Structural Correlation Paper

Strengthening the structural correlations between HPC-PFC, functional studies in rodents have shown that both these substrates interact among each other with synchronized neuronal activity 1,37,38. Especially, there is an increase in theta frequency synchronization between the ventral hippocampus and the medial PFC in mice exposed to an anxiogenic environment, implicating this circuit in behavioral inhibition, characterized by reduced exploration during anxiety 39. Conversely, impaired synaptic plasticity of this circuit is reported in another neural oscillation study that employed the chronic, unpredictable stress (CUS) paradigm to generate a depression-like phenotype 40. A recent fMRI study on patients with depression showed the Hippocampal-PFC connectivity is functionally impaired in correlation with a motor memory consolidation protocol and polysomnography 41. …show more content…
The heightened vulnerability of the brain to emotional and psychological insults during childhood likely results in long lasting changes in the brain that increase the risk of being afflicted by depression later in life43. Notably, understanding the link between childhood stress exposure and brain function can therefore provide critical insight into disease etiology44,45. Furthermore, a study on correlation between the early life stress and MDD in adulthood showed a striking correlation with reduction in hippocampal and PFC volumes46, which could signify an association between circuit and structural abnormalities. Can a faulty circuit lead to structural abnormalities? Perhaps they are independent defects that coexist under certain conditions resulting in higher levels of functional