TY - JOUR
T1 - Amygdala volume and hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis reactivity to social stress
AU - Barry, Tom J.
AU - Murray, Lynne
AU - Fearon, Pasco
AU - Moutsiana, Christina
AU - Johnstone, Tom
AU - Halligan, Sarah L.
N1 - Funding Information:
This research was funded by Medical Research Council grant G0701514 to SLH and was supported by the Tedworth Charitable Trust .Access to underlying data may be obtained by contacting the corresponding author. We thank families in our study for their generosity in assisting with our research.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2017 The Authors
PY - 2017/11/1
Y1 - 2017/11/1
N2 - The amygdala plays a central role in emotional processing and has an activating influence on the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis. Structural changes in the amygdala have been associated with early adversity and, in principle, may contribute to the later emergence of emotional pathologies by influencing the way that the brain responds to stress provocation. The present study examined the relationship between amygdala volumes and cortisol secretion in response to a social stressor among young adults who were or were not exposed to maternal postnatal depression (PND) early in development (referred to as PND offspring and controls, respectively). Hierarchical Linear Modelling (HLM) revealed that, on a sample-wide level, there was no evidence of a relationship between total amygdala volume, or the volume of the right or left hemisphere amygdala taken separately, and cortisol reactivity. Unexpectedly, for PND offspring, larger right hemisphere amygdala volume was associated with lower cortisol reactivity in response to stress, an effect that was not apparent in control offspring. We conclude that the relationship between amygdala volumes and stress reactivity may not be as clear as previous models suggested.
AB - The amygdala plays a central role in emotional processing and has an activating influence on the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis. Structural changes in the amygdala have been associated with early adversity and, in principle, may contribute to the later emergence of emotional pathologies by influencing the way that the brain responds to stress provocation. The present study examined the relationship between amygdala volumes and cortisol secretion in response to a social stressor among young adults who were or were not exposed to maternal postnatal depression (PND) early in development (referred to as PND offspring and controls, respectively). Hierarchical Linear Modelling (HLM) revealed that, on a sample-wide level, there was no evidence of a relationship between total amygdala volume, or the volume of the right or left hemisphere amygdala taken separately, and cortisol reactivity. Unexpectedly, for PND offspring, larger right hemisphere amygdala volume was associated with lower cortisol reactivity in response to stress, an effect that was not apparent in control offspring. We conclude that the relationship between amygdala volumes and stress reactivity may not be as clear as previous models suggested.
KW - Amygdala
KW - Cortisol
KW - Depression
KW - Hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis
KW - Stress sensitivity
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85028002352&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.psyneuen.2017.07.487
DO - 10.1016/j.psyneuen.2017.07.487
M3 - Article
C2 - 28843903
AN - SCOPUS:85028002352
SN - 0306-4530
VL - 85
SP - 96
EP - 99
JO - Psychoneuroendocrinology
JF - Psychoneuroendocrinology
ER -