Characterization of brain functional connectivity in treatment-resistant depression

• Published in: Progress in neuro-psychopharmacology & biological psychiatry Vol. 111; p. 110346
• Main Authors: Amiri, Saba, Arbabi, Mohammad, Kazemi, Kamran, Parvaresh-Rizi, Mansour, Mirbagheri, Mehdi M.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England Elsevier Inc 20.12.2021
• Subjects: Adult; Brain - physiopathology; Brain - surgery; Brain stimulation; Deep Brain Stimulation; Depression; Depressive Disorder, Treatment-Resistant - physiopathology; Depressive Disorder, Treatment-Resistant - surgery; Female; Functional Laterality; Gyrus Cinguli - physiopathology; Habenula - physiopathology; Humans; Magnetic Resonance Imaging; Male; Nucleus Accumbens - physiopathology; Resting-state fMRI; Sex Factors; Thalamus - physiopathology; Treatment; Resting-state fMRI; Depression; Treatment; Brain stimulation
• ISSN: 0278-5846; 1878-4216; 1878-4216
• DOI: 10.1016/j.pnpbp.2021.110346

To characterize the functional connectivity (FC) of target brain regions for deep brain stimulation (DBS) in patients with treatment-resistant depression (TRD), and to evaluate its gender and brain lateralization dependence. Thirty-one TRD patients and twenty-nine healthy control (HC) subjects participated. FC of subcallosal cingulate gyrus (SCG), ventral caudate (VCa), nucleus accumbens (NAc), lateral habenula (LHb), and inferior thalamic peduncle (ITP) were evaluated using resting-state fMRI. FC was characterized by calculating the nodal ‘degree’, a major feature of the graph theory. The degree measures of the left and right VCa, the left LHb, and the left ITP were significantly greater in the TRD than in the HC group. The degree was greater in females with TRD in all these regions except the right LHb. Finally, the left hemisphere was generally more affected by depression and presented significant degrees in LHb and ITP regions of the patients. Our findings demonstrate the ability of degree to characterize brain FC and identify the regions with abnormal activities in TRD patients. This implies that the degree may have the potential to be used as an important graph-theoretical feature to further investigate the mechanisms underlying TRD, and consequently along with other diagnostic markers, to assist in the determination of the appropriate target region for DBS treatment in TRD patients. •Gender and lateralization dependence of functional connectivity (FC) in TRD•The degree varied between brain sides, males and females, and normal and TRD groups.•The degree can be used to identify regions with abnormal FC in TRD and help better understand the mechanisms underlying TRD•The degree may have the potential to help identify an effective DBS target in TRD