Volume of subcortical brain regions in social anxiety disorder: mega-analytic results from 37 samples in the ENIGMA-Anxiety Working Group.

There is limited convergence in neuroimaging investigations into volumes of subcortical brain regions in social anxiety disorder (SAD). The inconsistent findings may arise from variations in methodological approaches across studies, including sample selection based on age and clinical characteristics. The ENIGMA-Anxiety Working Group initiated a global mega-analysis to determine whether differences in subcortical volumes can be detected in adults and adolescents with SAD relative to healthy controls.

The relation between cannabis use, dependence severity and white matter microstructure: A diffusion tensor imaging study.

Despite the significant societal and personal burden of cannabis use, the impact of long-term use and Cannabis Use Disorder (CUD) on white matter microstructure is still unclear. Previous studies show inconsistent findings, in part due to heterogeneity in methodology, variable severity of cannabis use, and potential confounding effects of other mental health issues and substance use. The goal of this diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) study was to compare whole-brain white matter microstructure between 39 near daily cannabis users and 28 controls closely matched on age, sex, alcohol use, cigarette use and mental health.

FreeSurfer-based segmentation of hippocampal subfields: A review of methods and applications, with a novel quality control procedure for ENIGMA studies and other collaborative efforts.

Structural hippocampal abnormalities are common in many neurological and psychiatric disorders, and variation in hippocampal measures is related to cognitive performance and other complex phenotypes such as stress sensitivity. Hippocampal subregions are increasingly studied, as automated algorithms have become available for mapping and volume quantification. In the context of the Enhancing Neuro Imaging Genetics through Meta Analysis Consortium, several Disease Working Groups are using the FreeSurfer software to analyze hippocampal subregion (subfield) volumes in patients with neurological and psychiatric conditions along with data from matched controls.

Cortical thickness and resting-state cardiac function across the lifespan: A cross-sectional pooled mega-analysis.

Understanding the association between autonomic nervous system [ANS] function and brain morphology across the lifespan provides important insights into neurovisceral mechanisms underlying health and disease. Resting-state ANS activity, indexed by measures of heart rate [HR] and its variability [HRV] has been associated with brain morphology, particularly cortical thickness [CT]. While findings have been mixed regarding the anatomical distribution and direction of the associations, these inconsistencies may be due to sex and age differences in HR/HRV and CT.

ENIGMA MDD: seven years of global neuroimaging studies of major depression through worldwide data sharing.

A key objective in the field of translational psychiatry over the past few decades has been to identify the brain correlates of major depressive disorder (MDD). Identifying measurable indicators of brain processes associated with MDD could facilitate the detection of individuals at risk, and the development of novel treatments, the monitoring of treatment effects, and predicting who might benefit most from treatments that target specific brain mechanisms. However, despite intensive neuroimaging research towards this effort, underpowered studies and a lack of reproducible findings have hindered progress.

ENIGMA-DTI: Translating reproducible white matter deficits into personalized vulnerability metrics in cross-diagnostic psychiatric research.

The ENIGMA-DTI (diffusion tensor imaging) workgroup supports analyses that examine the effects of psychiatric, neurological, and developmental disorders on the white matter pathways of the human brain, as well as the effects of normal variation and its genetic associations. The seven ENIGMA disorder-oriented working groups used the ENIGMA-DTI workflow to derive patterns of deficits using coherent and coordinated analyses that model the disease effects across cohorts worldwide. This yielded the largest studies detailing patterns of white matter deficits in schizophrenia spectrum disorder (SSD), bipolar disorder (BD), major depressive disorder (MDD), obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), traumatic brain injury (TBI), and 22q11 deletion syndrome.

ENIGMA and global neuroscience: A decade of large-scale studies of the brain in health and disease across more than 40 countries.

This review summarizes the last decade of work by the ENIGMA (Enhancing NeuroImaging Genetics through Meta Analysis) Consortium, a global alliance of over 1400 scientists across 43 countries, studying the human brain in health and disease. Building on large-scale genetic studies that discovered the first robustly replicated genetic loci associated with brain metrics, ENIGMA has diversified into over 50 working groups (WGs), pooling worldwide data and expertise to answer fundamental questions in neuroscience, psychiatry, neurology, and genetics. Most ENIGMA WGs focus on specific psychiatric and neurological conditions, other WGs study normal variation due to sex and gender differences, or development and aging; still other WGs develop methodological pipelines and tools to facilitate harmonized analyses of "big data" (i.

The impact of depression and anxiety treatment on biological aging and metabolic stress: study protocol of the MOod treatment with antidepressants or running (MOTAR) study.

Background: Depressive and anxiety disorders have shown to be associated to premature or advanced biological aging and consequently to adversely impact somatic health. Treatments with antidepressant medication or running therapy are both found to be effective for many but not all patients with mood and anxiety disorders. These interventions may, however, work through different pathophysiological mechanisms and could differ in their impact on biological aging and somatic health.

White matter disturbances in major depressive disorder: a coordinated analysis across 20 international cohorts in the ENIGMA MDD working group.

Alterations in white matter (WM) microstructure have been implicated in the pathophysiology of major depressive disorder (MDD). However, previous findings have been inconsistent, partially due to low statistical power and the heterogeneity of depression. In the largest multi-site study to date, we examined WM anisotropy and diffusivity in 1305 MDD patients and 1602 healthy controls (age range 12-88 years) from 20 samples worldwide, which included both adults and adolescents, within the MDD Working Group of the Enhancing Neuroimaging Genetics through Meta-Analysis (ENIGMA) consortium.

Neuroimaging predictors of onset and course of depression in childhood and adolescence: A systematic review of longitudinal studies.

Major depressive disorder (MDD) often emerges during adolescence with detrimental effects on development as well as lifetime consequences. Identifying neurobiological markers that are associated with the onset or course of this disorder in childhood and adolescence is important for early recognition and intervention and, potentially, for the prevention of illness onset. In this systematic review, 68 longitudinal neuroimaging studies, from 34 unique samples, that examined the association of neuroimaging markers with onset or changes in paediatric depression published up to 1 February 2019 were examined.

White matter architecture in major depression with anxious distress symptoms.

Background: Comorbid anxious distress is common in Major Depressive Disorder (MDD), and associated with significantly worse clinical course and treatment response. While DSM-5 recently introduced the Anxious Distress (AD) specifier as a potentially useful symptom-based subtyping scheme for MDD, its neurobiological underpinnings remain unclear. The current study hence uniquely probed whether MDD with co-occurring AD (MDD/AD+) relates to distinct perturbations in frontolimbic white matter (WM) pathways tentatively theorized in MDD/AD+ pathophysiology.

Oxidative stress and brain morphology in individuals with depression, anxiety and healthy controls.

Oxidative stress is a biological process, caused by an imbalance between reactive oxygen species (ROS) and antioxidants, in favour of the ROS. This imbalance leads to oxidative damage to lipids, proteins and DNA and ultimately cell death. Studies in rodents have shown that the brain, particularly the amygdala and hippocampus, is sensitive to oxidative stress, although studies on the association between oxidative stress and brain morphology in humans are lacking.

Immunometabolic dysregulation is associated with reduced cortical thickness of the anterior cingulate cortex.

Background: Immunometabolic dysregulation (low-grade inflammation and metabolic dysregulation) has been associated with the onset and more severe course of multiple psychiatric disorders, partly due to neuroanatomical changes and impaired neuroplasticity. We examined the effect of multiple markers of immunometabolic dysregulation on hippocampal and amygdala volume and anterior cingulate cortex thickness in a large sample of patients with depression and/or anxiety and healthy subjects (N=283).

Methods: Interleukin-6 (IL-6), tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-a), c-reactive protein (CRP), triglyceride levels and HDL-cholesterol and genomic profile risk scores (GPRS) for immunometabolic dysregulation were determined in peripheral blood and T1 MRI scans were acquired at 3T.

Effect of childhood maltreatment and brain-derived neurotrophic factor on brain morphology.

Childhood maltreatment (CM) has been associated with altered brain morphology, which may partly be due to a direct impact on neural growth, e.g. through the brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) pathway.