Project Summary

Jason Scalia, Ph.D. (Young Investigator 2007) of Columbia University, is studying how convulsive therapies for depression affect neuronal organization of the hippocampus, a part of the brain believed to be responsible for certain forms of learning and memory, and in which neurogenesis is known to persist in adulthood. Many pharmacological antidepressant therapies are known to increase the rate at which new neurons are generated in the hippocampus. Rodent models of electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) that employ electroconvulsive shock (ECS) are also known to increase hippocampal neurogenesis. The applicant proposes to measure hippocampal neurogenesis in monkeys receiving ECS and a novel convulsive intervention, magnetic seizure therapy (MST). Due to the similarity between the human brain and the monkey brain, this system emulates the clinical parameters of convulsive therapy better than rodent systems. It promises to expand our understanding of the neuroanatomical changes induced in the brains of patients receiving convulsive therapy.

Program Area: MOOD DISORDERS\Unipolar

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