Division of Mood Disorders, Shanghai Mental Health Center, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, 600 Wanping South Road, Shanghai 200030, China.
Division of Mood Disorders, Shanghai Mental Health Center, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, 600 Wanping South Road, Shanghai 200030, China; Department of Medical Psychology, Xinhua Hospital Affiliated to Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai 200092, China.
J Affect Disord. 2019 May 15;251:78-85. doi: 10.1016/j.jad.2019.01.048. Epub 2019 Mar 18.
Major depressive disorder (MDD) has been assumed to be associated with aberrant brain connectivity. However, research suggests that brain connectivity abnormalities should not be restricted to extrinsic white matter connectivity, but may also impact on intrinsic gray matter connectivity. Therefore, our study aimed to investigate the intrinsic gray-matter connectivity in MDD.
The participants were 16 first-episode, drug-naïve patients with MDD and 16 healthy controls matched on age and gender. All participants were scanned by 3.0T structural magnetic resonance imaging. Global and local intrinsic gray-matter connectivity were measured based on surface-based geodesic distances, including mean coritical separation distances (MSDs), perimeter function, and radius function.
MDD patients had significantly lower MSDs in the left postcentral gyrus and higher MSDs in the left superior parietal cortex. Marginally significant correlation was observed between MSDs in the left postcentral gyrus and symptoms of depression. Compared with healthy controls, depressed subjects had abnormal local intrinsic gray-matter connectivity in the left postcentral gyrus, the left transverse temporal gyrus, the right lingual gyrus, the right lateral occipital cortex, and the right superior frontal gyrus. Furthermore, local intrinsic gray matter connections of these brain areas were associated with some symptoms of depression.
The small sample size limited the interpretability of our potential conclusions.
Aberrant intrinsic gray-matter connectivity was observed in depressed subjects, indicating abnormal intrinsic wiring cost of brain architecture. This might help explain the aberrant topological properties of brain functional connectivity and provide insights into the vulnerability of MDD.
重度抑郁症（MDD）被认为与大脑连接异常有关。然而，研究表明，大脑连接异常不应仅限于外在的白质连接，还可能影响内在的灰质连接。因此，我们的研究旨在调查 MDD 患者的内在灰质连接。
参与者包括 16 名首次发作、未经药物治疗的 MDD 患者和 16 名年龄和性别相匹配的健康对照者。所有参与者均接受 3.0T 结构磁共振成像扫描。基于表面的测地线距离测量全局和局部内在灰质连接，包括平均皮质分离距离（MSD）、周长函数和半径函数。
MDD 患者左侧中央后回的 MSD 显著降低，左侧顶上回的 MSD 显著升高。左侧中央后回的 MSD 与抑郁症状之间存在边缘显著相关性。与健康对照组相比，抑郁患者左侧中央后回、左侧横颞回、右侧舌回、右侧外侧枕叶和右侧额上回的局部内在灰质连接存在异常。此外，这些脑区的局部内在灰质连接与一些抑郁症状有关。
样本量小限制了我们潜在结论的可解释性。
抑郁患者存在内在灰质连接异常，表明大脑结构的内在布线成本异常。这可能有助于解释大脑功能连接的异常拓扑性质，并为 MDD 的易感性提供见解。
