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Amygdala to hippocampal volume ratio is associated with negative memory bias in healthy subjects

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 July 2011

L. Gerritsen ,
M. Rijpkema ,
I. van Oostrom ,
J. Buitelaar ,
B. Franke ,
G. Fernández  and
I. Tendolkar
L. Gerritsen*
Affiliation:
Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, Radboud University Nijmegen, Nijmegen, The Netherlands Department of Psychiatry, Radboud University Nijmegen Medical Centre, Nijmegen, The Netherlands
M. Rijpkema
Affiliation:
Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, Radboud University Nijmegen, Nijmegen, The Netherlands
I. van Oostrom
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, Radboud University Nijmegen Medical Centre, Nijmegen, The Netherlands
J. Buitelaar
Affiliation:
Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, Radboud University Nijmegen, Nijmegen, The Netherlands
B. Franke
Affiliation:
Department of Human Genetics, Radboud University Nijmegen Medical Centre, Nijmegen, The Netherlands
G. Fernández
Affiliation:
Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, Radboud University Nijmegen, Nijmegen, The Netherlands Department of Cognitive Neuroscience, Radboud University Nijmegen Medical Centre, Nijmegen, The Netherlands
I. Tendolkar
Affiliation:
Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, Radboud University Nijmegen, Nijmegen, The Netherlands Department of Psychiatry, Radboud University Nijmegen Medical Centre, Nijmegen, The Netherlands Department of Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine and Clinic for Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University of Duisburg-Essen, Essen, Germany
*
*Address for correspondence: Dr L. Gerritsen, PO Box 9101, 6500 HB Nijmegen, The Netherlands. (Email: [email protected])
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Abstract

Background

Negative memory bias is thought to be one of the main cognitive risk and maintenance factors for depression, but its neural substrates are largely unknown. Here, we studied whether memory bias is related to amygdala and hippocampal volume, two structures that are critical for emotional memory processes and that show consistent volume alterations in depression.

Method

Structural magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) was carried out in 272 healthy participants (62% female, 18–50 years old). All images were acquired on 1.5 T Siemens MRI scanners. Automatic segmentation of amygdala and hippocampus was performed using the FIRST module of FSL. Negative memory bias was assessed by the self-referent encoding/evaluation test.

Results

Negative memory bias was associated with larger amygdala (p=0.042) and smaller hippocampal (p=0.029) volumes. In additional analyses, we found that, compared with the associations found with hippocampus and amygdala volume separately, a stronger association was found between negative memory bias and the ratio of amygdala:hippocampus volume (p=0.021).

Conclusions

In non-depressed subjects we found that larger amygdala and smaller hippocampal volumes are associated with negative memory bias. This suggests that an increased amygdala:hippocampus volume ratio plays a role in cognitive vulnerability often seen in individuals with high risk for depression and that these structural brain differences may pre-date the onset of depression.

Keywords

Amygdaladepressionhippocampusmemory biasneuroimaging
Type
Original Articles
Information
Psychological Medicine , Volume 42 , Issue 2 , February 2012 , pp. 335 - 343
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2011

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