Living a life of Stress: Consequences on affective and cognitive behaviours
Munich Psychiatry Lecture Series | MPLS
- New Location!
- Date: Apr 25, 2017
- Time: 03:00 PM - 04:00 PM (Local Time Germany)
- Speaker: Megan Holmes
- Chair in Molecular Neurodenocrinology, University of Edinburgh, UK
- Location: Max Planck Institute of Psychiatry
- Room: Kraepelin Seminarroom
- Host: Alon Chen
- Contact: alon_chen@psych.mpg.de
Stressful events throughout life increase risk of developing depression and exacerbate age-associated cognitive decline. The developmental period is particularly sensitive to stress, causing long term effects on affective and cognitive behaviour for the rest of life – a concept known as early-life programming of adult disease.
I will discuss the key role of feto-placental 11ß-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase type 2 (11β-HSD2), the physiological ‘barrier’ to maternal glucocorticoids, in glucocorticoid programming; posit mechanisms underpinning the altered offspring behaviour and highlight potential ‘therapies’. Finally, functional (f)MRI studies in humans has generated a wealth of information on altered activity of neural networks in patients with depression. Using awake rodent fMRI, we have determined differential emotional processing in our animal models of depression (genetic or environmental stress), creating a translatable paradigm to assess therapeutic efficacy.