Hostname: page-component-84c44f86f4-6dgjw Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-10-14T13:51:15.627Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Investigating amygdala habituation in major depressive disorder: an fMRI study in UK Biobank

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 August 2025

L. Fortaner-Uyà ,
C. Verga ,
S. Cademartiri ,
E. Tassi ,
P. Brambilla ,
E. Maggioni ,
C. Fabbri ,
F. Benedetti  and
B. Vai
L. Fortaner-Uyà*
Affiliation:
University Vita-Salute San Raffaele Division of Neuroscience, IRCCS San Raffaele Hospital, Psychiatry and Clinical Psychobiology Unit
C. Verga
Affiliation:
Division of Neuroscience, IRCCS San Raffaele Hospital, Psychiatry and Clinical Psychobiology Unit
S. Cademartiri
Affiliation:
University Vita-Salute San Raffaele
E. Tassi
Affiliation:
Department of Neurosciences and Mental Health, Fondazione IRCCS Ca’ Granda Ospedale Maggiore Policlinico Department of Electronics - Information and Bioengineering, Politecnico di Milano, Milan
P. Brambilla
Affiliation:
Department of Neurosciences and Mental Health, Fondazione IRCCS Ca’ Granda Ospedale Maggiore Policlinico
E. Maggioni
Affiliation:
Department of Electronics - Information and Bioengineering, Politecnico di Milano, Milan
C. Fabbri
Affiliation:
Department of Biomedical and Neuromotor Sciences, University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy
F. Benedetti
Affiliation:
University Vita-Salute San Raffaele Division of Neuroscience, IRCCS San Raffaele Hospital, Psychiatry and Clinical Psychobiology Unit
B. Vai
Affiliation:
University Vita-Salute San Raffaele Division of Neuroscience, IRCCS San Raffaele Hospital, Psychiatry and Clinical Psychobiology Unit
*
*Corresponding author.

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.
Introduction

Major depressive disorder (MDD) is a severe psychiatric condition with a high risk of suicide. Research on MDD and suicidality has identified structural and functional abnormalities in the cortico-limbic network as candidate biomarkers, but little is known about the temporal dynamics of these brain regions. Recently, abnormal amygdala habituation to emotional stimuli has been highlighted as a reliable fMRI phenotype linked to emotional dysregulation and increased suicide risk.

Objectives

Our study aimed to assess amygdala habituation to emotional stimuli in MDD and explore differences between suicide attempters (SA) and non-attempters (nSA). Additionally, we examined the relationship between amygdala habituation and depressive symptoms.

Methods

414 MDD patients (239 SA, 175 nSA) selected from the UK Biobank underwent fMRI during a block-designed emotion processing task, including faces and shapes conditions. We obtained bilateral amygdala activation for each block using FSL. Habituation was quantified using two methods: the regression approach (REG) and First minus Last block (FmL). One sample T-tests were used to investigate whether habituation rates significantly differed from zero. Group differences were analysed using Mann-Whitney U-tests. Generalized linear models (GLM) were applied to examine relationships between habituation and depression severity, controlling for age, sex, group (SA vs. nSA), and handedness.

Results

In both MDD and SA groups, no significant habituation was observed for either emotional or non-emotional stimuli (pFDR>.05). However, the nSA group showed significantly positive habituation rates for left amygdala in both conditions and for right amygdala in faces condition using REG (pFDR<.05), suggesting a possible sensitization process. Moreover, nSA showed significantly higher habituation rates than SA in all conditions with REG (pFDR<.01). GLM analyses revealed no significant associations with depression severity.

Conclusions

Our results suggest that MDD is characterized by a lack of amygdala habituation to emotional stimuli, potentially offering new insights into its pathophysiology. This biomarker may help in developing novel therapeutic strategies targeting the amygdala and its regulation within the cortico-limbic system.

Fundings

The current study was supported by the Italian Ministry of Health, GR-2019-12370616.

Disclosure of Interest

None Declared

Information

Type
Abstract
Information
European Psychiatry , Volume 68 , Special Issue S1: Abstracts of the 33rd European Congress of Psychiatry , April 2025 , pp. S196
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BY
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2025. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of European Psychiatric Association
Submit a response

Comments

No Comments have been published for this article.