontal cortex -
amygdala activity.
«Defensive
reactivity» refers to the sensitivity or responsiveness of the brain's defense system, especially the
amygdala (our emergency response center).
Plus, oxytocin also calms the
reactivity of the
amygdala, the fear center of your brain, and strengthens its communication with brain circuits that help you control emotions.
Stress paradigms in rodent models have been associated with elevated anxiety and contrasting alterations in neuronal morphology in the hippocampus and
amygdala, with dendritic atrophy observed in the hippocampus and increased dendritic arborization in the
amygdala.12, 13 Developing rodents deprived of maternal nurturance show decreased hippocampal volume and altered stress
reactivity.14 An epigenetic mechanism for this effect has been elaborated.15 Importantly, controlled trials that have randomized institutionalized toddlers to early therapeutic foster care vs institutionalization have documented the deleterious effects of early relative deprivation on cognitive outcomes.16
Preclinical atherosclerosis covaries with individual differences in
reactivity and functional connectivity of the
amygdala
Lower
amygdala activity mediated the relation between positive beliefs and low cortisol
reactivity (Fig. 5).
First we hypothesized that, relative to healthy controls, youth with current MDD would show increased
reactivity to peer rejection in a network of ventral brain regions implicated in affective processing of social information, including the
amygdala, sgACC, anterior insula, ventral ACC and VLPFC.
For example, dispositional mindfulness has been associated with cortical and limbic markers of emotional
reactivity, including less
amygdala activation at rest (Way et al., 2010) and during emotional threat (Creswell et al., 2007), as measured by functional magnetic resonance imaging.
Specifically, we found that smaller hippocampus volumes and greater responses to sad faces in emotion
reactivity regions predict increased depressive symptoms at the time of scan, whereas larger
amygdala volumes, smaller insula volumes, and greater responses in emotion
reactivity regions predict decreased emotion regulation skills.