Chai Xiaoqian J, Hirshfeld-Becker Dina, Biederman Joseph, Uchida Mai, Doehrmann Oliver, Leonard Julia A, Salvatore John, Kenworthy Tara, Brown Ariel, Kagan Elana, de Los Angeles Carlo, Whitfield-Gabrieli Susan, Gabrieli John D E
Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA ; Poitras Center for Affective Disorders Research at the McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.
Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02215, USA.
Neuroimage Clin. 2015 May 21;8:398-407. doi: 10.1016/j.nicl.2015.05.004. eCollection 2015.
Despite growing evidence for atypical amygdala function and structure in major depression, it remains uncertain as to whether these brain differences reflect the clinical state of depression or neurobiological traits that predispose individuals to major depression. We examined function and structure of the amygdala and associated areas in a group of unaffected children of depressed parents (at-risk group) and a group of children of parents without a history of major depression (control group). Compared to the control group, the at-risk group showed increased activation to fearful relative to neutral facial expressions in the amygdala and multiple cortical regions, and decreased activation to happy relative to neutral facial expressions in the anterior cingulate cortex and supramarginal gyrus. At-risk children also exhibited reduced amygdala volume. The extensive hyperactivation to negative facial expressions and hypoactivation to positive facial expressions in at-risk children are consistent with behavioral evidence that risk for major depression involves a bias to attend to negative information. These functional and structural brain differences between at-risk children and controls suggest that there are trait neurobiological underpinnings of risk for major depression.
尽管越来越多的证据表明杏仁核在重度抑郁症中的功能和结构存在异常，但这些大脑差异是反映抑郁症的临床状态还是使个体易患重度抑郁症的神经生物学特征仍不确定。我们研究了一组父母患有抑郁症的未受影响儿童（高危组）和一组父母无重度抑郁症病史的儿童（对照组）的杏仁核及相关区域的功能和结构。与对照组相比，高危组在杏仁核和多个皮质区域对恐惧面部表情相对于中性面部表情的激活增加，而在前扣带回皮质和缘上回对快乐面部表情相对于中性面部表情的激活减少。高危儿童还表现出杏仁核体积减小。高危儿童对负面面部表情的广泛过度激活和对正面面部表情的低激活与行为证据一致，即重度抑郁症的风险涉及关注负面信息的偏差。高危儿童与对照组之间这些大脑功能和结构上的差异表明，重度抑郁症风险存在特质神经生物学基础。
