Amygdala and Depression

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Adolescent Depression and the Amygdala Introduction and Method Adolescence is one of the most concerning times when it comes to depression. One study completed by Tony T. Yang and colleagues (2010) wanted to gain more knowledge on this subject. The goal of the Yang et al study was to compare the Amygdala in depressed adolescents to their healthy counterparts in order to grasp a better understanding of adolescent depression. The study focused on observing to see if there was any correlation between neural activity in the bilateral amygdala and adolescent depression. The hypothesis of this study stated that the facial tasks involved would produce activity in the amygdala and that amygdala activation would be greater in those participants with depression. (Yang et al., 2010) The participants of this study consisted of twenty-four adolescents between the ages of roughly fourteen and seventeen years old, twelve of which were classified as depressed and the other twelve participated as the healthy controls. In each of the two groups, five participants were female while seven were male. Let it be noted that of the twelve depressed adolescents, none had either a comorbid disorder nor were any on anti-depressant medication. All of the participants took multiple tests to determine eligibility, as there were many items listed under exclusion criteria. Such items included being left handed, IQ score lower than eighty, history of neurologic disorder and color blindness, amongst a few others. The healthy controls were tested for any presence of an axis one disorders, while the depressed participants were tested against the exclusion criteria. The procedure of this study involved using a functional MRI. While under the fMRI scan, each parti... ... middle of paper ... ...Monk, C. (2011). Lecture 12-Adolescent biological development 2011 student slides [PowerPoint slides]. Retrieved from https://ctools.umich.edu/portal/site/cebe77f0-5b4a-4dd6-a759-04bf01bbb166 Monk, C. (2011). Lecture 15-Physical and Cognitive Development in Young Adulthood 2011 student slides [PowerPoint slides]. Retrieved from https://ctools.umich.edu/portal/site/cebe77f0-5b4a-4dd6-a759-04bf01bbb166 Yang, T. T., Simmons, A. N., Matthews, S. C., Tapert, S. F., Frank, G., Max, J. E., … Paulus, M. P. (2010). Adolescents with major depression demonstrate increased amygdala activation. Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 49, 42-51. Yurgelon-Todd, D.A., Killgore, W.D.S.,. (2006). Fear related activity in the prefrontal cortex increases with age during adolescence: A preliminary fMRI study. Science Direct,406,194-199.

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