[en] The brain mechanisms through which changes in season and light exposure modulate mood may involve different nuclei of the amygdala. We aimed to test this hypothesis using 7 Tesla functional magnetic resonance imaging in 29 healthy young adults. We first considered time-of-year changes in activity that are related to the slow change in photoperiod. We find that the response to emotional stimuli of selected medial and superior nuclei of the amygdala peaked around the start of winter or increased with worse mood status. We further assessed how alternating short exposures to light of different illuminance acutely affected the regional activity of the amygdala. We show that the same areas showed a linear reduction of activity when exposed to increasing light illuminance, specifically when processing emotional stimuli. Importantly, the impact of light on part of these nuclei peaked around the start of summer or decreased with worse mood. These findings provide additional evidence that humans show seasonality and that, for mood, it involves parts of the amygdala. The results bring insights into the mechanisms that underlie the long-term and acute impact of light on mood and that may contribute to the benefits of light therapy in the treatment of mood disorders.
Research Center/Unit :
GIGA-CRC-Human Imaging GIGA-In Vivo Imaging
Disciplines :
Neurology
Author, co-author :
Campbell, Islay ✱; GIGA-CRC-Human Imaging, University of Liège, Liège, Belgium ; Sir Jules Thorn Sleep and Circadian Neuroscience Institute, Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK
Balda Aizpurua, Jose ✱; Université de Liège - ULiège > GIGA > GIGA Neurosciences - Sleep and chronobiology
Sharifpour, Roya; GIGA-CRC-Human Imaging, University of Liège, Liège, Belgium ; Department of Translational Neuroimaging, Hôpital Erasme, Hôpital Universitaire de Bruxelles, Université libre de Bruxelles, Brussels, Belgium
Paparella, Ilenia; GIGA-CRC-Human Imaging, University of Liège, Liège, Belgium
Beckers, Elise ; GIGA-CRC-Human Imaging, University of Liège, Liège, Belgium
Mortazavi, Nasrin; GIGA-CRC-Human Imaging, University of Liège, Liège, Belgium
Read, John ; Université de Liège - ULiège > GIGA > GIGA Neurosciences - Sleep and chronobiology
Phillips, Christophe ; Université de Liège - ULiège > GIGA > GIGA Neurosciences - Development in data acquisition & modeling
Collette, Fabienne ; Université de Liège - ULiège > Département de Psychologie ; Université de Liège - ULiège > GIGA > GIGA Neurosciences - Aging & Memory
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