Soochow University, Suzhou, Jiangsu, China.
Suzhou Guangji Hospital, The Affiliated Guangji Hospital of Soochow University, Suzhou, Jiangsu, China.
Hum Brain Mapp. 2023 Dec 1;44(17):6245-6257. doi: 10.1002/hbm.26510. Epub 2023 Oct 14.
Rumination is closely linked to the onset and maintenance of major depressive disorder (MDD). Prior neuroimaging studies have identified the association between self-reported rumination trait and the functional coupling among a network of brain regions using resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). However, little is known about the underlying neural circuitry mechanism during active rumination in MDD. Degree centrality (DC) is a simple metric to denote network integration, which is critical for higher-order psychological processes such as rumination. During an MRI scan, individuals with MDD (N = 45) and healthy controls (HC, N = 46) completed a rumination state task. We examined the interaction effect between the group (MDD vs. HC) and condition (rumination vs. distraction) on vertex-wise DC. We further characterized the identified brain region's functional involvement with Neurosynth and BrainMap. Network-wise seed-based functional connectivity (FC) analysis was also conducted for the identified region of interest. Finally, exploratory correlation analysis was conducted between the identified region of interest's network FCs and self-reported in-scanner affect levels. We found that a left superior frontal gyrus (SFG) region, generally overlapped with the frontal eye field, showed a significant interaction effect. Further analysis revealed its involvement with executive functions. FCs between this region, the frontoparietal, and the dorsal attention network (DAN) also showed significant interaction effects. Furthermore, its FC to DAN during distraction showed a marginally significant negative association with in-scanner affect level at the baseline. Our results implicated an essential role of the left SFG in the rumination's underlying neural circuitry mechanism in MDD and provided novel evidence for the conceptualization of rumination in terms of impaired executive control.
反刍与重性抑郁障碍（MDD）的发病和维持密切相关。先前的神经影像学研究已经确定了使用静息态功能磁共振成像（fMRI）报告的反刍特质与大脑区域网络之间功能耦合的关联。然而，在 MDD 患者的主动反刍期间，对于潜在的神经回路机制知之甚少。度中心度（DC）是表示网络整合的简单指标，对于反刍等高级心理过程至关重要。在 MRI 扫描期间，MDD 患者（N=45）和健康对照组（HC，N=46）完成了反刍状态任务。我们检查了组（MDD 与 HC）和条件（反刍与分心）之间的相互作用效应对顶点 DC 的影响。我们进一步使用 Neurosynth 和 BrainMap 对鉴定出的脑区的功能参与进行了特征描述。还对鉴定出的感兴趣区域进行了网络种子的功能连接（FC）分析。最后，对鉴定出的感兴趣区域的网络 FC 与扫描时的自我报告的情感水平进行了探索性相关性分析。我们发现，左额上回（SFG）区域，通常与额眼区重叠，表现出显著的相互作用效应。进一步的分析表明其与执行功能有关。该区域与额顶叶和背侧注意网络（DAN）之间的 FC 也表现出显著的相互作用效应。此外，在分心时该区域与 DAN 的 FC 与基线时扫描时的情感水平呈负相关。我们的研究结果表明，左额上回在 MDD 患者的反刍潜在神经回路机制中起重要作用，并为以执行控制受损为概念的反刍提供了新的证据。
