Fu Linyan, Xiang Dan, Xiao Jiawei, Yao Lihua, Wang Ying, Xiao Ling, Wang Huiling, Wang Gaohua, Liu Zhongchun
Department of Psychiatry, Renmin Hospital of Wuhan University, Wuhan, China.
Institute of Neuropsychiatry, Renmin Hospital, Wuhan University, Wuhan, China.
Front Psychiatry. 2018 May 28;9:214. doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2018.00214. eCollection 2018.
The Tower of London (TOL) task is one of the most commonly used tests for evaluating executive functions, and can indicate planning and problem-solving abilities. The aim of this study was to evaluate hemodynamic changes between the task period and rest period in patients with bipolar depression during the TOL task and the verbal fluency task (VFT) using near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS). Forty-three patients with bipolar depression and 32 healthy controls (HCs) matched for sex, age, handedness, and years of education were enrolled in this study. All participants were aged between 16 and 50. All patients in our study were taking medications such as antidepressants, antipsychotics and mood stabilizers at the time of measurement. Changes in oxygenated hemoglobin (oxy-Hb) levels in frontal areas during the TOL task and VFT were evaluated using a 41-channel NIRS system. During the TOL task, the patients with bipolar depression exhibited significantly smaller changes in the bilateral dorsal-lateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) than the HCs. During the VFT task, the patients with bipolar depression exhibited significantly smaller changes in the right ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (VLPFC), the right DLPFC and both the right and left prefrontal cortex (PFC) than the HCs. Our sample size was small, and the effects of medication cannot be excluded. These results indicate that planning and problem solving dysfunction is related to the impairment of the prefrontal cortex in patients with bipolar depression, and NIRS can be used to assess planning and problem solving abilities, which are essential to daily life in patients with bipolar disorder.
伦敦塔（TOL）任务是评估执行功能最常用的测试之一，可显示计划和解决问题的能力。本研究的目的是使用近红外光谱（NIRS）评估双相抑郁症患者在TOL任务和言语流畅性任务（VFT）期间任务期和休息期之间的血流动力学变化。本研究纳入了43例双相抑郁症患者和32名在性别、年龄、利手和受教育年限方面匹配的健康对照者（HCs）。所有参与者年龄在16至50岁之间。我们研究中的所有患者在测量时都在服用抗抑郁药、抗精神病药和情绪稳定剂等药物。使用41通道NIRS系统评估TOL任务和VFT期间额叶区域氧合血红蛋白（oxy-Hb）水平的变化。在TOL任务期间，双相抑郁症患者双侧背外侧前额叶皮质（DLPFC）的变化明显小于HCs。在VFT任务期间，双相抑郁症患者右侧腹外侧前额叶皮质（VLPFC）、右侧DLPFC以及左右前额叶皮质（PFC）的变化明显小于HCs。我们的样本量较小，且无法排除药物的影响。这些结果表明，双相抑郁症患者的计划和解决问题功能障碍与前额叶皮质损伤有关，NIRS可用于评估双相情感障碍患者日常生活中必不可少的计划和解决问题的能力。
