Investigation of habenula volume in mood disorders: A meta-analytic study.

Overview

1. Department of Psychology, Université de Montréal, Montreal, QC, Canada

Abstract

The habenula, a small brain structure involved in processing aversive stimuli, has been strongly implicated in the pathophysiology of mood disorders. While diminutions in hippocampal and medial prefrontal cortex volume have been demonstrated in individuals with a mood disorder, evidence for structural alterations in the habenula remains inconsistent. This set of meta-analyses examines whether individuals with a mood disorder show alterations in habenula volume compared to healthy controls. We conducted six meta-analyses. Two global analyses compared left and right habenula volumes between individuals with a mood disorder (MDD or BD) and healthy controls (HCs), each including 15 samples (left: 1,230 participants; right: 1,236). Four additional analyses compared MDD versus HCs and BD versus HCs for left and right volumes separately. Subgroup and meta-regression analyses tested the habenula segmentation method, medication status, and MRI resolution as moderators. The global meta-analyses pooling MDD and BD data showed small but significant volume reductions in the left (g = −0.1367, p = .0344) and right (g = −0.1562, p = .0409) habenula in mood disorder patients compared to controls. However, these effects did not survive correction for multiple comparisons. After correction, no significant group differences were found in the diagnosis-specific meta-analyses (MDD versus controls; BD versus controls), and no moderator analyses were significant. Current evidence points toward small habenula volume reductions in mood disorders, though findings did not withstand correction for multiple comparisons. Further high-resolution neuroimaging studies are needed to clarify habenula volume alterations in mood disorders.

Reproduced under the paper's license (CC BY), from the paper cited above.

Code

No file of the authors' code could be read here: it is described below, and read at its source.

The paper's code and data availability statement is in the Data section.

Tracing map

Proposed by the machine: these links were found in the paper and verified at the source, without human review. The map will receive a Zenodo DOI once one of the paper's authors has validated it with their ORCID.

What the map holds:

• 1 repository of the authors' code, each at its verified commit, with its license and how the link was found in the paper;
• 0 scripts, each with its path and the digest of its content;
• no match between paragraphs and code yet;
• neither the text of the paper nor the code itself.

Its JSON (tracing-map.json) is deposited on Zenodo with its DOI once the map is validated.

Data

No dataset and no data link were found in the paper.

Data availability statement

Raw data and analysis scripts are available at: https://osf.io/fc95y/overview.

Reproduced under the paper's license (CC BY), from the paper cited above.

Versions

The history of this record: each version stored by the harvester or made by a correction of its authors or of the maintainers of its code, and what changed in its facts. The texts of the paper (its abstract, its availability statements) are not part of it; versions that changed only those are not listed.

Version 1, 30 September 2026: the first record

Recorded: type, language, journal, volume, pages, dates, 4 authors, 9 keywords, 8 MeSH terms, 1 funder, 83 references, 1 integrity notice.

Cite

This paper

Fortin, J.-S., Hétu, S., Parisien, C., & Parent, C. (2026). Investigation of habenula volume in mood disorders: A meta-analytic study. Psychological medicine, 56, e82. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0033291726103730

The tracing map gets a citation of its own once an author has validated it and it has a DOI.

Similar papers

The papers with a page that share the most with this one: the tools found in their code, their categories, datasets, cited references and authors, the rarest counting most.

[1] doi:10.1002/hbm.26337 [code]

Significant heterogeneity in structural asymmetry of the habenula in the human brain: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

Journal: Human brain mapping

In common: structural MRI / diffusion, 15 references

[2] doi:10.1038/s41467-025-59611-7 [code]

Habenula contributions to negative self-cognitions.

Journal: Nature communications

In common: structural MRI / diffusion, 8 references

[3] doi:10.1186/s12888-026-08216-5 [code]

Habenular structural-functional dysconnectivity in bipolar disorder: evidence from multimodal imaging and transcriptomic integration.

Journal: BMC psychiatry

In common: bipolar, 6 references

[4] doi:10.1073/pnas.2500815122

Habenula-ventral tegmental area functional coupling and risk aversion in humans.

Journal: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America

In common: 7 references

[5] doi:10.1038/s41398-026-04094-3

A depression-like phenotype is associated with discrete defects in the primary hippocampal circuit.

Journal: Translational psychiatry

In common: depression, 5 references

[6] doi:10.1038/s41398-024-03100-w

Nighttime-specific differential gene expression in suprachiasmatic nucleus and habenula is associated with resilience to chronic social stress.

Journal: Translational psychiatry

In common: 5 references

[7] doi:10.1038/s41467-023-38180-7

Neural mechanism of acute stress regulation by trace aminergic signalling in the lateral habenula in male mice.

Journal: Nature communications

In common: 5 references

[8] doi:10.1002/brb3.3511 [code]

Modulation of habenular and nucleus accumbens functional connectivity by ketamine in major depression.

Journal: Brain and behavior

In common: depression, 4 references

[9] doi:10.7554/elife.84693 [code]

Instantaneous antidepressant effect of lateral habenula deep brain stimulation in rats studied with functional MRI.

Journal: eLife

In common: depression, 4 references

[10] doi:10.1038/s41467-026-77248-y [code]

The mPFC-reuniens-hippocampus pathway links brain circuitry and neural plasticity in antidepressant response.

Journal: Nature communications

In common: depression, 4 references

Contribute

The authors of this paper can claim it, correct its record and validate its tracing map, and the maintainers of its code (its owner, or a public member of its organization) correct what it says of their repository; anyone signed in can ask for its removal. Every request goes to OSCR's own machine, which answers it; your account page follows them.

<!-- oscr-badge:start -->
[![OSCR](https://openscicode.org/badge/doi/10.1017/s0033291726103730.svg)](https://openscicode.org/badge/doi/10.1017/s0033291726103730)
<!-- oscr-badge:end -->

.. oscr-badge:start

.. image:: https://openscicode.org/badge/doi/10.1017/s0033291726103730.svg
   :target: https://openscicode.org/badge/doi/10.1017/s0033291726103730
   :alt: OSCR

.. oscr-badge:end

<!-- oscr-badge:start -->
<a href="https://openscicode.org/badge/doi/10.1017/s0033291726103730"><img src="https://openscicode.org/badge/doi/10.1017/s0033291726103730.svg" alt="OSCR"></a>
<!-- oscr-badge:end -->

Request its removal

To ask OSCR to remove this record, the copies of its authors' scripts or its tracing map, use the removal request page: signed in, you say who you are, what to remove and why, then review and confirm the request. Published rules decide every request (how).

Discussion: code errors and mismatches between the code and the paper about this paper and its code, from readers and its authors, beside the paper and its tracing map.

Report a mismatch between the code and the paper · Report a code error (signed in)

Reproductions: reports from readers who ran the authors' code and did not get the paper's result, what they ran, with which environment, commit and data.

Report a reproduction failure (signed in)

Activity: what happens around this paper: new versions of its record, its map's validation, discussions and reproductions. It opens with sign-in.