AMYGDALA CORE NUCLEI VOLUMES ARE DECREASED IN RECURRENT MAJOR DEPRESSION

THE amygdala is a key structure in the brain's integration of emotiona l meaning with perception and experience.(1) Patients with depression have impaired functioning in emotional tasks involving the amygdala,(2 ) and have abnormal resting amygdala blood flow.(3) To better understa nd the anatomical basis for these functional changes we measured the v olumes of the total amygdala and of the core amygdala nuclei in 20 pat ients with a history of depression and 20 pair-wise matched controls. Depressed subjects had bilaterally reduced amygdala core nuclei volume s and no significant differences in total amygdala volumes or in whole brain volumes. Since patients with a depression history have bilatera l hippocampal volume reduction(4) the volume loss in this closely rela ted structure suggests a shared effect on bo th structures, potentiall y glucocorticoid-induced neurotoxicity(5) mediated by the extensive re ciprocal glutamatergic connections. (C) 1998 Rapid Science Ltd.