Electroconvulsive Therapy Induces Neurogenesis in Frontal Rat Brain Areas |
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| Authors: | Dragos Inta Juan M. Lima-Ojeda Thorsten Lau Wannan Tang Christof Dormann Rolf Sprengel Patrick Schloss Alexander Sartorius Andreas Meyer-Lindenberg Peter Gass |
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| Affiliation: | 1. Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Central Institute of Mental Health, Medical Faculty Mannheim, University of Heidelberg, Mannheim, Germany.; 2. Biochemical Laboratory, Central Institute of Mental Health, Medical Faculty Mannheim, University of Heidelberg, Mannheim, Germany.; 3. Department of Molecular Neurobiology, Max-Planck-Institute of Medical Research, Heidelberg, Germany.; Max Planck Institute of Psychiatry, Germany, |
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| Abstract: | Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) is an effective therapy for several psychiatric disorders, including severe major depression, mania and certain forms of schizophrenia. It had been proposed that ECT acts by modulating local plasticity via the stimulation of neurogenesis. In fact, among antidepressant therapies, ECT is the most robust enhancer of neurogenesis in the hippocampus of rodents and non-human primates. The existence of ECT-triggered neurogenesis in other brain areas, particularly in those adjacent to the other main locus of neurogenesis, the subventricular zone (SVZ), had so far remained unknown. Here we show that ECT also strongly enhances neurogenesis in frontal brain areas, especially in the rostro-medial striatum, generating specific, small-size calretinin-positive interneurons. We provide here the first evidence that ECT stimulates neurogenesis in areas outside the hippocampus. Our data may open research possibilities that focus on the plastic changes induced by ECT in frontal limbic circuitry. |
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