Cortisol Relates to Regional Limbic System Structure in Older but not Younger Adults

The hippocampus, amygdala, and anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), regions within the limbic system, are targets of glucocorticoid (GC) actions due to their rich expression of glucocorticoid receptors (GRs) (Morimoto et al., 1996; Wang et al., 2013; Wang et al., 2014). Although short-term GC elevations can result in adaptive neural plasticity, such as long-term potentiation (LTP), chronic elevations of circulating GCs can promote maladaptive change, such as disruption of LTP (Sapolsky, 2003). Animal studies indicate that chronic exposure to elevated GCs or chronic stress can engender dendritic atrophy within the hippocampus (Magari ños and McEwen, 1995), ACC (Radley et al., 2004), and medial amygdala (Bennur et al., 2007), but dendritic arborization in the basolateral amygdala (Vyas et al., 2002).

Source: Psychoneuroendocrinology - September 14, 2018 Category: Psychiatry Authors: Gilda E. Ennis, Eve-Marie Quintin, Ursula Saelzler, Kristen M. Kennedy, Christopher Hertzog, Scott D. Moffat Source Type: research