Magnetic resonance imaging of HPC and
amygdala volume in women with childhood abuse and borderline personality disorder
In a separate group of healthy individuals, they used genotyping and neuroimaging to examine potential genetic associations with
amygdala volume in 1048 subjects and amygdala function in a subset of more than 100 subjects.
Preliminary evidence for persistent abnormalities in
amygdala volumes in adolescents and young adults with bipolar disorder
[16] Gerritsen, L., Kalpouzos, G., Westman, E., Simmons, A., Wahlund, L.O., Backman, L., Fratiglioni, & Wang, H.X. «The influence of negative life events on hippocampal and
amygdala volumes in old age: A life - course perspective.»
Not exact matches
The researchers found that
in patients with SAD, brain
volume and activity
in the
amygdala decrease as a result of ICBT.
A larger network of Facebook friends correlates with a greater
volume of gray matter
in the
amygdala, an emotion - processing region, according to a recent study.
Specifically, males on average had larger
volumes and higher tissue densities
in the left
amygdala, hippocampus, insular cortex, putamen; higher densities
in the right VI lobe of the cerebellum and
in the left claustrum; and larger
volumes in the bilateral anterior parahippocampal gyri, posterior cingulate gyri, precuneus, temporal poles, and cerebellum, areas
in the left posterior and anterior cingulate gyri, and
in the right
amygdala, hippocampus, and putamen.
Specifically, individuals diagnosed with major depression have smaller hippocampal and
amygdala volumes (34,35), structural and morphological changes
in the prefrontal and orbitofrontal cortex (22), and basal ganglia structures (6).
The same team of Harvard researchers also found that mindfulness meditation decreases brain cell
volume in the
amygdala, the part of our brain responsible for fear, anxiety and stress.
To investigate the effects of poverty on childhood brain development and to begin to inform the mediating mechanisms of these negative effects, we investigated associations between poverty and total white and total cortical gray matter
volume, as well as hippocampus and
amygdala volumes,
in a sample of children ages 6 to 12 years followed up longitudinally since the preschool period.
There are differences across studies
in reported
amygdala volumes as well.
A few studies have investigated the effects of early caregiving on
amygdala and hippocampal
volumes in children.
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
For children's left
amygdala volume, including the income - to - needs ratio at step 2 resulted
in a significant increase
in the amount of variance accounted for (change F1, 120 = 6.28, P =.01).
For right
amygdala volumes, the increase
in variance accounted for after including the income - to - needs ratio at step 2 only approached significance (change F1, 127 = 2.79, P =.09).
A recent fMRI study showed that the MAOA genotype at risk for impulsivity and violent behavior is associated with reduced gray matter
volumes in limbic regions such as the
amygdala, dorsal anterior cingulated cortex (dACC), and subgenual ACC and greater
amygdala and subgenual ACC responsivity to negative emotional faces [25].
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.
Negative correlations have been reported between bilateral
amygdala volume and life history of aggression (Matthies et al., 2012) and between trait anger and local gray matter
volume in the left
amygdala (Reuter et al., 2009)
in healthy subjects.
A negative correlation between aggressiveness and local gray matter
volume in the left
amygdala has been reported for adolescents with conduct disorder (Sterzer et al., 2007).