region (precentral gyrus). Hippocampal morphology is a heritable trait (h2=0.4) (Sullivan et al., 2001), nonetheless it is subject to stronger environmental influences compared to other brain regions (Glahn et al., 2007), and interactions between recurrent depression and specific genetic predispositions as indicated by our results may thus promote hippocampal atrophy, which has been repeatedly reported for MD (Videbech and Ravnkilde, 2004).
