Larger amygdala but no change in hippocampal volume in 10-year-old children exposed to maternal depressive symptomatology since birth

doi:10.1073/pnas.1105371108

Larger amygdala but no change in hippocampal volume in 10-year-old children exposed to maternal depressive symptomatology since birth

^aMental Health Institute of University of Montreal, Hospital Louis H. Lafontaine, and
^bDepartment Psychiatry and
^fDepartments of Psychology and Pediatrics, University of Montreal, Montreal, QC, Canada H1N 3M5;
^cCentre Hospitalier Universitaire Sainte-Justine Research Center, Montreal, QC, Canada H3T 1C5;
^dSchool of Psychoeducation, University of Montreal, Montreal, QC, Canada H3C 3J7;
^eThe McConnell Brain Imaging Center, Montreal Neurological Institute, Montreal, QC, Canada H3A 2B4;
^gSchool of Public Health and Population Sciences, University College Dublin, Dublin 4, Ireland;
^hInstitut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale U669, 75014 Paris, France;
ⁱInstitute of Child Development, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN 55455; and
^jThe Douglas Mental Health Institute, Department of Psychiatry, McGill University, Montreal, QC, Canada H4H 1R3

Edited* by Bruce S. McEwen, The Rockefeller University, New York, NY, and approved July 21, 2011 (received for review April 04, 2011)

Abstract

Maternal separation and poor maternal care in animals have been shown to have important effects on the developing hippocampus and amygdala. In humans, children exposed to abuse/maltreatment or orphanage rearing do not present changes in hippocampal volumes. However, children reared in orphanages present enlarged amygdala volumes, suggesting that the amygdala may be particularly sensitive to severely disturbed (i.e., discontinous, neglectful) care in infancy. Maternal depressive symptomatology has been associated with reductions in overall sensitivity to the infant, and with an increased rate of withdrawn, disengaged behaviors. To determine if poor maternal care associated with maternal depressive symptomatology has a similar pattern of association to the volumes of the hippocampus and amygdala in children, as is the case for severely disturbed infant care (orphanage rearing), we measured hippocampal and amygdala volumes as well as stress hormone (glucocorticoid) levels in children exposed (n = 17) or not (n = 21) to maternal depressive symptomatology since birth. Results revealed no group difference in hippocampal volumes, but larger left and right amygdala volumes and increased levels of glucocorticoids in the children of mothers presenting depressive symptomatology since birth. Moreover, a significant positive correlation was observed between mothers' mean depressive scores and amygdala volumes in their children. The results of this study suggest that amygdala volume in human children may represent an early marker of biological sensitivity to quality of maternal care.

Footnotes

↵¹To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: sonia.lupien{at}umontreal.ca.

Author contributions: S.J.L., S.P., R.E.T., P.D.Z., J.C.P., and J.R.S. designed research; S.J.L. and J.R.S. performed research; A.C.E. contributed new reagents/analytic tools; S.J.L., S.P., A.C.E., V.C., J.C.P., and J.R.S. analyzed data; and S.J.L., S.P., R.E.T., P.D.Z., V.C., J.C.P., and J.R.S. wrote the paper.
The authors declare no conflict of interest.
↵*This Direct Submission article had a prearranged editor.
This article contains supporting information online at www.pnas.org/lookup/suppl/doi:10.1073/pnas.1105371108/-/DCSupplemental.

Freely available online through the PNAS open access option.