Experience changes hippocampal volume
| Cause | References | |
|---|---|---|
| Hippocampal shrinkage | Chronic stress | Gianaros et al., 2007a,b, 2008, 2014 |
| Major depression | Sheline et al., 2019 | |
| PTSD | Vythilingam et al., 2002; Pitman et al., 2006 | |
| Borderline personality disorder | Driessen et al., 2000 | |
| Cushing's disease | Starkman et al., 1992, 1999 | |
| Dementia | de Leon et al., 1988 | |
| Type 2 diabetes | Gold et al., 2007; Yau et al., 2012 | |
| Chronic inflammation | Marsland et al., 2008 | |
| Chronic jet lag | Cho, 2001 | |
| Hippocampal enlargement | Exercise | Erickson et al., 2011 |
| Intense learning | Draganski et al., 2006 |
The most extensive information about structural plasticity and damage in the human brain exists for hippocampus, but there is also increasing information about such changes in structure, activity and connectivity in human amygdala and prefrontal cortex. For example, the amygdala becomes more active and undergoes structural changes in mood disorders (Price and Drevets, 2010) and to threat in people of low socioeconomic (SES) standing (Gianaros et al., 2008), while low SES was associated with smaller gray matter volume in the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex, reduced myelin content and greater systemic preclinical atherosclerosis and IL-6 (Gianaros et al., 2007a,b, 2014). All of these conditions include increased frequency of mood disorders.