Mood, season and light within the amygdala

Mood, season and light within the amygdala | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Article Mood, season and light within the amygdala Gilles Vandewalle, Islay Campbell, Jose Balda, Roya Sharifpour, and 9 more This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-6362376/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Published Journal Publication published 22 Dec, 2025 Read the published version in Nature Communications → Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract The brain mechanisms through which changes in seasonality and light exposure modulate affective state may involve different nuclei of the amygdala. We aimed to test this hypothesis using 7 Tesla functional magnetic resonance imaging in 29 healthy young adults. We first considered the seasonal changes in activity, that are related to the slow change in photoperiod. We find that the activity of medial and superior nuclei of the amygdala is related to season and affective state. We further assessed how alternating short exposures to light of different illuminance acutely affected the regional activity of the amygdala. We show that the same medial and superior nuclei showed a linear reduction of activity when exposed to increasing light illuminance, specifically when processing emotional stimulations. Importantly also, the impact of light on part of these nuclei varied with season and affective state. These findings provide new evidence that humans show seasonality and that for affective states it involved parts of the amygdala. The results bring novel insights into the mechanisms that underlie the long-term and acute impact of light on the affective system and that may contribute to the benefits of light therapy in the treatment of mood disorders. Biological sciences/Neuroscience/Emotion/Amygdala Biological sciences/Neuroscience/Circadian rhythms and sleep Light 7 Tesla fMRI amygdala emotional processing biological effects of light melanopsin mood disorders light therapy seasonality Full Text Additional Declarations There is NO Competing Interest. Supplementary Files CampbellNCSupplmatsubmitted.pdf Supplementary Material Cite Share Download PDF Status: Published Journal Publication published 22 Dec, 2025 Read the published version in Nature Communications → Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. 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Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-6362376","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":false,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":443972527,"identity":"3f5d4214-5810-439a-b4c2-f5a8d7014f02","order_by":0,"name":"Gilles 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light therapy, seasonality","lastPublishedDoi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-6362376/v1","lastPublishedDoiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-6362376/v1","license":{"name":"CC BY 4.0","url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"},"manuscriptAbstract":"The brain mechanisms through which changes in seasonality and light exposure modulate \r\naffective state may involve different nuclei of the amygdala. We aimed to test this hypothesis \r\nusing 7 Tesla functional magnetic resonance imaging in 29 healthy young adults. We first \r\nconsidered the seasonal changes in activity, that are related to the slow change in \r\nphotoperiod. We find that the activity of medial and superior nuclei of the amygdala is related \r\nto season and affective state. We further assessed how alternating short exposures to light of \r\ndifferent illuminance acutely affected the regional activity of the amygdala. We show that the \r\nsame medial and superior nuclei showed a linear reduction of activity when exposed to \r\nincreasing light illuminance, specifically when processing emotional stimulations. Importantly \r\nalso, the impact of light on part of these nuclei varied with season and affective state. These \r\nfindings provide new evidence that humans show seasonality and that for affective states it \r\ninvolved parts of the amygdala. The results bring novel insights into the mechanisms that \r\nunderlie the long-term and acute impact of light on the affective system and that may \r\ncontribute to the benefits of light therapy in the treatment of mood disorders.","manuscriptTitle":"Mood, season and light within the amygdala","msid":"","msnumber":"","nonDraftVersions":[{"code":1,"date":"2025-04-17 13:29:02","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-6362376/v1","editorialEvents":[],"status":"published","journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"nature-communications","isNatureJournal":true,"hasQc":false,"allowDirectSubmit":false,"externalIdentity":"NCOMMS","sideBox":"Learn more about [Nature Communications](http://www.nature.com/ncomms/)","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"https://mts-ncomms.nature.com/","title":"Nature Communications","twitterHandle":"","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":true,"editorialSystem":"ejp","reportingPortfolio":"Nature Communications","inReviewEnabled":true,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":false}}],"origin":"","ownerIdentity":"9ca3bea6-f323-4536-a903-051824d6bff1","owner":[],"postedDate":"April 17th, 2025","published":true,"recentEditorialEvents":[],"rejectedJournal":[],"revision":"","amendment":"","status":"published-in-journal","subjectAreas":[{"id":47315840,"name":"Biological sciences/Neuroscience/Emotion/Amygdala"},{"id":47315841,"name":"Biological sciences/Neuroscience/Circadian rhythms and sleep"}],"tags":[],"updatedAt":"2025-12-30T08:37:38+00:00","versionOfRecord":{"articleIdentity":"rs-6362376","link":"https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-67715-3","journal":{"identity":"nature-communications","isVorOnly":false,"title":"Nature Communications"},"publishedOn":"2025-12-22 05:00:00","publishedOnDateReadable":"December 22nd, 2025"},"versionCreatedAt":"2025-04-17 13:29:02","video":"","vorDoi":"10.1038/s41467-025-67715-3","vorDoiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-67715-3","workflowStages":[]},"version":"v1","identity":"rs-6362376","journalConfig":"researchsquare"},"__N_SSP":true},"page":"/article/[identity]/[[...version]]","query":{"redirect":"/article/rs-6362376","identity":"rs-6362376","version":["v1"]},"buildId":"8U1c8b4HqxoKbykW_rLl7","isFallback":false,"isExperimentalCompile":false,"dynamicIds":[84888],"gssp":true,"scriptLoader":[]}