Project Summary

Wiveka Ramel, Ph.D. (Young Investigator 2006) of Stanford University, will use brain-imaging studies to investigate the role of the amygdala in individuals with a history of recurrent major depression during encoding and retrieval of charged words. It is hypothesized that remitted depressed (RD) individuals will exhibit a significantly greater association between amygdala response to negative words and retrieval of these words than never-depressed (ND) individuals. In the proposed study, Dr. Ramel will scan RD and ND matched individuals using fMRI while they are performing a self-referent encoding (SRET) task following a sad-mood induction. Immediately after the SRET, participants will do free recall and forced-choice recognition tasks. Participants' psychiatric status will be assessed every six months for 18 months. The amygdala-recall association is expected to predict depressive relapse in the RD group during follow-up. This finding would imply a functional neuroanatomical mediation of the amygdala in memory biases that places some individuals at increased risk for depressive relapse.

Program Area: MOOD DISORDERS\Unipolar

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