Amygdala response and functional connectivity during emotion regulation: A study of 14 depressed adolescents

BackgroundIneffective emotion regulation and abnormal amygdala activation have each been found in adolescent-onset major depressive disorder. However, amygdala activation during emotion regulation has not been studied in adolescent-onset major depressive disorder.MethodFourteen unmedicated adolescents diagnosed with current depression without comorbid psychiatric disorders and fourteen well-matched controls ages 13 to 17 years underwent an emotional regulation task during functional magnetic resonance imaging. During this task, participants viewed negatively-valence images and were asked to notice how they were feeling without trying to change it and maintain their emotional reaction (“Maintain”) or to interpret the image in such a way as minimize their emotional response (“Reduce”).ResultsImaging analyses demonstrated that adolescents with depression showed: (1) greater right amygdala activation during the maintain condition relative to controls, (2) less connectivity during the maintain condition between the amygdala and both the insula and medial prefrontal cortex than controls, and (3) a significant positive correlation between amygdala-seeded connectivities during maintenance of emotion and psychosocial functioning.LimitationsThe current study is a cross-sectional comparison and longitudinal investigations with larger sample sizes are needed to examine the association between amygdala reactivity and emotion regulation over time in adolescent MDD.ConclusionsDuring the maintain condition, adolescents with depression showed a heightened amygdala response and less reciprocal activation in brain regions that may modulate the amygdala. A poorly modulated, overreactive amygdala may contribute to poor emotion regulation.