Depression
This is the hypothesis on which nearly all antidepressant medications have been based over the past thirty years
What is the mono-amine hypothesis
What is the effect of chronic stress on Cortisol?
This is the most consistently found imaging abnormality associated with patients with Schizophrenia
What is ventriculomegaly? (enlargement of the ventricles due to gray matter atrophy)
This is location in the brainstem where DA cell bodies are located which play an important role in the learning reward pathway
What is the Midbrain Ventral Tegmental Area
This is the central theory behind Epigentics
What is the concept that exposure to life stressors and environmental factors can and do influence gene expression without actually changing the DNA sequence
One of the two major cortical structures that imaging studies demonstrate reduced volume in patients with major depression
What are the Anterior Cingular Cortex (Subgenual area especially) and the Hippocampus
This is the central structure involved in afferent information processing and initiation of the anxiety fear response.
What is the amygdala?
These are the primary excitatory cells/neurons found in the pre-frontal cortex involved in schizophrenia
What are Pyramidal cells/neurons?
Part of the Ventral Striatum, this structure registers the Dopamine spike released in response to stimuli in the environment, necessary for classical conditioning and enhancing drive/motivation to repeat behavior
What is the Nucleus Accumbens?
These are the two main factors that can have Epigenetic impact on DNA expression
What are Experience and Environment?
This neuro-trophic factor (responsible for neuronal health and dendritic growth) is consistently reduced in patients with major depression and appears to be normalized by treatments for depression
What is Brain Derived Neurotrophic Factor (BDNF)
The direct pathway in the anxiety/fear response expedites the signal via a shortcut between these two structures, circumventing the indirect pathway in the case of an emergencies.
What are the Thalamus and Amygdala?
These are specific inhibitory cells/neurons in the prefrontal cortex that inhibit activation of pyramidal cells
What are parvalbumin GABA Chandelier cells/neurons?
These are the structures in the reward pathway responsible for encoding emotional contextual memory needed for repeating learned behavior
What are the Amygdala and Hippocampus?
These are the two main mechanisms by which Epigenetic influences enhance or inhibit gene transcription/expression
What are DNA methylation and Histone winding (methylation = open vs acetylation = closed)
While only slowly increased by mano-amines, this alternate medication's mechanism of action is believed to rapidly enhance neurotrophic factors in the hippocampus and PFC, which may explain its more rapid antidepressant effects
What are Ketamine's NMDA receptor antagonism on glutamate
Part of the anxiety/fear pathway, these structure(s) receive a signal from the Aymgdala after it has processed afferent information, and initiates the efferent motoric response
What is/are the Striatum (Cingulate and Putamen) or also accept Basal Ganglia
This is the type of neuronal oscillation/wave form observed on EEG that is believed to correlate with working memory and concentration
What is/are Gamma waves or Gamma wave synchrony?
This is the substance and recepors hypothesized to be responsible for induction of euphoria/pleasure in the reward pathway
What are opiates and opiate receptors
This is the mechanism suspected to explain epigenetic influences on chronically elevated cortisol levels in response to stress
What is DNA methylation on the promotor region inhibiting transcription/expression of the gene responsible for glucocorticoid receptors of the Hippocampus which play a key role in the negative feedback loop for HPA axis?
Inhibition of inflammatory marker TNF via Inflixamab was found to be generally ineffective, however it was noted to be effective in reversing depressive symptoms in this subset of the sample population
What are patients with a premorbid high degree of inflammation/inflammatory markers
These are the hormones released by the Hypothalamus and Anterior Pituitary in response the Amygdala's efferent signal to initiate the fear response via the HPA axis
What are CRH and ACTH?
These are the Dopamine receptor subtypes found in the PFC and Basal Ganglia and the relative levels of Dopamine in PFC and Basal Ganglia commonly found in Schizophrenia
What are D1 in PFC and D2 in Basal Ganglia/Stratum and what are reduced DA in the PFC leading to negative symptoms and increased DA in Basal Ganglia/Striatum
This is the proposed mechanism for cravings and medication/mechanism hypothesized to block cravings
What is hyper-excitability of the PFC and Orbitofrontal Cortex which could be inhibited via glutamate antagonists inhibiting pyramidal neurons
Epigenetics influences on gene expression have been found to be transmissible across multiple generations, true or false
What is true