Amygdala volume and hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis reactivity to social stress

Barry, T. J., Murray, L., Fearon, P., Moutsiana, C., Johnstone, T. and Halligan, S. (2017) Amygdala volume and hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis reactivity to social stress. Psychoneuroendocrinology, 85. pp. 96-99. ISSN 1873-3360 doi: 10.1016/j.psyneuen.2017.07.487

Abstract/Summary

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.

Item Type	Article
URI	https://reading-clone.eprints-hosting.org/id/eprint/71462
Item Type	Article
Refereed	Yes
Divisions	Interdisciplinary Research Centres (IDRCs) > Centre for Integrative Neuroscience and Neurodynamics (CINN) Life Sciences > School of Psychology and Clinical Language Sciences > Department of Psychology Life Sciences > School of Psychology and Clinical Language Sciences > Neuroscience Interdisciplinary centres and themes > Winnicott Life Sciences > School of Psychology and Clinical Language Sciences > Psychopathology and Affective Neuroscience
Uncontrolled Keywords	depression, stress sensitivity, cortisol, amygdala, hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis
Publisher	Elsevier
Download/View statistics	View download statistics for this item