Depressed adolescents demonstrate greater subgenual anterior cingulate activity.
Neuroimaging studies implicate the subgenual anterior cingulate cortex (sgACC) as a critical brain region in adult depression. However, unlike adult depression, little is known about the underlying neural substrates of adolescent depression, and there are no published data examining differences in sgACC activation between depressed and healthy adolescents. This study used functional magnetic resonance imaging to examine sgACC activity in 26 depressed and normal 13-17-year olds during the performance of a stop-signal task. Significantly greater sgACC activation was found in the depressed adolescents relative to controls. These results establish for the first time abnormal functioning of the sgACC in depressed adolescents and have important implications for understanding the underlying neural correlates and potential treatments of adolescent depression.
Yang
Tony T
TT
Department of Psychiatry, University of California, San Diego, CA, USA. tyang@ucsd.edu
Simmons
Alan N
AN
Matthews
Scott C
SC
Tapert
Susan F
SF
Frank
Guido K
GK
Bischoff-Grethe
Amanda
A
Lansing
Amy E
AE
Wu
Jing
J
Brown
Gregory G
GG
Paulus
Martin P
MP
D000293:Adolescent; D003866:Depressive Disorder / Q000503:physiopathology*; D005260:Female; D005625:Frontal Lobe / Q000503:physiopathology*; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D009043:Motor Activity / Q000502:physiology*; D011930:Reaction Time; D013647:Task Performance and Analysis