Thus, as we discuss in detail below, increasing neuroimaging, neuropathological, and biochemical studies suggest impairments in cellular plasticity and selleckchem resilience in patients who suffer from severe, recurrent mood disorders. The term “neuroplasticity” encompasses diverse essential processes by which the brain perceives, adapts to, and responds to a variety of internal and external stimuli. Manifestations of neuroplasticity in the adult central nervous system (CNS) include

alterations of dendritic function, synaptic remodeling, long-term potentiation Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical (LTP), axonal sprouting, neurite extension, synaptogenesis, and neurogenesis. In this perspective paper, we describe studies identifying possible structural, functional, and cellular abnormalities associated with depressive disorders – the potential cellular underpinnings

of these micro- and macromorphological brain Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical changes. We suggest that therapeutics designed to enhance cellular plasticity and resilience, and to attenuate the activity of maladaptive stress-responsive systems may have considerable utility for the treatment of severe mood disorders. Brain imaging studies in depressed patients Positron emission tomography (PET) imaging studies have Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical unveiled various abnormalities of glucose metabolism and regional cerebral blood flow (CBF) in limbic and PFC structures in patients with mood disorders. Although some disagreement exists regarding the specific locations and the direction of some of these abnormalities, unmedicated subjects Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical with familial major depression show a consistent increase in regional CBF and metabolism in the amygdala, orbital cortex, and medial thalamus, and decreased metabolism and CBF in the dorsomedial/dorsal anterolateral Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical PFC and anterior cingulate cortex

ventral to the genu of the corpus callosum (ie, subgenual PFC) relative to healthy controls.16,17 These abnormalities suggest that limbic-thalamic-cortical and limbic-cortical-striatalpallidal-thalamic circuits, involving the amygdala, orbital and medial Resveratrol PFC, and anatomically related parts of the striatum and thalamus are involved in pathophysiology of depression. Additionally, these circuits have been implicated more generally in emotional behavior by electrophysiological, lesion analysis and brain mapping studies of humans and experimental animals.12,15 Some of these abnormalities reverse during symptom remission, suggesting that there are areas where neuro-physiological activity may increase or decrease in order to mediate or respond to the emotional and cognitive manifestations of depression.