Hwang J W, Xin S C, Ou Y M, Zhang W Y, Liang Y L, Chen J, Yang X Q, Chen X Y, Guo T W, Yang X J, Ma W H, Li J, Zhao B C, Tu Y, Kong J
School of Acupuncture-Moxibustion and Tuina, Beijing University of Chinese Medicine, Beijing, China; Department of Psychiatry, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, MA, USA.
School of Acupuncture-Moxibustion and Tuina, Beijing University of Chinese Medicine, Beijing, China.
J Psychiatr Res. 2016 May;76:111-20. doi: 10.1016/j.jpsychires.2016.02.005. Epub 2016 Feb 13.
Subthreshold depression (StD) is a highly prevalent condition associated with increased service utilization and social morbidity. Nevertheless, due to limitations in current diagnostic systems that set the boundary for major depressive disorder (MDD), very few brain imaging studies on the neurobiology of StD have been carried out, and its underlying neurobiological mechanism remains unclear. In recent years, accumulating evidence suggests that the disruption of the default mode network (DMN), a network involved in self-referential processing, affective cognition, and emotion regulation, is involved in major depressive disorder. Using independent component analysis, we investigated resting-state default mode network (DMN) functional connectivity (FC) changes in two cohorts of StD patients with different age ranges (young and middle-aged, n = 57) as well as matched controls (n = 79). We found significant FC increase between the DMN and ventral striatum (key region in the reward network), in both cohorts of StD patients in comparison with controls. In addition, we also found the FC between the DMN and ventral striatum was positively and significantly associated with scores on the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D), a measurement of depressive symptomatology. We speculate that this enhanced FC between the DMN and the ventral striatum may reflect a self-compensation to ameliorate the lowered reward function.
阈下抑郁（StD）是一种高度普遍的疾病，与服务利用率增加和社会发病率上升相关。然而，由于当前用于界定重度抑郁症（MDD）的诊断系统存在局限性，针对StD神经生物学的脑成像研究开展得很少，其潜在的神经生物学机制仍不清楚。近年来，越来越多的证据表明，默认模式网络（DMN）的破坏与重度抑郁症有关，该网络参与自我参照加工、情感认知和情绪调节。我们使用独立成分分析，研究了两个不同年龄组（青年和中年，n = 57）的StD患者队列以及匹配的对照组（n = 79）静息态默认模式网络（DMN）的功能连接（FC）变化。我们发现，与对照组相比，两个StD患者队列中DMN与腹侧纹状体（奖赏网络中的关键区域）之间的FC均显著增加。此外，我们还发现DMN与腹侧纹状体之间的FC与流行病学研究中心抑郁量表（CES-D，一种抑郁症状测量工具）的得分呈显著正相关。我们推测，DMN与腹侧纹状体之间这种增强的FC可能反映了一种自我补偿，以改善降低的奖赏功能。
