Gálber Mónika, Nagy Szilvia Anett, Orsi Gergely, Perlaki Gábor, Tényi Tamás, Czéh Boldizsár, Simon Maria
Neurobiology of Stress Research Group, Szentágothai Research Centre, University of Pécs, Pécs, Hungary.
HUN-REN-PTE Clinical Neuroscience MR Research Group, Pécs, Hungary.
Front Psychiatry. 2025 Aug 25;16:1641745. doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2025.1641745. eCollection 2025.
Previous studies indicate that hippocampal (subfield) and amygdala volumes may correlate with specific cognitive functions, coping strategies and emotion regulation. Here, we investigated associations between emotional processing and volumes of hippocampal subfields and amygdala. We focused on depressed patients since emotional dysregulation and hippocampal volume shrinkage are characteristic of them. Our hypothesis was that in depressed individuals, maladaptive emotional behaviors will correlate with hippocampal and amygdala volume shrinkage.
We recruited depressed patients with a history of childhood maltreatment (n=21), depressed patients without maltreatment (n=18), and matched controls (n=21). Their brains were imaged with magnetic resonance imaging and area reconstruction was performed with the FreeSurfer software. History of maltreatment was assessed with Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (CTQ). Emotion processing difficulties were evaluated using the Cognitive Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (CERQ), Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale (DERS), Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS) and Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test (RMET).
Depressed patients, especially maltreated subjects had small, but nonsignificant hippocampal and amygdala volume decrease (≤10%) and displayed pronounced difficulties in emotion regulation. In maltreated individuals, we found positive correlations between CERQ-rumination and volume of the right CA3, as well as between CERQ-positive-reappraisal and volume of the left presubiculum. In maltreated individuals, CTQ-emotional-abuse scores showed positive correlation with amygdala volumes of both hemispheres. In non-maltreated depressed patients, we found negative correlations between CERQ-rumination and volumes of the right hippocampus and amygdala, as well as several subfields of the right hippocampus. Furthermore, in non-maltreated depressed patients, CTQ-emotional-neglect had a positive correlation with the volume of the right CA3. Overall, among the tests, CERQ-rumination scores had the largest number of correlations with hippocampal subfield volumes mainly in non-maltreated depressed subjects. We found no correlation between alexithymia and brain area. Amygdala volumes had very few correlations, and only with CERQ and CTQ scores.
Relatively small sample size, cross-sectional design, retrospective self-report questionnaire to assess adverse childhood experiences and no amygdala subnuclei segmentation.
We could not confirm our hypothesis that maladaptive emotional behavior is associated with hippocampal volume shrinkage. Future studies should preferably focus on functional neuroimaging when examining complex emotional phenomena.
先前的研究表明，海马体（亚区）和杏仁核的体积可能与特定的认知功能、应对策略和情绪调节相关。在此，我们研究了情绪加工与海马体亚区和杏仁核体积之间的关联。我们聚焦于抑郁症患者，因为情绪调节障碍和海马体体积缩小是他们的特征。我们的假设是，在抑郁症患者中，适应不良的情绪行为将与海马体和杏仁核体积缩小相关。
我们招募了有童年虐待史的抑郁症患者（n = 21）、无虐待史的抑郁症患者（n = 18）以及匹配的对照组（n = 21）。他们的大脑通过磁共振成像进行扫描，并使用FreeSurfer软件进行区域重建。童年虐待史通过儿童创伤问卷（CTQ）进行评估。情绪加工困难使用认知情绪调节问卷（CERQ）、情绪调节困难量表（DERS）、多伦多述情障碍量表（TAS）和眼睛解读心智测验（RMET）进行评估。
抑郁症患者，尤其是受虐待的受试者，海马体和杏仁核体积有轻微但不显著的减小（≤10%），并且在情绪调节方面表现出明显困难。在受虐待个体中，我们发现CERQ-沉思与右侧CA3体积之间以及CERQ-积极重新评价与左侧前扣带回体积之间存在正相关。在受虐待个体中，CTQ-情感虐待得分与双侧杏仁核体积呈正相关。在无虐待史的抑郁症患者中，我们发现CERQ-沉思与右侧海马体和杏仁核以及右侧海马体的几个亚区体积之间存在负相关。此外，在无虐待史的抑郁症患者中，CTQ-情感忽视与右侧CA3体积呈正相关。总体而言，在各项测试中，CERQ-沉思得分与海马体亚区体积的相关性最多，主要在无虐待史的抑郁症患者中。我们发现述情障碍与脑区之间没有相关性。杏仁核体积的相关性很少，仅与CERQ和CTQ得分相关。
样本量相对较小、横断面设计、使用回顾性自我报告问卷评估童年不良经历且未进行杏仁核亚核分割。
我们无法证实我们的假设，即适应不良的情绪行为与海马体体积缩小相关。未来的研究在研究复杂情绪现象时，最好聚焦于功能神经影像学。
