Project Summary

David P. Olson, M.D., Ph.D. (Young Investigator 2005) of McLean Hospital and Harvard University, plans to use a combination imaging approach to study the functional and structural changes in the brain believed to be occurring in major depression. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has reported decreased volumes of brain structure in the frontal cortex, hippocampus, amygdala, caudate and putamen in depression. Postmortem studies have shown decreased number and size of neurons and supporting cells in the prefrontal and anterior cingulate cortices. One recent postmortem study has reported increased numbers of neuron in the specific regions of the thalamus of individuals with major depression. These thalamic nuclei connect cortical and subcortical regions involved in the regulation of emotional experience and expression. This proposal suggests an approach to investigating all these changes in subjects with major depression by measuring metabolite magnetic relaxation times (metabolite relaxometry) together with conventional magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS). This approach has the potential to characterize changes in number of neurons as well as detecting signatures of altered neuronal cell volume within specific brain regions.

Program Area: MOOD DISORDERS\Unipolar Depression

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