Project Summary

Hank P. Jedema, Ph.D. (Young Investigator 2006) of the University of Pittsburgh, will study how the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis (BNST) plays a role in mediating stress in healthy and depressed individuals. BNST plays an important role in behavioral changes to sustained stressful stimuli and is strategically placed to coordinate these adaptations via integration of its inputs from the amygdala, frontal cortex, and stress-related brainstem structures and its projections to monoaminergic nuclei and the HPA axis, structures thought to exhibit abnormalities in depressed patients. Furthermore, BNST neurons contain the stress-related neuropeptide CRH, which is elevated in depressed patients; and BNST CRH levels are known to be increased by stress exposure. However, little is known about the influence of BNST neurons on the locus coeruleus and ventral tegmental area under normal conditions and following chronic stress exposure. The proposed studies should advance understanding of the interaction of the neural systems involved in mood and anxiety disorders and how this interaction may be affected by stress, which is believed to contribute to the etiology of both conditions.

Program Area: MULTIPLE FOCUS\Anxiety Disorders/Mood Disorders\Anxiety Disorders/Unipolar

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