Cited by 224Functional Brain Connectivity StudiesTreatment of Major DepressionNeural and Behavioral Psychology Studies

Functional Coupling of the Amygdala in Depressed Patients Treated with Antidepressant Medication

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Chen, Chi-Hua, Suckling, John, Ooi, Cinly, Fu, Cynthia H Y, Williams, Steve C R, Walsh, Nicholas D, Mitterschiffthaler, Martina T, Pich, Emilio Merlo +1 more·2008·Neuropsychopharmacology

Abstract

The amygdala plays a central role in various aspects of affect processing and mood regulation by its rich anatomical connections to other limbic and cortical regions. It is plausible that depressive disorders, and response to antidepressant drugs, may reflect changes in the physiological coupling between the amygdala and other components of affect-related large-scale brain systems. We explored this hypothesis by mapping the functional coupling of right and left amygdalae in functional magnetic resonance imaging data acquired from 19 patients with major depressive disorder and 19 healthy volunteers, each scanned twice (at baseline and 8 weeks later) during performance of an implicit facial affect processing task. Between scanning sessions, the patients received treatment with an antidepressant drug, fluoxetine 20 mg/day. We found that the amygdala was positively coupled bilaterally with medial temporal and ventral occipital regions, and negatively coupled with the anterior cingulate cortex. Antidepressant treatment was associated with significantly increased coupling between the amygdala and right frontal and cingulate cortex, striatum, and thalamus. Treatment-related increases in functional coupling to frontal and other regions were greater for the left amygdala than for the right amygdala. These results indicate that antidepressant drug effects can be measured in terms of altered coupling between components of cortico-limbic systems and that these effects were most clearly demonstrated by enhanced functional coupling of the left amygdala.

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  • Disruptions in functional coupling between amygdala and subgenual cingulate have been reported during facial processing tasks.

    “Finally, disruptions in functional coupling between the amygdala and subgenual cingulate, a region also implicated in assessing the salience of emotion and regulating of emotions, have been reported during facial processing tasks.50,55”
  • Chen et al. reported that amygdala-ACC coupling during face emotion recognition increased as symptom severity decreased with antidepressant treatment.

    “Chen et al. (2008) described increased amygdala-ACC coupling during face emotion recognition as symptom severity reduced in response to antidepressant treatment.”

    From Affective Cognition and its Disruption in Mood Disorders (2011) · cites this paper as Chen et al., 2008

  • Pregenual ACC-amygdala coupling increases with pharmacological antidepressant treatment.

    “the strength of coupling between pregenual ACC and AMY has been shown to increase as a function of treatment with pharmacological antidepressants (Anand et al., 2007; Anand et al., 2005b; Chen et al., 2008)”

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  1. Aggleton JP (1993). The Amygdala. Oxford University Press Inc.: New York.

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Authors
Chen, C.-H., Suckling, J., Ooi, C., Fu, C. H. Y., Williams, S. C. R., Walsh, N. D., Mitterschiffthaler, M. T., Pich, E. M., & Bullmore, E.
Affiliations
  • University of Cambridge (GB)
  • King's College London (GB)
  • GlaxoSmithKline (Italy) (IT)
Venue
Neuropsychopharmacology
Published
2007-11-07
Volume
33
Issue
8
Pages
1909-1918
ISSN
  • 0893-133X (ISSN-L)
  • 1740-634X
OpenAlex
W1963590682
Cited by
224
References
75
Citations by year
2026: 4 · 2025: 4 · 2024: 7 · 2023: 7 · 2022: 6 · 2021: 31 · 2020: 2 · 2019: 10 · 2018: 8 · 2017: 7 · 2016: 15 · 2015: 15 · 2014: 12 · 2013: 23 · 2012: 9
FWCI
7.83
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • Neuropsychopharmacology (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • Research Portal (King's College London) (submittedVersion)
  • UEA Digital Repository (University of East Anglia) (submittedVersion)
  • INFM-OAR (INFN Catania) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
Funders
  • GlaxoSmithKline
  • Wellcome Trust
  • National Institute of Mental Health
Topics
  • Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Functional Brain Connectivity Studies
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Pharmacology › Treatment of Major Depression
  • Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Neural and Behavioral Psychology Studies
Keywords
amygdala, major depressive disorder, antidepressant treatment, fluoxetine, functional coupling, anterior cingulate cortex, medial temporal lobe, hemispheric lateralization, mood regulation
MeSH terms
Adult, Amygdala, Analysis of Variance, Brain Mapping, Major Depressive Disorder, Facial Expression, Female, Fluoxetine, Humans, Image Processing, Computer-Assisted, Functional Laterality, Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Male, Middle Aged, Psychiatric Status Rating Scales, Social Perception, Antidepressive Agents, Second-Generation

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