Electroconvulsive Therapy Induces Neurogenesis in Frontal Rat Brain Areas

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.

Hippocampal Volume Changes Following Electroconvulsive Therapy: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis

“…ECS induces a broad range of genetic regulatory changes, many of which are involved in upregulation of trophic support factors (BDNF-MAP kinase pathway and neurogenesis gene groups); the majority of these changes occur in the hippocampus, with those changes that persist with chronic ECS almost exclusively located in the hippocampal area (29). While both neurogenesis (61) and gliogenesis (62) have been reported following ECS in the frontal cortex of rats, these and other neuroplastic changes have not been nearly as widely reported or studied in areas outside the hippocampus.…”

Grey matter volume increase following electroconvulsive therapy in patients with late life depression: a longitudinal MRI study

“…[47][48][49] There are both animal and human studies that provide evi dence for electroconvulsive shock (ECS)/ECTrelated neuro plasticity, particularly in the hippocampus and amygdala, 46 areas in which we saw grey matter volume increase, but also in the frontal brain area. 50 Candidate cellular events underly ing changes detected by MRI in grey matter regions include axon sprouting, dendritic branching and synaptogenesis, neurogenesis, changes in glial number and morphology, and angiogenesis. 51 A recent experimental ECS paradigm demon strated a highly significant 2fold increase of cell proliferation in the hippocampal dentate gyrus of young (2 mo) mice and a 6fold increase in old (20 mo) mice compared with sham treated mice.…”

New neurons in the adult striatum: from rodents to humans

“…Parallels across species suggest that a similar localization pattern will be found in humans. Rodent models of psychiatric treatment such as electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) vigorously stimulate SVZ and striatal neurogenesis, without modifying the phenotype of newborn CR-positive GABAergic interneurons [74]. The significance of this process for neuropsychiatric disorders requires to be determined, but since endogenous electrical fields normally guide the migration of neuroblasts out of the SVZ [75], these treatments may act by enhancing a normally-occurring process.…”