The Clinical Hospital of Chengdu Brain Science Institute, School of Life Science and Technology, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu 611731, PR China.
School of Public Affairs and Administration, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu 611731, PR China.
Cereb Cortex. 2023 Jan 5;33(3):831-843. doi: 10.1093/cercor/bhac105.
Morphometric studies demonstrated wide-ranging distribution of brain structural abnormalities in major depressive disorder (MDD).
This study explored the progressive gray matter volume (GMV) changes pattern of structural network in 108 MDD patients throughout the illness duration by using voxel-based morphometric analysis.
The causal structural covariance network method was applied to map the causal effects of GMV alterations between the original source of structural changes and other brain regions as the illness duration prolonged in MDD. This was carried out by utilizing the Granger causality analysis to T1-weighted data ranked based on the disease progression information.
With greater illness duration, the GMV reduction was originated from the right insula and progressed to the frontal lobe, and then expanded to the occipital lobe, temporal lobe, dorsal striatum (putamen and caudate) and the cerebellum. Importantly, results revealed that the right insula was the prominent node projecting positive causal influences (i.e., GMV decrease) to frontal lobe, temporal lobe, postcentral gyrus, putamen, and precuneus. While opposite causal effects were detected from the right insula to the angular, parahippocampus, supramarginal gyrus and cerebellum.
This work may provide further information and vital evidence showing that MDD is associated with progressive brain structural alterations.
形态计量学研究表明，在重度抑郁症（MDD）患者中，大脑结构异常的分布范围广泛。
本研究通过基于体素的形态测量分析，探讨 108 例 MDD 患者在整个病程中结构网络的灰质体积（GMV）变化模式。
利用因果结构协方差网络方法，对 MDD 中随着病程延长结构变化的原始源与其他脑区之间 GMV 改变的因果效应进行了映射。这是通过利用格兰杰因果分析对基于疾病进展信息排序的 T1 加权数据进行的。
随着病程的延长，GMV 的减少源于右侧脑岛，并逐渐扩展到额叶，然后扩展到枕叶、颞叶、背侧纹状体（壳核和尾状核）和小脑。重要的是，结果显示右侧脑岛是向额叶、颞叶、中央后回、壳核和楔前叶投射正因果影响（即 GMV 减少）的显著节点。而从右侧脑岛到角回、海马旁回、缘上回和小脑则检测到相反的因果效应。
这项工作可能提供进一步的信息和重要证据，表明 MDD 与进行性大脑结构改变有关。
