fNIRS Assessment during Cognitive Tasks in Elderly Patients with Depressive Symptoms

• Published in: Brain sciences Vol. 13; no. 7; p. 1054
• Main Authors: Kang, Min-Ju, Cho, Su-Yeon, Choi, Jong-Kwan, Yang, Young-Soon
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Switzerland MDPI AG 01.07.2023; MDPI
• Subjects: Aged patients; Blood & organ donations; Cognitive ability; Communication; Cortex (frontal); depression; Depression, Mental; fNIRS; functional near-infrared spectroscopy; geriatric depression scale; Geriatrics; Hemispheric laterality; Hemodynamics; Hemoglobin; Infrared spectroscopy; Mental depression; Mental disorders; Neurological diseases; Older people; Prefrontal cortex; Primary care; Psychological aspects; Questionnaires; Spectrum analysis; South Korea; fNIRS; depression; geriatric depression scale; functional near-infrared spectroscopy
• ISSN: 2076-3425; 2076-3425
• DOI: 10.3390/brainsci13071054

This study aimed to investigate differences in prefrontal cortex activation between older adults with and without depressive symptoms during cognitive tasks using functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS). We examined 204 older participants without psychiatric or neurological disorders who completed the Geriatric Depression Scale, digit span, Verbal Fluency Test, and Stroop test. At the same time, prefrontal cortex activation was recorded using fNIRS. During the Stroop test, significantly reduced hemodynamics were observed in the depressive-symptom group. The mean accΔHbO of all channel averages was 0.14 μM in the control group and -0.75 μM in the depressive-symptom group ( = 0.03). The right hemisphere average was 0.13 μM and -0.96 μM, respectively ( = 0.02), and the left hemisphere average was 0.14 μM and -0.54 μM, respectively ( = 0.12). There was no significant difference in hemodynamic response (mean accΔHbO ) between the two groups during the digit span backward and VFT. In conclusion, reduced hemodynamics in the frontal cortex of the depressive-symptom group has been observed. The frontal fNIRS signal and the Stroop task may be used to measure depressive symptoms sensitively in the elderly.