Department of Sleep Disorders, Hefei Fourth People's Hospital, Hefei 230022, China; Anhui Mental Health Center, Hefei 230022, China.
Department of Radiology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical University, No. 218, Jixi Road, Shushan District, Hefei 230022, China.
J Affect Disord. 2020 Oct 1;275:319-328. doi: 10.1016/j.jad.2020.06.062. Epub 2020 Jul 15.
The cerebellum plays an important role in the neural mechanism of depression and its static functional connectivity (FC) with the cerebrum is disrupted in patients with major depressive disorder (MDD). However, cerebellar-cerebral dynamic FC alterations in MDD remain largely unknown.
50 patients with MDD and 36 well-matched healthy controls underwent resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging. Cerebellar-cerebral dynamic FC analyses were performed using the cerebellar seeds previously identified as being involved in the executive, default-mode, affective-limbic, and motor networks. Inter-group differences in the cerebellar dynamic FC and their associations with clinical and cognitive variables were examined.
Compared to healthy controls, patients with MDD had decreased cerebellar-cerebral dynamic FC of the cerebellar subregions connecting with the executive, default-mode and affective-limbic networks. The dynamic FC of the cerebellar subregion connecting with the affective-limbic network was related to severity of depression and anxiety symptoms in MDD patients. The dynamic FC of the cerebellar subregions connecting with the default-mode and affective-limbic networks were related to sustained attention and prospective memory in controls, while the correlations were inverse or non-significant in patients.
The fairly modest sample size and potential medication effect may increase the instability of the results.
Our findings provide further evidence for the pivotal role of the cerebellum in the neuropathology of depression, pointing to potential targets of cerebellar-cerebral pathways for alternative intervention or monitoring therapeutic responses.
小脑在抑郁症的神经机制中起着重要作用，其与大脑的静息态功能连接（FC）在重度抑郁症（MDD）患者中被破坏。然而，MDD 患者小脑与大脑的动态 FC 改变在很大程度上尚不清楚。
50 例 MDD 患者和 36 例匹配良好的健康对照者接受静息态功能磁共振成像。使用先前确定的与执行、默认模式、情感边缘和运动网络有关的小脑种子进行小脑-大脑动态 FC 分析。检查小脑动态 FC 的组间差异及其与临床和认知变量的关联。
与健康对照组相比，MDD 患者与执行、默认模式和情感边缘网络连接的小脑区域的小脑-大脑动态 FC 降低。与情感边缘网络连接的小脑区域的动态 FC 与 MDD 患者的抑郁和焦虑症状严重程度有关。与默认模式和情感边缘网络连接的小脑区域的动态 FC 与对照组的持续注意力和前瞻性记忆有关，而在患者中则呈反向或无显著相关性。
相当小的样本量和潜在的药物效应可能会增加结果的不稳定性。
我们的发现为小脑在抑郁症神经病理学中的关键作用提供了进一步的证据，为小脑与大脑通路的潜在靶点提供了替代干预或监测治疗反应的依据。
