Sunshine Coast Mind and Neuroscience Thompson Institute, University of the Sunshine Coast, Birtinya, Queensland, Australia,
Sunshine Coast Mind and Neuroscience Thompson Institute, University of the Sunshine Coast, Birtinya, Queensland, Australia.
Dev Neurosci. 2019;41(3-4):193-202. doi: 10.1159/000502339. Epub 2019 Sep 3.
The hippocampus and amygdala have justifiably been the focus of much mental health research due to their putative roles in top-down processing control of emotion, fear, and anxiety. However, understanding the causal relationship between these regions and mental illness has been limited as current literature is lacking in the observation of neuro-structural changes preceding first episodes. Here, we report whole and sub-structural hippocampal and amygdala volume correlates of psychological distress in early adolescence. Automated hippocampal subfield and amygdala nuclei segmentation was carried out in 32 participants (12-13 years old) recruited for the Longitudinal Adolescent Brain Study (LABS) who had psychological distress scores measured by the Kessler-10. Partial correlation analyses revealed significant negative association between left whole amygdala volume and psychological distress. Sub-structure analysis revealed that smaller left hippocampal CA1 volume and left basal and accessory basal amygdala nuclei volumes were all significantly associated with higher levels of psychological distress. Four-month follow-up analysis also revealed an association between change in K10 and CA1 volume suggesting a continued relationship between this hippocampal substructure and psychological distress. Grey matter volume of subcortical sub-structures involved within the hippocampal-basolateral amygdala-prefrontal cortex loop are highly correlated and are significantly reduced in adolescents with higher levels of psychological distress, indicating these nuclei and subfields play an important role in the emergence of mental illness.
由于其在情绪、恐惧和焦虑的自上而下处理控制中的假定作用，海马体和杏仁核理所当然地成为了心理健康研究的焦点。然而，由于目前的文献缺乏对首发前神经结构变化的观察，因此理解这些区域与精神疾病之间的因果关系受到了限制。在这里，我们报告了青少年早期心理困扰与全脑和亚结构海马体和杏仁核体积的相关性。在纵向青少年大脑研究 (LABS) 中招募了 32 名参与者（12-13 岁），他们的心理困扰评分通过 Kessler-10 进行了测量，我们对这些参与者进行了自动海马亚区和杏仁核核团分割。偏相关分析显示，左全杏仁核体积与心理困扰呈显著负相关。亚结构分析显示，左海马体 CA1 体积较小以及左基底和辅助基底杏仁核核团体积均与较高水平的心理困扰显著相关。四个月的随访分析还显示 K10 和 CA1 体积变化之间存在关联，表明该海马亚结构与心理困扰之间存在持续的关系。参与海马体-基底外侧杏仁核-前额叶皮质环路的皮质下亚结构的灰质体积高度相关，并且在心理困扰水平较高的青少年中显著减少，这表明这些核团和亚区在精神疾病的出现中起着重要作用。
