Morphological changes in the hippocampal, thalamic, and amygdala subfields have been suggested to form part of the pathophysiology of major depressive disorder (MDD). However, the use of conventional MRI scanners and acquisition techniques has prevented in-depth examinations at the subfield level, precluding a fine-grained understanding of these subfields and their involvement in MDD pathophysiology. We uniquely employed ultra-high field MRI at 7.0 Tesla to map hippocampal, thalamic, and amygdala subfields in MDD. Fifty-six MDD patients and 14 healthy controls (HCs) were enrolled in the final analysis. FreeSurfer protocols were used to segment hippocampal, thalamic, and amygdala subfields. Bayesian analysis was then implemented to assess differences between groups and relations with clinical features. While no effect was found for MDD diagnosis (i.e., case-control comparison), clinical characteristics of MDD patients were associated with subfield volumes of the hippocampus, thalamus, and amygdala. Specifically, the severity of depressive symptoms, insomnia, and childhood trauma in MDD patients related to lower thalamic subfield volumes. In addition, MDD patients with typical MDD versus those with atypical MDD showed lower hippocampal, thalamic, and amygdala subfield volumes. MDD patients with recurrent MDD versus those with first-episode MDD also showed lower thalamic subfield volumes. These findings allow uniquely fine-grained insights into hippocampal, thalamic, and amygdala subfield morphology in MDD, linking some of them to the clinical manifestation of MDD.

OBJECTIVE: Antenatal corticosteroids (ACS) is a well-established treatment for women at risk of preterm birth that improves neonatal outcomes. However, several concerns have been raised regarding the potential long-term adverse effects of ACS on the offspring\'s developing brain. Here we investigated the association between ACS and subcortical segmental volumes in preterm infants at term-equivalent age.
METHODS: This retrospective observational study was conducted using the clinical data of preterm singleton infants born between 220/7 and 336/7 gestational weeks at Nagoya University Hospital in 2014-2020. Subcortical volumes of the bilateral thalami, caudate nuclei, putamens, pallidums, hippocampi, amygdalae, and nuclei accumbens were evaluated using an automated segmentation tool, Infant FreeSurfer, and compared between neonates exposed to a single course of ACS (n = 46) and those who were not (n = 13) by multiple linear regression analysis (covariates: postmenstrual age at magnetic resonance imaging, infant sex, and gestational age at birth). We compared each subcortical volume stratified by gestational age at birth (<28 vs. ≥28 gestational weeks).
RESULTS: Multivariate analyses revealed significantly smaller volumes in the bilateral amygdalae (left, p < 0.03; right, p < 0.03) and caudate nuclei (left, p < 0.03; right, p = 0.04) in neonates with ACS. Significantly smaller volumes in these regions were observed only in neonates born at 28 weeks of gestation or later.
CONCLUSIONS: ACS was associated with smaller volumes of the bilateral amygdalae and caudate nuclei at term-equivalent age. This association was observed exclusively in infants born at 28 weeks of gestation or later.

Few population-based studies including younger adults have examined the potential of olfactory function tests to capture the degree of atrophy in memory-associated brain regions, which cannot be adequately explained by cognitive function tests screening for cognitive impairment. This population-based study investigated associations between high-resolution olfactory test data with few odours and grey matter volumes (GMVs) of the left and right hippocampi, amygdala, parahippocampi, and olfactory cortex, while accounting for differences in cognitive decline, in 1444 participants (aged 31-91 years). Regression analyses included intracranial volume (ICV)-normalised GMVs of eight memory-related regions as objective variables and age, sex, education duration, smoking history, olfaction test score, and the Montreal Cognitive Assessment-Japanese version (MoCA-J) score as explanatory variables. Significant relationships were found between olfactory test scores and ICV-normalised GMVs of the left and right hippocampi and left amygdala (p = 0.020, 0.024, and 0.028, respectively), adjusting for the MoCA-J score. The olfactory test score was significantly related to the right amygdalar GMV (p = 0.020) in older adults (age ≥ 65 years). These associations remained significant after applying Benjamini-Hochberg multiple testing correction (false discovery rate < 0.1). Therefore, olfactory and cognitive function tests may efficiently capture the degree of atrophy in the hippocampi and amygdala, especially in older adults.

Abnormal functional connectivity (FC) within the fear network model (FNM) has been identified in panic disorder (PD) patients, but the specific local structural and functional properties, as well as effective connectivity (EC), remain poorly understood in PD. The purpose of this study was to investigate the structural and functional patterns of the FNM in PD. Magnetic resonance imaging data were collected from 33 PD patients and 35 healthy controls (HCs). Gray matter volume (GMV), degree centrality (DC), regional homogeneity (ReHo), and amplitude of low-frequency fluctuation (ALFF) were used to identify the structural and functional characteristics of brain regions within the FNM in PD. Subsequently, FC and EC of abnormal regions, based on local structural and functional features, and their correlation with clinical features were further examined. PD patients exhibited preserved GMV, ReHo, and ALFF in the brain regions of the FNM compared with HCs. However, increased DC in the bilateral amygdala was observed in PD patients. The amygdala and its subnuclei exhibited altered EC with rolandic operculum, insula, medial superior frontal gyrus, supramarginal gyrus, opercular part of inferior frontal gyrus, and superior temporal gyrus. Additionally, Hamilton Anxiety Scale score was positively correlated with EC from left lateral nuclei (dorsal portion) of amygdala to right rolandic operculum and left superior temporal gyrus. Our findings revealed a reorganized functional network in PD involving brain regions regulating exteroceptive-interoceptive signals, mood, and somatic symptoms. These results enhance our understanding of the neurobiological underpinnings of PD, suggesting potential biomarkers for diagnosis and targets for therapeutic intervention.

BACKGROUND: Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a prevalent and severe psychiatric disorder. Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) targeting the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex provides limited relief for symptoms of PTSD. This study will be conducted to validate the efficacy of MRI-guided rTMS in targeting the sites most closely associated with the amygdala for patients with PTSD. We hypothesise that the intervention will improve clinical symptoms by decreasing amygdala activity in patients.
METHODS: A randomised, double-blind, sham-controlled trial will be conducted. Forty-eight eligible patients with PTSD will be randomly assigned to receive either active or sham MRI-guided rTMS for 10 consecutive days after the initial MRI scans. MRI scans will be recollected at the end of the intervention. Clinical assessments will be performed at baseline, treatment day 5, treatment day 10, and 2 weeks, 4 weeks, 8 weeks after completion of the intervention to monitor changes in clinical symptoms. The primary assessment outcome is the change in PTSD symptoms between baseline and treatment day 10, as measured by the PTSD Checklist for DSM-5. Repeated measures analysis of variance will be performed using statistical software SPSS V.26.0. The significance level will be set at 0.05.
BACKGROUND: Ethical approval has been obtained from the Ethics Committee of Xijing Hospital in Xi\'an, China (KY20222176-X-1), and the trial has been registered on ClinicalTrials.gov. The findings of this trial will be disseminated at academic conferences or published in peer-reviewed scientific journals.
BACKGROUND: NCT05544110.

Music is a powerful medium that influences our emotions and memories. Neuroscience research has demonstrated music\'s ability to engage brain regions associated with emotion, reward, motivation, and autobiographical memory. While music\'s role in modulating emotions has been explored extensively, our study investigates whether music can alter the emotional content of memories. Building on the theory that memories can be updated upon retrieval, we tested whether introducing emotional music during memory recollection might introduce false emotional elements into the original memory trace. We developed a 3-day episodic memory task with separate encoding, recollection, and retrieval phases. Our primary hypothesis was that emotional music played during memory recollection would increase the likelihood of introducing novel emotional components into the original memory. Behavioral findings revealed two key outcomes: 1) participants exposed to music during memory recollection were more likely to incorporate novel emotional components congruent with the paired music valence, and 2) memories retrieved 1 day later exhibited a stronger emotional tone than the original memory, congruent with the valence of the music paired during the previous day\'s recollection. Furthermore, fMRI results revealed altered neural engagement during story recollection with music, including the amygdala, anterior hippocampus, and inferior parietal lobule. Enhanced connectivity between the amygdala and other brain regions, including the frontal and visual cortex, was observed during recollection with music, potentially contributing to more emotionally charged story reconstructions. These findings illuminate the interplay between music, emotion, and memory, offering insights into the consequences of infusing emotional music into memory recollection processes.

OBJECTIVE: Despite the benefits of anterior temporal lobectomy with amygdalohippocampectomy in patients with temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE), approximately up to 5% may have hemiparesis as its postoperative complication. This paper aims to describe which step/s of the anterior temporal lobectomy with amygdalohippocampectomy have the highest probability of having the greatest decrease in motor evoked potential (MEP) amplitude.
METHODS: This study used a cross-sectional design of obtaining data from TLE patients who underwent anterior temporal lobectomy with amygdalohippocampectomy with transcranial MEP monitoring. Each of the following steps were evaluated for reduction in MEP amplitude: 1) dural opening, 2) opening the inferior horn, 2) vertical temporal lobe resection 3) subpial dissection, 4) temporal lobe stem resection, 5) lateral temporal lobe resection, 6) hippocampal resection, 7) amygdala resection, 8) uncus resection, and 9) dural closure.
RESULTS: Nineteen patients were included in the study. Based on the Friedman Test, 1 or more steps had significantly different average MEP amplitude reductions (Friedman = 50.7, P = 0.0001). When compared with baseline (100%, cutoff P = 0.005), hippocampal resection (z = -3.81, P < 0.0001), T1 subpial dissection (z = -3.2, P = 0.0010), uncus resection (z = -3.48, P = 0.0002), temporal stem resection (z = -3.26, P = 0.001), lateral temporal lobe resection (z = -3.13, P = 0.002), and amygdalectomy (-z = -3.37, P = 0.0005) were significantly lower. Of these, hippocampal resection, uncus resection, and amygdalectomy were deemed highly significant.
CONCLUSIONS: MEP amplitude tends to decrease during amygdala, hippocampal, and uncal resection because of surgical manipulation of anterior choroidal arteries, which can potentially cause hemiparesis. Careful attention should be paid to changes in MEP during these steps.

UNASSIGNED: As a source of audio-visual stimulation, movies expose people to various emotions. Interestingly, several genres are characterized by negative emotional content. Albeit theoretical approaches exist, little is known about preferences for specific movie genres and the neuronal processing of negative emotions.
UNASSIGNED: We investigated associations between movie genre preference and limbic and reward-related brain reactivity to close this gap by employing an fMRI paradigm with negative emotional faces in 257 healthy participants. We compared the functional activity of the amygdala and the nucleus accumbens (NAcc) between individuals with a preference for a particular movie genre and those without such preference.
UNASSIGNED: Amygdala activation was relatively higher in individuals with action movie preference (p TFCE-FWE = 0.013). Comedy genre preference was associated with increased amygdala (p TFCE-FWE = 0.038) and NAcc activity (p TFCE-FWE = 0.011). In contrast, crime/thriller preference (amygdala: p TFCE-FWE ≤ 0.010, NAcc: p TFCE-FWE = 0.036), as well as documentary preference, was linked to the decreased amygdala (p TFCE-FWE = 0.012) and NAcc activity (p TFCE-FWE = 0.015). The study revealed associations between participants\' genre preferences and brain reactivity to negative affective stimuli. Interestingly, preferences for genres with similar emotion profiles (action, crime/thriller) were associated with oppositely directed neural activity. Potential links between brain reactivity and susceptibility to different movie-related gratifications are discussed.

BACKGROUND: There is an imminent need to identify neural markers during preadolescence that are linked to developing depression during adolescence, especially among youth at elevated familial risk. However, longitudinal studies remain scarce and exhibit mixed findings. Here we aimed to elucidate functional connectivity (FC) patterns among preadolescents that interact with familial depression risk to predict depression two years later.
METHODS: 9-10 year-olds in the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) Study were classified as healthy (i.e., no lifetime psychiatric diagnoses) at high familial risk for depression (HR; n=559) or at low familial risk for psychopathology (LR; n=1203). Whole-brain seed-to-voxel resting-state FC patterns with the amygdala, putamen, nucleus accumbens, and caudate were calculated. Multi-level, mixed-effects regression analyses were conducted to test whether FC at ages 9-10 interacted with familial risk to predict depression symptoms at ages 11-12.
RESULTS: HR youth demonstrated stronger associations between preadolescent FC and adolescent depression symptoms (ps<0.001) as compared to LR youth (ps>0.001), primarily among amygdala/striatal FC with visual and sensory/somatomotor networks.
CONCLUSIONS: Preadolescent amygdala and striatal FC may be useful biomarkers of adolescent-onset depression, particularly for youth with family histories of depression. This research may point to neurobiologically-informed approaches to prevention and intervention for depression in adolescents.

BACKGROUND: Research has demonstrated an association between elevated systemic inflammation and changes in brain function. Affective areas of the brain involved in processing threat (e.g., amygdala) and reward (e.g., nucleus accumbens) appear to be sensitive to inflammation. Early-life stress, such as experiencing low socioeconomic status (SES), may also potentiate this association, but relevant evidence has come primarily from cross-sectional studies of brain function. It is unclear whether similar associations are present between early-life stress, inflammation, and brain structure, particularly in typically developing populations.
METHODS: We recruited and assessed 50 adolescents (31 females/19 males) from the community (mean [SD] age = 15.5 [1.1] years, range = 13.1-17.5 years) and examined in exploratory analyses whether changes in C-reactive protein (ΔCRP) from blood spots predict changes in gray matter volume (ΔGMV) in the bilateral amygdala and nucleus accumbens over a 2-year period. We also investigated whether experiencing early-life stress, operationalized using a comprehensive composite score of SES disadvantage at the family and neighborhood levels, significantly moderated the association between ΔCRP and ΔGMV.
RESULTS: We found that ΔCRP was negatively associated with Δamygdala GMV (i.e., increasing CRP levels were associated with decreasing amygdala volume; β = -0.84, p = .012). This effect was stronger in youths who experienced greater SES disadvantage (β = -0.56, p = .025).
CONCLUSIONS: These findings suggest that increases in systemic inflammation are associated with reductions in amygdala GMV in adolescents, potentially signaling accelerated maturation, and that these neuroimmune processes are compounded in adolescents who experienced greater SES disadvantage. Our findings are consistent with theoretical frameworks of neuroimmune associations and suggest that they may influence adolescent neurodevelopment.