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Kirstein CF, Güntürkün O, Ocklenburg S. Ultra-high field imaging of the amygdala - A narrative review. Neurosci Biobehav Rev 2023; 152:105245. [PMID: 37230235 DOI: 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2023.105245] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/30/2023] [Revised: 05/11/2023] [Accepted: 05/21/2023] [Indexed: 05/27/2023]
Abstract
The amygdala is an evolutionarily conserved core structure in emotion processing and one of the key regions of interest in affective neuroscience. Results of neuroimaging studies focusing on the amygdala are, however, often heterogeneous since it is composed of functionally and neuroanatomically distinct subnuclei. Fortunately, ultra-high-field imaging offers several advances for amygdala research, most importantly more accurate representation of functional and structural properties of subnuclei and their connectivity. Most clinical studies using ultra-high-field imaging focused on major depression, suggesting either overall rightward amygdala atrophy or distinct bilateral patterns of subnuclear atrophy and hypertrophy. Other pathologies are only sparsely covered. Connectivity analyses identified widespread networks for learning and memory, stimulus processing, cognition, and social processes. They provide evidence for distinct roles of the central, basal, and basolateral nucleus, and the extended amygdala in fear and emotion processing. Amid largely sparse and ambiguous evidence, we propose theoretical and methodological considerations that will guide ultra-high-field imaging in comprehensive investigations to help disentangle the ambiguity of the amygdala's function, structure, connectivity, and clinical relevance.
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Affiliation(s)
- Cedric Fabian Kirstein
- Department of Biopsychology, Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, Faculty of Psychology, Ruhr University Bochum, Germany.
| | - Onur Güntürkün
- Department of Biopsychology, Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, Faculty of Psychology, Ruhr University Bochum, Germany; Research Center One Health Ruhr, Research Alliance Ruhr, Ruhr-University Bochum, Bochum, Germany
| | - Sebastian Ocklenburg
- Department of Biopsychology, Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, Faculty of Psychology, Ruhr University Bochum, Germany; Department of Psychology, MSH Medical School Hamburg, Germany; Institute for Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, MSH Medical School Hamburg, Germany
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Ge R, Sassi R, Yatham LN, Frangou S. Neuroimaging profiling identifies distinct brain maturational subtypes of youth with mood and anxiety disorders. Mol Psychiatry 2023; 28:1072-1078. [PMID: 36577839 PMCID: PMC10005933 DOI: 10.1038/s41380-022-01925-9] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/31/2022] [Revised: 12/07/2022] [Accepted: 12/13/2022] [Indexed: 12/29/2022]
Abstract
Mood and anxiety disorders typically begin in adolescence and have overlapping clinical features but marked inter-individual variation in clinical presentation. The use of multimodal neuroimaging data may offer novel insights into the underlying brain mechanisms. We applied Heterogeneity Through Discriminative Analysis (HYDRA) to measures of regional brain morphometry, neurite density, and intracortical myelination to identify subtypes of youth, aged 9-10 years, with mood and anxiety disorders (N = 1931) compared to typically developing youth (N = 2823). We identified three subtypes that were robust to permutation testing and sample composition. Subtype 1 evidenced a pattern of imbalanced cortical-subcortical maturation compared to the typically developing group, with subcortical regions lagging behind prefrontal cortical thinning and myelination and greater cortical surface expansion globally. Subtype 2 displayed a pattern of delayed cortical maturation indicated by higher cortical thickness and lower cortical surface area expansion and myelination compared to the typically developing group. Subtype 3 showed evidence of atypical brain maturation involving globally lower cortical thickness and surface coupled with higher myelination and neural density. Subtype 1 had superior cognitive function in contrast to the other two subtypes that underperformed compared to the typically developing group. Higher levels of parental psychopathology, family conflict, and social adversity were common to all subtypes, with subtype 3 having the highest burden of adverse exposures. These analyses comprehensively characterize pre-adolescent mood and anxiety disorders, the biopsychosocial context in which they arise, and lay the foundation for the examination of the longitudinal evolution of the subtypes identified as the study sample transitions through adolescence.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ruiyang Ge
- Djavad Mowafaghian Centre for Brain Health, Department of Psychiatry, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada.,Department of Psychiatry, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada
| | - Roberto Sassi
- Djavad Mowafaghian Centre for Brain Health, Department of Psychiatry, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada.,Department of Psychiatry, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada.,BC Children's Hospital, Vancouver, BC, Canada
| | - Lakshmi N Yatham
- Djavad Mowafaghian Centre for Brain Health, Department of Psychiatry, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada.,Department of Psychiatry, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada
| | - Sophia Frangou
- Djavad Mowafaghian Centre for Brain Health, Department of Psychiatry, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada. .,Department of Psychiatry, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada. .,Department of Psychiatry, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, USA.
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