Ye Ming, Yang Tianliang, Qing Peng, Lei Xu, Qiu Jiang, Liu Guangyuan
Faculty of Computer and Information Science, Southwest University, Chongqing, China; College of Electronic and Information Engineering, Southwest University, Chongqing, China.
Faculty of psychology, Southwest University, Chongqing, China; Key Laboratory of Cognition and Personality (Ministry of Education), Chongqing, China.
PLoS One. 2015 Sep 1;10(9):e0133775. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0133775. eCollection 2015.
Recent developments in graph theory have heightened the need for investigating the disruptions in the topological structure of functional brain network in major depressive disorder (MDD). In this study, we employed resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and graph theory to examine the whole-brain functional networks among 42 MDD patients and 42 healthy controls. Our results showed that compared with healthy controls, MDD patients showed higher local efficiency and modularity. Furthermore, MDD patients showed altered nodal centralities of many brain regions, including hippocampus, temporal cortex, anterior cingulate gyrus and dorsolateral prefrontal gyrus, mainly located in default mode network and cognitive control network. Together, our results suggested that MDD was associated with disruptions in the topological structure of functional brain networks, and provided new insights concerning the pathophysiological mechanisms of MDD.
图论的最新进展增加了研究重度抑郁症（MDD）患者功能性脑网络拓扑结构破坏情况的必要性。在本研究中，我们采用静息态功能磁共振成像（fMRI）和图论来检查42例MDD患者和42名健康对照者的全脑功能网络。我们的结果表明，与健康对照者相比，MDD患者表现出更高的局部效率和模块化程度。此外，MDD患者多个脑区的节点中心性发生改变，包括海马体、颞叶皮质、前扣带回和背外侧前额叶皮质，这些脑区主要位于默认模式网络和认知控制网络中。总体而言，我们的结果表明MDD与功能性脑网络的拓扑结构破坏有关，并为MDD的病理生理机制提供了新的见解。
