Resilience and amygdala function in older healthy and depressed adults

Journal of Affective Disorders
Amber M LeaverHelen Lavretsky

Abstract

Previous studies suggest that low emotional resilience may correspond with increased or over-active amygdala function. Complementary studies suggest that emotional resilience increases with age; older adults tend to have decreased attentional bias to negative stimuli compared to younger adults. Amygdala nuclei and related brain circuits have been linked to negative affect, and depressed patients have been demonstrated to have abnormal amygdala function. In the current study, we correlated psychological resilience measures with amygdala function measured with resting-state arterial spin-labelled (ASL) and blood-oxygenation-level-dependent (BOLD) functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) in older adults with and without depression. Specifically, we targeted the basolateral, centromedial, and superficial nuclei groups of the amygdala, which have different functions and brain connections. High levels of psychological resilience correlated with lower basal levels of amygdala activity measured with ASL fMRI. High resilience also correlated with decreased connectivity between amygdala nuclei and the ventral default-mode network independent of depression status. Instead, lower depression symptoms were associated with higher connecti...Continue Reading

Citations

Mar 1, 2019·Movement Disorders : Official Journal of the Movement Disorder Society·Lin ZouXiaoying Tang
Aug 25, 2018·Nature Medicine·Nicole Wetsman
Feb 16, 2019·Translational Psychiatry·Kelsey T LairdHelen Lavretsky
Oct 8, 2020·Current Opinion in Psychiatry·Adina S FischerIan H Gotlib
Jun 12, 2020·Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews·Golnaz Tabibnia

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