Feng Tengfei, Gaebler Arnim Johannes, Keller Micha, Zweerings Jana, Li Huanjie, Cong Fengyu, Mathiak Klaus
Department of Psychiatry, Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics, Faculty of Medicine, RWTH Aachen University, Aachen, Germany.
School of Biomedical Engineering, Faculty of Medicine, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian, China.
Transl Psychiatry. 2025 May 16;15(1):171. doi: 10.1038/s41398-025-03386-4.
Perceptual changes in major depressive disorder (MDD) may extend beyond emotional content and include the processing of basic stimulus features. These alterations may ultimately contribute to perceptual bias and anhedonia. To characterize blood oxygen level-dependent (BOLD) signal of perceptual processing, we investigated temporally independent fMRI signal components related to naturalistic stimulus processing in 39 patients with MDD and 36 healthy subjects. Leveraging the capability of multi-echo data to detect BOLD activity changes, we extracted physiologically meaningful group temporal components. For each component that exhibited a significant correlation with the movie content, we localized its underlying brain network and assessed MDD-associated alterations. Two components exhibited significant group differences; one was associated with auditory features (sound pressure level) and one with visual features (temporal contrast of intensity). Notably, these deficits in MDD localized primarily to higher-order processing areas, such as the dorsal prefrontal cortex and insula, rather than primary sensory cortices. For the visual feature component, additional group differences emerged in non-visual primary sensory cortices (auditory and somatosensory) as well as major hubs of the motor system. Our findings support the hypothesis that basic sensory processing deficits represent an inherent feature of MDD which may contribute to anhedonia and negative perceptual bias. These deficits are primarily confined to higher-order processing units, as well as cross-modal primary sensory cortices indicating predominant dysfunction of top-down control and multisensory integration. Therapeutic effects of interventions targeting the prefrontal cortex may be partially mediated by restoring prefrontal control not only over emotional but also sensory processing hubs.
重度抑郁症（MDD）的感知变化可能不仅限于情绪内容，还包括基本刺激特征的处理。这些改变最终可能导致感知偏差和快感缺失。为了表征感知处理的血氧水平依赖性（BOLD）信号，我们研究了39例MDD患者和36名健康受试者中与自然主义刺激处理相关的时间独立功能磁共振成像（fMRI）信号成分。利用多回波数据检测BOLD活动变化的能力，我们提取了具有生理意义的组时间成分。对于每个与电影内容表现出显著相关性的成分，我们定位其潜在的脑网络并评估与MDD相关的改变。两个成分表现出显著的组间差异；一个与听觉特征（声压级）相关，一个与视觉特征（强度的时间对比度）相关。值得注意的是，MDD中的这些缺陷主要定位于高阶处理区域，如背侧前额叶皮质和脑岛，而非初级感觉皮质。对于视觉特征成分，在非视觉初级感觉皮质（听觉和体感）以及运动系统的主要枢纽中也出现了额外的组间差异。我们的研究结果支持这样的假设，即基本感觉处理缺陷是MDD的一个固有特征，可能导致快感缺失和负性感知偏差。这些缺陷主要局限于高阶处理单元以及跨模态初级感觉皮质，表明自上而下控制和多感觉整合存在主要功能障碍。针对前额叶皮质的干预措施的治疗效果可能部分是通过恢复前额叶不仅对情绪而且对感觉处理枢纽的控制来介导的。
