Adolescent depression and amygdala Introduction and method Adolescence is one of the most worrying periods when it comes to depression. A study completed by Tony T. Yang and colleagues (2010) aimed to gain more knowledge on this topic. The goal of Yang and colleagues' study was to compare the amygdala in depressed adolescents to their healthy counterparts in order to better understand adolescent depression. The study focused on looking to see if there was any correlation between neural activity in the bilateral amygdala and adolescent depression. The hypothesis of this study stated that the facial tasks involved would produce activity in the amygdala and that amygdala activation would be greater in participants with depression. (Yang et al., 2010) The participants in this study were twenty-four adolescents between the ages of approximately fourteen and seventeen, twelve of whom were classified as depressed and the other twelve participated as healthy controls. In each of the two groups, five participants were women and seven were men. It should be noted that of the twelve depressed adolescents, none had a comorbid disorder or were taking antidepressant medications. All participants took multiple tests to determine eligibility, as there were many items listed in the exclusion criteria. Such items included being left-handed, an IQ score less than eighty, a history of neurological disorders, and color blindness, among some others. Healthy controls were tested for the possible presence of axis one disorders, while depressed participants were tested against exclusion criteria. The procedure for this study involved the use of functional MRI. During fMRI scanning, each part......half of the sheet......Monk, C. (2011). Lesson 12-Adolescent Biological Development 2011 student slides [PowerPoint slides]. Retrieved from https://ctools.umich.edu/portal/site/cebe77f0-5b4a-4dd6-a759-04bf01bbb166Monk, C. (2011). Lesson 15-Physical and Cognitive Development in Young Adulthood 2011 student slides [PowerPoint slides]. Retrieved from https://ctools.umich.edu/portal/site/cebe77f0-5b4a-4dd6-a759-04bf01bbb166Yang, T.T., Simmons, AN, Matthews, S.C., Tapert, S.F., Frank, G., Max, J.E., … Paulus, MP (2010). Adolescents with major depression demonstrate greater amygdala activation. Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 49, 42-51. Yurgelon-Todd, D.A., Killgore, W.D.S.,. (2006). Fear-related activity in the prefrontal cortex increases with age during adolescence: a preliminary fMRI study. Direct science,406,194-199.