Mu Qingli, Wu Congchong, Chen Yue, Xu Yuwei, Zhang Kejing, Zhu Ce, Hu Shaohua, Huang Manli, Zhang Peng, Cui Dong, Lu Shaojia
Department of Psychiatry, The First Affiliated Hospital, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Zhejiang Key Laboratory of Precision Psychiatry, Zhejiang Engineering Center for Mathematical Mental Health, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China.
Faculty of Clinical Medicine, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China.
Depress Anxiety. 2025 Mar 20;2025:1925158. doi: 10.1155/da/1925158. eCollection 2025.
As a core symptom of major depressive disorder (MDD), previous magnetic resonance studies have demonstrated that MDD with anhedonia may exhibit distinctive brain structural and functional alterations. Nevertheless, the impact of anhedonia on synchronized alterations in the structure and function of brain regions in MDD remains uncertain. A total of 92 individuals were enrolled in the study, including 29 MDD patients with anhedonia, 33 MDD patients without anhedonia, and 30 healthy controls (HCs). All subjects underwent structural and resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans. The structure-function coupling of cortical and subcortical regions was constructed by using the obtained structural and functional data to quantify the distributional similarity of gray matter volume (GMV) and amplitude of low-frequency fluctuations (ALFFs). Analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) was used to compare differences in structure-function coupling among the three groups. Partial correlation analyses were conducted to identify relationships between structure-function coupling and clinical features. Finally, receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve and support vector machine (SVM) analysis were employed to verify the capacity to distinguish between MDD with anhedonia and MDD without anhedonia, MDD with anhedonia and HCs, and MDD without anhedonia and HCs. The ANCOVA revealed significant differences in structure-function coupling among three groups in the bilateral precentral gyrus (PrG), right insular gyrus (INS), right cingulate gyrus (CG), right thalamus (Tha), left superior temporal gyrus (STG), and left middle temporal gyrus (MTG). Compared to HCs, both MDD groups showed reduced coupling in the right INS, bilateral PrG, while increased coupling in the right CG. Additionally, MDD with anhedonia showed reduced coupling in the right Tha, right PrG, and left MTG, while increased coupling in the left STG, compared to the other two groups. Furthermore, ROC analyses indicated that structure-function coupling in the right PrG, right CG, and left MTG exhibited the greatest capacity to distinguish between the following groups: MDD with anhedonia from HCs, MDD without anhedonia from HCs, and MDD with anhedonia from MDD without anhedonia. The combined metrics demonstrated greater diagnostic value in two-by-two comparisons. The present findings highlight that altered structure-function synchrony in the frontal, temporal lobes, and Tha may be implicated in the development of symptoms of anhedonia in MDD patients. Altered structure-function coupling in the aforementioned brain regions may serve as a novel neuroimaging biomarker for MDD with anhedonia.
作为重度抑郁症(MDD)的核心症状,先前的磁共振研究表明,伴有快感缺失的MDD可能表现出独特的脑结构和功能改变。然而,快感缺失对MDD患者脑区结构和功能同步改变的影响仍不明确。本研究共纳入92名个体,包括29名伴有快感缺失的MDD患者、33名不伴有快感缺失的MDD患者和30名健康对照(HCs)。所有受试者均接受了结构和静息态功能磁共振成像(MRI)扫描。利用获得的结构和功能数据构建皮质和皮质下区域的结构 - 功能耦合,以量化灰质体积(GMV)和低频波动幅度(ALFFs)的分布相似性。采用协方差分析(ANCOVA)比较三组之间结构 - 功能耦合的差异。进行偏相关分析以确定结构 - 功能耦合与临床特征之间的关系。最后,采用受试者工作特征(ROC)曲线和支持向量机(SVM)分析来验证区分伴有快感缺失的MDD与不伴有快感缺失的MDD、伴有快感缺失的MDD与HCs以及不伴有快感缺失的MDD与HCs的能力。ANCOVA显示,在双侧中央前回(PrG)、右侧岛叶(INS)、右侧扣带回(CG)、右侧丘脑(Tha)、左侧颞上回(STG)和左侧颞中回(MTG),三组之间的结构 - 功能耦合存在显著差异。与HCs相比,两个MDD组在右侧INS、双侧PrG的耦合降低,而在右侧CG的耦合增加。此外,与其他两组相比,伴有快感缺失的MDD在右侧Tha、右侧PrG和左侧MTG的耦合降低,而在左侧STG的耦合增加。此外,ROC分析表明,右侧PrG、右侧CG和左侧MTG的结构 - 功能耦合在区分以下几组方面表现出最大能力:伴有快感缺失的MDD与HCs、不伴有快感缺失的MDD与HCs以及伴有快感缺失的MDD与不伴有快感缺失的MDD。综合指标在两两比较中显示出更大的诊断价值。本研究结果突出表明,额叶、颞叶和丘脑结构 - 功能同步性的改变可能与MDD患者快感缺失症状的发生有关。上述脑区结构 - 功能耦合的改变可能作为伴有快感缺失的MDD的一种新的神经影像学生物标志物。