Brain structural abnormalities in emotional regulation and sensory processing regions associated with anxious depression

Decreased inter-hemispheric cooperation in major depressive disorder and its association with neurotransmitter profiles

BACKGROUND

Inter-hemispheric cooperation is a prominent feature of the human brain, and previous neuroimaging studies have revealed aberrant inter-hemispheric cooperation patterns in patients with major depressive disorder (MDD). Typically, inter-hemispheric cooperation is examined by calculating the functional connectivity (FC) between each voxel in one hemisphere and its anatomical (structurally homotopic) counterpart in the opposite hemisphere. However, bilateral hemispheres are actually asymmetric in anatomy.

METHODS

In the present study, we utilized connectivity between functionally homotopic voxels (CFH) to investigate abnormal inter-hemispheric cooperation in 96 MDD patients compared to 173 age- and sex-matched healthy controls (HCs). In addition, we analyzed the spatial correlations between abnormal CFH and the density maps of 13 neurotransmitter receptors and transporters.

RESULTS

The CFH values in bilateral orbital frontal gyri and bilateral postcentral gyri were abnormally decreased in patients with MDD. Furthermore, these CFH abnormalities were correlated with clinical symptoms. In addition, the abnormal CFH pattern in MDD patients was spatially correlated with the distribution pattern of 5-HT1AR.

LIMITATIONS

drug effect; the cross-sectional research design precludes causal inferences; the neurotransmitter atlases selected were constructed from healthy individuals rather than MDD patients.

CONCLUSION

These findings characterized the abnormal inter-hemispheric cooperation in MDD using a novel method and the underlying neurotransmitter mechanism, which promotes our understanding of the pathophysiology of depression.

Characteristics of oxyhemoglobin during the verbal fluency task in subthreshold depression: A multi-channel near-infrared spectroscopy study

OBJECTIVE

Subthreshold depression is an essential precursor and risk factor for major depressive disorder, and its accurate identification and timely intervention are important for reducing the prevalence of major depressive disorder. Therefore, we used functional near-infrared spectroscopic imaging (fNIRS) to explore the characteristics of the brain neural activity of college students with subthreshold depression in the verbal fluency task.

METHODS

A total of 72 subthreshold depressed college students (SDs) and 67 healthy college students (HCs) were recruited, and all subjects were subjected to a verbal fluency task (VFT) while a 53-channel fNIRS device was used to collect the subjects' cerebral blood oxygenation signals.

RESULTS

The results of the independent samples t-test showed that the mean oxyhemoglobin in the right dorsolateral prefrontal (ch34, ch42, ch45) and Broca's area (ch51, ch53) of SDs was lower than that of HCs. The peak oxygenated hemoglobin of SDs was lower in the right dorsolateral prefrontal (ch34) and Broca's area (ch51, ch53).The brain functional connectivity strength was lower than that of HCs. Correlation analysis showed that the left DLPFC and Broca's area were significantly negatively correlated with the depression level.

CONCLUSION

SDs showed abnormally low, inadequate levels of brain activation and weak frontotemporal brain functional connectivity. The right DLPFC has a higher sensitivity for the differentiation of depressive symptoms and is suitable as a biomarker for the presence of depressive symptoms. Dysfunction in Broca's area can be used both as a marker of depressive symptoms and as a biomarker, indicating the severity of depressive symptoms.

Mapping the emotional homunculus with fMRI

Emotions are commonly associated with bodily sensations, e.g., boiling with anger when overwhelmed with rage. Studies have shown that emotions are related to specific body parts, suggesting that somatotopically organized cortical regions that commonly respond to somatosensory and motor experiences might be involved in the generation of emotions. We used functional magnetic resonance imaging to investigate whether the subjective feelings of emotion are accompanied by the activation of somatotopically defined sensorimotor brain regions, thus aiming to reconstruct an "emotional homunculus." By defining the convergence of the brain activation patterns evoked by self-generated emotions during scanning onto a sensorimotor map created on participants' tactile and motor brain activity, we showed that all the evoked emotions activated parts of this sensorimotor map, yet with considerable overlap among different emotions. Although we could not find a highly specific segmentation of discrete emotions over sensorimotor regions, our results support an embodied experience of emotions.

Investigating Sea-Level Brain Predictors for Acute Mountain Sickness: A Multimodal MRI Study before and after High-Altitude Exposure

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE

Acute mountain sickness is a series of brain-centered symptoms that occur when rapidly ascending to high altitude. Predicting acute mountain sickness before high-altitude exposure is crucial for protecting susceptible individuals. The present study aimed to evaluate the feasibility of predicting acute mountain sickness after high-altitude exposure by using multimodal brain MR imaging features measured at sea level.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

We recruited 45 healthy sea-level residents who flew to the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau (3650 m). We conducted T1-weighted structural MR imaging, resting-state fMRI, and arterial spin-labeling perfusion MR imaging both at sea level and high altitude. Acute mountain sickness was diagnosed for 5 days using Lake Louise Scoring. Logistic regression with Least Absolute Shrinkage and Selection Operator logistic regression was performed for predicting acute mountain sickness using sea-level MR imaging features. We also validated the predictors by using MR images obtained at high altitude.

RESULTS

The incidence rate of acute mountain sickness was 80.0%. The model achieved an area under the receiver operating characteristic curve of 86.4% (sensitivity = 77.8%, specificity = 100.0%, and P < .001) in predicting acute mountain sickness At sea level, valid predictors included fractional amplitude of low-frequency fluctuations (fALFF) and degree centrality from resting-state fMRI, mainly distributed in the somatomotor network. We further learned that the acute mountain sickness group had lower levels of fALFF in the somatomotor network at high altitude, associated with smaller changes in CSF volume and higher Lake Louise Scoring, specifically relating to fatigue and clinical function.

CONCLUSIONS

Our study found that the somatomotor network function detected by sea-level resting-state fMRI was a crucial predictor for acute mountain sickness and further validated its pathophysiologic impact at high altitude. These findings show promise for pre-exposure prediction, particularly for individuals in need of rapid ascent, and they offer insight into the potential mechanism of acute mountain sickness.

Increased functional integration of emotional control network in late adulthood

Across the adult lifespan, there are changes in how emotions are perceived and regulated. As individuals age, there is an observed improvement in emotion regulation and overall quicker recovery from negative emotions. While previous studies have shown differences in emotion processing in late adulthood, the corresponding differences in large-scale brain networks remain largely underexplored. By utilizing large-scale datasets such as the Human Connectome Project (HCP-Aging, N = 621 ) and Cambridge Centre for Ageing and Neuroscience (Cam-CAN, N = 333 ), we were able to investigate how emotion regulation networks' functional topography differs across the entire adult lifespan. Based on previous meta-analytic work that identified four large-scale functional brain networks involved in emotion generation and regulation, we found an increase in the functional integration of the emotional control network among older adults. Additionally, confirming through the nonlinear model, individuals around the age of 70 showed a steadier decline in integration of a network mediating emotion generation and regulation via interoception. Furthermore, the analyses revealed a negative association between age and perceived stress and loneliness that could be attributed to differences in large-scale emotion regulation networks. Our study highlights the importance of identifying topological changes in the functional emotion network architecture across the lifespan, as it allows for a better understanding of emotional aging and psychological well-being in late adulthood.

The difference in volumetric alternations of the orbitofrontal-limbic-striatal system between major depressive disorder and anxiety disorders: A systematic review and voxel-based meta-analysis

BACKGROUND

Major depressive disorder (MDD) and anxiety disorders (ANX) are psychiatric disorders with high mutual comorbidity rates that might indicate some shared neurobiological pathways between them, but they retain diverse phenotypes that characterize themselves specifically. However, no consistent evidence exists for common and disorder-specific gray matter volume (GMV) alternations between them.

METHODS

A systematic review and meta-analysis on voxel-based morphometry studies of patients with MDD and ANX were performed. The effect of comorbidity was explicitly controlled during disorder-specific analysis and particularly investigated in patient with comorbidity.

RESULTS

A total of 45 studies with 54 datasets comprising 2196 patients and 2055 healthy participants met the inclusion criteria. Deficits in the orbitofrontal cortex, striatum, and limbic regions were found in MDD and ANX. The disorder-specific analyses showed decreased GMV in the bilateral anterior cingulate cortex, right striatum, hippocampus, and cerebellum in MDD, while decreased GMV in the left striatum, amygdala, insula, and increased cerebellar volume in ANX. A totally different GMV alternation pattern was shown involving bilateral temporal and parietal gyri and left fusiform gyrus in patients with comorbidity.

LIMITATIONS

Owing to the design of included studies, only partial patients in the comorbid group had a secondary comorbidity diagnosis.

CONCLUSION

Patients with MDD and ANX shared a structural disruption in the orbitofrontal-limbic-striatal system. The disorder-specific effects manifested their greatest severity in distinct lateralization and directionality of these changes that differentiate MDD from ANX. The comorbid group showed a totally different GMV alternation pattern, possibly suggesting another illness subtype that requires further investigation.

Neural basis underlying the association between thought control ability and happiness: The moderating role of the amygdala

Thought control ability (TCA) plays an important role in individuals' health and happiness. Previous studies demonstrated that TCA was closely conceptually associated with happiness. However, empirical research supporting this relationship was limited. In addition, the neural basis underlying TCA and how this neural basis influences the relationship between TCA and happiness remain unexplored. In the present study, the voxel-based morphometry (VBM) method was adopted to investigate the neuroanatomical basis of TCA in 314 healthy subjects. The behavioral results revealed a significant positive association between TCA and happiness. On the neural level, there was a significant negative correlation between TCA and the gray matter density (GMD) of the bilateral amygdala. Split-half validation analysis revealed similar results, further confirming the stability of the VBM analysis findings. Furthermore, gray matter covariance network and graph theoretical analyses showed positive association between TCA and both the node degree and node strength of the amygdala. Moderation analysis revealed that the GMD of the amygdala moderated the relationship between TCA and happiness. Specifically, the positive association between TCA and self-perceived happiness was stronger in subjects with a lower GMD of the amygdala. The present study indicated the neural basis underlying the association between TCA and happiness and offered a method of improving individual well-being.

Shared and distinctive neural substrates of generalized anxiety disorder with or without depressive symptoms and their roles in prognostic prediction

BACKGROUND

The neurophysiological mechanisms underlying generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) with or without depressive symptoms are obscure. This study aimed to uncover them and assess their predictive value for treatment response.

METHODS

We enrolled 98 GAD patients [58 (age: 33.22 ± 10.23 years old, males/females: 25/33) with and 40 (age: 33.65 ± 10.49 years old, males/females: 14/26) without depressive symptoms] and 54 healthy controls (HCs, age: 32.28 ± 10.56 years old, males/females: 21/33). Patients underwent clinical assessments and resting-state functional MRI (rs-fMRI) at baseline and after 4-week treatment with paroxetine, while HCs underwent rs-fMRI at baseline only. Regional homogeneity (ReHo) was employed to measure intrinsic brain activity. We compared ReHo in patients to HCs and examined changes in ReHo within the patient groups after treatment. Support vector regression (SVR) analyses were conducted separately for each patient group to predict the patients' treatment response.

RESULTS

Both patient groups exhibited higher ReHo in the middle/superior frontal gyrus decreased ReHo in different brain regions compared to HCs. Furthermore, differences in ReHo were detected between the two patient groups. After treatment, the patient groups displayed distinct ReHo change patterns. By utilizing SVR based on baseline abnormal ReHo, we effectively predicted treatment response of patients (p-value for correlation < 0.05).

LIMITATIONS

The dropout rate was relatively high.

CONCLUSIONS

This study identified shared and unique neural substrates in GAD patients with or without depressive symptoms, potentially serving as biomarkers for treatment response prediction. Comorbid depressive symptoms were associated with differences in disease manifestation and treatment response compared to pure GAD cases.

Single-nucleus transcriptomic analysis reveals the relationship between gene expression in oligodendrocyte lineage and major depressive disorder

BACKGROUND

Major depressive disorder (MDD) is a common mental illness that affects millions of people worldwide and imposes a heavy burden on individuals, families and society. Previous studies on MDD predominantly focused on neurons and employed bulk homogenates of brain tissues. This paper aims to decipher the relationship between oligodendrocyte lineage (OL) development and MDD at the single-cell resolution level.

METHODS

Here, we present the use of a guided regularized random forest (GRRF) algorithm to explore single-nucleus RNA sequencing profiles (GSE144136) of the OL at four developmental stages, which contains dorsolateral prefrontal cortex of 17 healthy controls (HC) and 17 MDD cases, generated by Nagy C et al. We prioritized and ordered differentially expressed genes (DEGs) based on Nagy et al., which could predominantly discriminate cells in the four developmental stages and two adjacent developmental stages of the OL. We further screened top-ranked genes that distinguished between HC and MDD in four developmental stages. Moreover, we estimated the performance of the GRRF model via the area under the curve value. Additionally, we validated the pivotal candidate gene Malat1 in animal models.

RESULTS

We found that, among the four developmental stages, the onset development of OL (OPC2) possesses the best predictive power for distinguishing HC and MDD, and long noncoding RNA MALAT1 has top-ranked importance value in candidate genes of four developmental stages. In addition, results of fluorescence in situ hybridization assay showed that Malat1 plays a critical role in the occurrence of depression.

CONCLUSIONS

Our work elucidates the mechanism of MDD from the perspective of OL development at the single-cell resolution level and provides novel insight into the occurrence of depression.

Impaired visual-motor functional connectivity in first-episode medication-naïve patients with major depressive disorder

The perceptual dysfunctions have been fundamental causes of cognitive and emotional problems in patients with major depressive disorder. However, visual system impairment in depression has been underexplored. Here, we explored functional connectivity in a large cohort of first-episode medication-naïve patients with major depressive disorder (n = 190) and compared it with age- and sex-matched healthy controls (n = 190). A recently developed individual-oriented approach was applied to parcellate the cerebral cortex into 92 regions of interest using resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging data. Significant reductions in functional connectivities were observed between the right lateral occipitotemporal junction within the visual network and 2 regions of interest within the sensorimotor network in patients. The volume of right lateral occipitotemporal junction was also significantly reduced in major depressive disorder patients, indicating that this visual region is anatomically and functionally impaired. Behavioral correlation analysis showed that the reduced functional connectivities were significantly associated with inhibition control in visual-motor processing in patients. Taken together, our data suggest that functional connectivity between visual network and sensorimotor network already shows a significant reduction in the first episode of major depressive disorder, which may interfere with the inhibition control in visual-motor processing. The lateral occipitotemporal junction may be a hub of disconnection and may play a role in the pathophysiology of major depressive disorder.

Abnormalities in brain structure following childhood unpredictability: a mechanism underlying depressive and anxiety symptoms

BACKGROUND

Childhood adversity is associated with abnormalities in brain structure, but this association has not been tested for childhood unpredictability, one form of adversity. We studied whether abnormalities in gray matter volume (GMV) could be a mechanism linking childhood unpredictability and psychopathology, over and above the effect of childhood trauma.

METHODS

Participants were 158 right-handed healthy young adults (aged 17-28 years, M = 22.07, s.d. = 2.08; 66.46% female) who underwent structural magnetic resonance imaging measurements and provided retrospective reports of childhood unpredictability. The anxiety and depression subscales of the self-report Brief Symptom Inventory-53 were used to index psychopathology.

RESULTS

Whole-brain voxel-based morphometric analyses showed that after controlling for the effect of childhood trauma, childhood unpredictability was correlated with greater GMV in bilateral frontal pole, bilateral precuneus, bilateral postcentral gyrus, right hemisphere of fusiform, and lingual gyrus, and left hemisphere of ventrolateral prefrontal cortex as well as occipital gyrus. Greater GMV in bilateral frontal pole, bilateral precuneus, and bilateral postcentral gyrus mediated associations between unpredictability and symptoms of depression and anxiety.

CONCLUSIONS

The findings suggest that childhood unpredictability could exact unique effects on neural development, over and above the effect of childhood trauma. These findings are relevant for understanding the occurrence of psychopathology following childhood unpredictability and have implications for intervention.

Estimation of Discriminative Multimodal Brain Network Connectivity Using Message-Passing-Based Nonlinear Network Fusion

Effective estimation of brain network connectivity enables better unraveling of the extraordinary complexity interactions of brain regions and helps in auxiliary diagnosis of psychiatric disorders. Considering different modalities can provide comprehensive characterizations of brain connectivity, we propose the message-passing-based nonlinear network fusion (MP-NNF) algorithm to estimate multimodal brain network connectivity. In the proposed method, the initial functional and structural networks were computed from fMRI and DTI separately. Then, we update every unimodal network iteratively, making it more similar to the others in every iteration, and finally converge to one unified network. The estimated brain connectivities integrate complementary information from multiple modalities while preserving their original structure, by adding the strong connectivities present in unimodal brain networks and eliminating the weak connectivities. The effectiveness of the method was evaluated by applying the learned brain connectivity for the classification of major depressive disorder (MDD). Specifically, 82.18% classification accuracy was achieved even with the simple feature selection and classification pipeline, which significantly outperforms the competing methods. Exploration of brain connectivity contributed to MDD identification suggests that the proposed method not only improves the classification performance but also was sensitive to critical disease-related neuroimaging biomarkers.

Aberrant brain entropy in posttraumatic stress disorder comorbid with major depressive disorder during the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic

Aim

Previously, neuroimaging studies on comorbid Posttraumatic-Major depression disorder (PTSD-MDD) comorbidity found abnormalities in multiple brain regions among patients. Recent neuroimaging studies have revealed dynamic nature on human brain activity during resting state, and entropy as an indicator of dynamic regularity may provide a new perspective for studying abnormalities of brain function among PTSD-MDD patients. During the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been a significant increase in the number of patients with PTSD-MDD. We have decided to conduct research on resting-state brain functional activity of patients who developed PTSD-MDD during this period using entropy.

Methods

Thirty three patients with PTSD-MDD and 36 matched TCs were recruited. PTSD and depression symptoms were assessed using multiple clinical scales. All subjects underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scans. And the brain entropy (BEN) maps were calculated using the BEN mapping toolbox. A two-sample t-test was used to compare the differences in the brain entropy between the PTSD-MDD comorbidity group and TC group. Furthermore, correlation analysis was conducted between the BEN changes in patients with PTSD-MDD and clinical scales.

Results

Compared to the TCs, PTSD-MDD patients had a reduced BEN in the right middle frontal orbital gyrus (R_MFOG), left putamen, and right inferior frontal gyrus, opercular part (R_IFOG). Furthermore, a higher BEN in the R_MFOG was related to higher CAPS and HAMD-24 scores in the patients with PTSD-MDD.

Conclusion

The results showed that the R_MFOG is a potential marker for showing the symptom severity of PTSD-MDD comorbidity. Consequently, PTSD-MDD may have reduced BEN in frontal and basal ganglia regions which are related to emotional dysregulation and cognitive deficits.

Common and exclusive spontaneous neural activity patterns underlying pure generalized anxiety disorder and comorbid generalized anxiety disorder and depression

BACKGROUND

This study aimed to identify common and exclusive neural substrates underlying pure generalized anxiety disorder (GAD, G0) and comorbid GAD and depression (G1), assess whether they could assist in diagnosis and prediction of treatment response, and determine whether comorbid depression in GAD patients would change their neural plasticity.

METHODS

A longitudinal study was conducted, involving 98 patients (40 in the G0 group and 58 in the G1 group) and 54 healthy controls (HCs). The fractional amplitude of low-frequency fluctuations (fALFF), support vector machine, and support vector regression were employed.

RESULTS

The shared neural underpinnings across the two subtypes of GAD were hyperactivity in the right cerebellar Crus II and inferior temporal gyrus and hypoactivity in the right postcentral gyrus. The G1 group showed hypoactivity in the frontal gyrus, compared with HCs, and hyperactivity in the middle temporal gyrus, compared with the G0 group or HCs. These alterations could aid in diagnosis and the prediction of treatment response with high accuracy. After treatment, both the G1 and G0 groups showed higher fALFF than those before treatment but were located in different brain regions.

LIMITATIONS

The study was performed in a single center and subjects showed a fairly homogeneous ethnicity.

CONCLUSIONS

Common and exclusive neural substrates underlying the two subtypes of GAD were identified, which could assist in diagnosis and the prediction of treatment response. Pharmacotherapy for the two subtypes of GAD recruited different pathways, suggesting that comorbid depression in GAD patients would change their neural plasticity.

Memory and processing speed impairments in first-episode drug-naïve patients with major depressive disorder

BACKGROUND

Cognitive impairment, an intrinsic feature of major depressive disorder (MDD), affects daily and social functioning in depression patients. However, the cognitive impairment profile in MDD remains ambiguous because of the high heterogeneity of previous studies.

METHODS

Four cognitive domains, including memory, processing speed, executive function (EF), and attention, were assessed in 184 first-episode drug-naïve (FEDN) MDD patients and matched 71 healthy controls (HCs). The effects of demographic and depressive factors on cognitive performance were analyzed using various statistical methods, including multi-factor analysis of variance, Mann-Whitney U test, and Spearman's rank correlation. In addition, the impact of depression severity on cognitive function was further assessed using subgroup analyses and partial correlation analyses.

RESULTS

Age and education significantly impacted most cognitive performances, and depression severity appeared to influence processing speed. Moreover, cognitive scores in memory and processing speed, rather than in EF and attention, were significantly different between FEDN MDD patients and HCs after controlling for sex, age, educational attainment, household income, and body mass index.

LIMITATIONS

The number of HCs was relatively small, which may have slightly reduced the study's statistical power.

CONCLUSIONS

Age and educational attainment have confirmative confounding effects greater than those of depression in most cognitive functions. More importantly, memory and processing speed were impaired in MDD after strictly controlling for confounders. These findings provide new information for understanding the pattern of cognitive impairment and offer clues for further exploring the pathogenesis of cognitive abnormalities in MDD.

Wellbeing and brain structure: A comprehensive phenotypic and genetic study of image-derived phenotypes in the UK Biobank

Wellbeing, an important component of mental health, is influenced by genetic and environmental factors. Previous association studies between brain structure and wellbeing have typically focused on volumetric measures and employed small cohorts. Using the UK Biobank Resource, we explored the relationships between wellbeing and brain morphometrics (volume, thickness and surface area) at both phenotypic and genetic levels. The sample comprised 38,982 participants with neuroimaging and wellbeing phenotype data, of which 19,234 had genotypes from which wellbeing polygenic scores (PGS) were calculated. We examined the association of wellbeing phenotype and PGS with all brain regions (including cortical, subcortical, brainstem and cerebellar regions) using multiple linear models, including (1) basic neuroimaging covariates and (2) additional demographic factors that may synergistically impact wellbeing and its neural correlates. Genetic correlations between genomic variants influencing wellbeing and brain structure were also investigated. Small but significant associations between wellbeing and volumes of several cerebellar structures (β = 0.015-0.029, P_FDR  = 0.007-3.8 × 10^-9 ), brainstem, nucleus accumbens and caudate were found. Cortical associations with wellbeing included volume of right lateral occipital, thickness of bilateral lateral occipital and cuneus, and surface area of left superior parietal, supramarginal and pre-/post-central regions. Wellbeing-PGS was associated with cerebellar volumes and supramarginal surface area. Small mediation effects of wellbeing phenotype and PGS on right VIIIb cerebellum were evident. No genetic correlation was found between wellbeing and brain morphometric measures. We provide a comprehensive overview of wellbeing-related brain morphometric variation. Notably, small effect sizes reflect the multifaceted nature of this concept.

The right prefrontal cortex (PFC) can distinguish anxious depression from non-anxious depression: A promising functional near infrared spectroscopy study (fNIRS)

BACKGROUND

Anxious depression is a serious mental disorder characterized by comorbidity of anxiety and depression, and its symptoms are similar to those of non-anxious depression. This study aimed to use functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) as a tool to distinguish between patients with anxious and non-anxious depression based on differences in hemodynamic changes in the right prefrontal cortex during the verbal fluency task. It is helpful to improve the diagnostic accuracy of the two disorders to further promote their therapeutic effect and prognosis.

METHODS

A total of 105 subjects, comprising 39 patients with anxious depression, 32 patients with non-anxious depression, and 32 healthy controls, were evaluated using 53-channel fNIRS and the Depression and Anxiety Clinical Scale.

RESULTS

Hemodynamic activation was significantly enhanced in the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) and right frontopole cortex (FPC) in the anxious depressed group compared with the non-anxious depressed and healthy groups.

LIMITATIONS

First, Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) was used to evaluate the scores of anxiety and depression among the three groups in our study. Different scales may result in different research results. Therefore, other scales (HAM, the Montgomery Asberg Depression Rating Scale, or the Beck Depression Inventory) should be used for further verification. Second, although all the samples we have chosen were patients with the diagnosis of anxious depression or no-anxious depression, we did not distinguish between different severity of anxious depression or no-anxious depression. Third, pure anxiety was not included as the control condition in our study.

CONCLUSIONS

There are significant differences in activation patterns of the right DLPFC and right FPC areas between patients with and without anxious depression. Moreover, the right FPC area is promising as a brain region to assess the severity of anxious depression. fNIRS may be a potential tool to improve diagnostic accuracy for both disorders.

Mental health memes: beneficial or aversive in relation to psychiatric symptoms?

Composed of an image and short caption, internet memes visually depict an element of a culture or behavioural system, in a humorous way that contextually relates to a particular demographic. Typically, they are rapidly shared, with many variations of the original. Online interaction with internet memes has become a crucial psychosocial aspect of digital culture, which have recently become well established in popular media by consistently maintaining culturally topical and socially salient references. Increasingly, many pages are dedicated to sharing memes related to the symptom experience of specific psychiatric disorders. Despite their popularity, the individual motivation for the observation and sharing of mental health memes remains poorly understood. While several psychiatrists and media outlets perceive internet memes related to mental health difficulties to be associated with adverse consequences, the empirical evidence fails to support this notion. Among individuals experiencing psychiatric difficulties, we explore whether interacting with mental health memes involves adverse consequences, or rather serve as a beneficial coping mechanism. Here, evaluation of the literature indicates that most psychiatrically vulnerable individuals report positive experiences when engaging with such memes. More specifically, they are perceived to facilitate a humorous take on a negative experience and situation, and the perception of peer-support through social bonds with others experiencing similar symptoms. While mental health memes typically depict dark and negative humour, their proximal nature to those experiencing psychiatric symptoms may be considered contextually positive. As such, to conclude, we discuss the role of contextual humour in facilitating cognitive reappraisal of negative thoughts and experiences. Furthermore, we set an agenda to address key methodological limitations of existing work while providing suggestions for future research.

Altered dynamic amplitude of low-frequency fluctuations in patients with postpartum depression

BACKGROUND

Postpartum depression (PPD) is a common mood disorder with increasing incidence year by year. However, the dynamic changes in local neural activity of patients with PPD remain unclear. In this study, we utilized the dynamic amplitude of low-frequency fluctuation (dALFF) method to investigate the abnormal temporal variability of local neural activity and its potential correlation with clinical severity in PPD.

METHODS

Twenty-four patients with PPD and nineteen healthy primiparous mothers controls (HCs) matched for age, education level and body mass index were examined by resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rs-fMRI). A sliding-window method was used to assess the dALFF, and a k-means clustering method was used to identify dALFF states. Two-sample t-test was used to compare the differences of dALFF variability and state metrics between PPD and HCs. Pearson correlation analysis was used to analyze the relationship between dALFF variability, states metrics and clinical severity.

RESULTS

(1) Patients with PPD had lower variance of dALFF than HCs in the cognitive control network, cerebellar network and sensorimotor network. (2) Four dALFF states were identified, and patients with PPD spent more time on state 2 than the other three states. The number of transitions between the four dALFF states increased in the patients compared with that in HCs. (3) Multiple dALFF states were found to be correlated with the severity of depression. The variance of dALFF in the right middle frontal gyrus was negatively correlated with the Edinburgh postnatal depression scale score.

CONCLUSION

This study provides new insights into the brain dysfunction of PPD from the perspective of dynamic local brain activity, highlighting the important role of dALFF variability in understanding the neurophysiological mechanisms of PPD.

Graph Theory Analysis of the Cortical Functional Network During Sleep in Patients With Depression

Depression, a common mental illness that seriously affects the psychological health of patients, is also thought to be associated with abnormal brain functional connectivity. This study aimed to explore the differences in the sleep-state functional network topology in depressed patients. A total of 25 healthy participants and 26 depressed patients underwent overnight 16-channel electroencephalography (EEG) examination. The cortical networks were constructed by using functional connectivity metrics of participants based on the weighted phase lag index (WPLI) between the EEG signals. The results indicated that depressed patients exhibited higher global efficiency and node strength than healthy participants. Furthermore, the depressed group indicated right-lateralization in the δ band. The top 30% of connectivity in both groups were shown in undirected connectivity graphs, revealing the distinct link patterns between the depressed and control groups. Links between the hemispheres were noted in the patient group, while the links in the control group were only observed within each hemisphere, and there were many long-range links inside the hemisphere. The altered sleep-state functional network topology in depressed patients may provide clues for a better understanding of the depression pathology. Overall, functional network topology may become a powerful tool for the diagnosis of depression.

Structural neuroimaging measures and lifetime depression across levels of phenotyping in UK biobank

Depression is assessed in various ways in research, with large population studies often relying on minimal phenotyping. Genetic results suggest clinical diagnoses and self-report measures of depression show some core similarities, but also important differences. It is not yet clear how neuroimaging associations depend on levels of phenotyping. We studied 39,300 UK Biobank imaging participants (20,701 female; aged 44.6 to 82.3 years, M = 64.1, SD = 7.5) with structural neuroimaging and lifetime depression data. Past depression phenotypes included a single-item self-report measure, an intermediate measure of 'probable' lifetime depression, derived from multiple questionnaire items relevant to a history of depression, and a retrospective clinical diagnosis according to DSM-IV criteria. We tested (i) associations between brain structural measures and each depression phenotype, and (ii) effects of phenotype on these associations. Depression-brain structure associations were small (β < 0.1) for all phenotypes, but still significant after FDR correction for many regional metrics. Lifetime depression was consistently associated with reduced white matter integrity across phenotypes. Cortical thickness showed negative associations with Self-reported Depression in particular. Phenotype effects were small across most metrics, but significant for cortical thickness in most regions. We report consistent effects of lifetime depression in brain structural measures, including reduced integrity of thalamic radiations and association fibres. We also observed significant differences in associations with cortical thickness across depression phenotypes. Although these results did not relate to level of phenotyping as expected, effects of phenotype definition are still an important consideration for future depression research.

Revisiting Hemispheric Asymmetry in Mood Regulation: Implications for rTMS for Major Depressive Disorder

Hemispheric differences in emotional processing have been observed for over half a century, leading to multiple theories classifying differing roles for the right and left hemisphere in emotional processing. Conventional acceptance of these theories has had lasting clinical implications for the treatment of mood disorders. The theory that the left hemisphere is broadly associated with positively valenced emotions, while the right hemisphere is broadly associated with negatively valenced emotions, drove the initial application of repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) for the treatment of major depressive disorder (MDD). Subsequent rTMS research has led to improved response rates while adhering to the same initial paradigm of administering excitatory rTMS to the left prefrontal cortex (PFC) and inhibitory rTMS to the right PFC. However, accumulating evidence points to greater similarities in emotional regulation between the hemispheres than previously theorized, with potential implications for how rTMS for MDD may be delivered and optimized in the near future. This review will catalog the range of measurement modalities that have been used to explore and describe hemispheric differences, and highlight evidence that updates and advances knowledge of TMS targeting and parameter selection. Future directions for research are proposed that may advance precision medicine and improve efficacy of TMS for MDD.

Surviving (but not thriving) after cranial vault trauma: A case study from Transylvania

OBJECTIVE

To link an antemortem cranial injury on the left parietal bone with potential neurocognitive consequences.

MATERIALS

The skeleton of a male individual from a Székely archaeological site in Transylvania was examined. The skeleton was radiocarbon dated to Cal AD 1450 and AD 1640 and presented a well-healed antemortem penetrating cranial injury on the left parietal bone.

METHODS

Macroscopic and radiographic analyses were conducted and the cranium was also archived digitally with a Faro FreeStyle3D scanner. In addition, well-known literature from neuroscience was synthesized in order to better understand the likely neurological consequences of the injury.

RESULTS

The literature suggests that tasks of attention and working memory, sensory processing, language processing, and vision are affected when the parietal lobe of the brain is injured.

CONCLUSIONS

Burial 195 did not likely return to a 'normal' life after he survived the cranial injury.

SIGNIFICANCE

This study demonstrates that bioarcheological interpretations involving antemortem cranial injuries can be enhanced by collaboration with neuroscientists. Bioarcheological interpretations are improved when the consequences of soft tissue injuries are understood.

LIMITATIONS

This study was limited by a lack of historical documents relevant to the region, time period, and specific case study. In addition, interpretations are cautionary because brain functioning cannot be assessed in vivo in the absence of life.

SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER RESEARCH

Bioarcheologists who study antemortem cranial injuries should continue to collaborate with neuroscientists.

Ketamine Normalizes the Structural Alterations of Inferior Frontal Gyrus in Depression

Background

Ketamine is a novel fast-acting antidepressant. Acute ketamine treatment can reverse microstructure deficits and normalize functional alterations in the brain, but little is known about the impacts of ketamine on brain volumes in individuals with depression.

Methods

We used 3 T magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and tensorbased morphological methods to investigate the regional volume differences for 29 healthy control (HC) subjects and 21 subjects with major depressive disorder (MDD), including 10 subjects with comorbid post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). All the subjects participated in MRI scanning before and 24 h post intravenous ketamine infusion. The effects of acute ketamine administration on HC, MDD, and MDD/PTSD groups were examined separately by whole-brain voxel-wise t-tests.

Results

Our data showed smaller volume of inferior frontal gyrus (IFG, opercular part) in MDD and MDD/PTSD subjects compared to HC, and a significant correlation between opercular IFG volume and depressive severity in MDD subjects only. Ketamine administration normalized the structural alterations of opercular IFG in both MDD and MDD/PTSD groups, and significantly improved depressive and PTSD symptoms. Twenty-four hours after a single ketamine infusion, there were two clusters of voxels with volume changes in MDD subjects, including significantly increased volumes of opercular IFG. No significant structural alterations were found in the MDD/PTSD or HC groups.

Conclusion

These findings provide direct evidence that acute ketamine administration can normalize structural alterations associated with depression and highlight the importance of IFG in the guidance of future therapeutic targets.

Reduced Brain Gray Matter Volume in Patients With First-Episode Major Depressive Disorder: A Quantitative Meta-Analysis

Background: The findings of many neuroimaging studies in patients with first-episode major depressive disorder (MDD), and even those of previous meta-analysis, are divergent. To quantitatively integrate these studies, we performed a meta-analysis of gray matter volumes using voxel-based morphometry (VBM). Methods: We performed a comprehensive literature search for relevant studies and traced the references up to May 1, 2021 to select the VBM studies between first-episode MDD and healthy controls (HC). A quantitative meta-analysis of VBM studies on first-episode MDD was performed using the Seed-based d Mapping with Permutation of Subject Images (SDM-PSI) method, which allows a familywise error rate (FWE) correction for multiple comparisons of the results. Meta-regression was used to explore the effects of demographics and clinical characteristics. Results: Nineteen studies, with 22 datasets comprising 619 first-episode MDD and 707 HC, were included. The pooled and subgroup meta-analysis showed robust gray matter reductions in the left insula, the bilateral parahippocampal gyrus extending into the bilateral hippocampus, the right gyrus rectus extending into the right striatum, the right superior frontal gyrus (dorsolateral part), the left superior frontal gyrus (medial part) and the left superior parietal gyrus. Meta-regression analyses showed that higher HDRS scores were significantly more likely to present reduced gray matter volumes in the right amygdala, and the mean age of MDD patients in each study was negatively correlated with reduced gray matter in the left insula. Conclusions: The present meta-analysis revealed that structural abnormalities in the fronto-striatal-limbic and fronto-parietal networks are essential characteristics in first-episode MDD patients, which may become a potential target for clinical intervention.

Brain functional abnormalities in the amygdala subregions is associated with anxious depression

BACKGROUND

Functional neuroimaging studies have provided strong support for the critical role the amygdala plays in emotional processing. The amygdala is composed of three primary distinct nuclei that have different functions in emotional regulation. Anxious depression (AD) was considered as a common dimensional symptom of Major Depressive Disorder (MDD). However, the neuroimaging basis of this special MDD subtype remains largely unknown. Therefore, it is necessary to study the functional connectivity of the amygdala's subregions in AD patients.

METHODS

Eighty-three patients with AD, 70 non-anxious depression (NAD) patients, and 62 healthy controls were collected. Age and gender were well-matched. The functional connectivity of three amygdala subregions, including centromedial (CM), laterobasal (LB), and superficial (SF), were compared among the AD, NAD, and HC groups. The correlation between functional connectivity in the amygdala subregions and the HAMD factor scores were further analyzed.

RESULTS

Patients with AD showed decreased functional connectivity between the right CM/LB and the right middle frontal gyrus relative to the NAD group. The NAD patients showed decreased functional connectivity between the right precentral gyrus and the right CM/SF compared to the HC group. The functional connectivity between the right CM and the right middle frontal gyrus was negatively correlated with the anxiety/somatization factor.

CONCLUSION

The functional connectivity between the right CM/LB and the right middle frontal gyrus might be the neurobiological mechanism of anxious depression. The FC between the right CM and the right middle frontal gyrus may help to explain the special clinical feature of the AD patients.

Emotional "inflection point" in public health emergencies with the 2019 new coronavirus pneumonia (NCP) in China

BACKGROUND

The outbreak of the new coronavirus pneumonia (NCP) in Wuhan, Hubei, has caused very serious consequences and severely affected people's lives and mental health. The outbreak will cause bad emotions such as tension, anxiety, fear, and so on. College students who have returned home from school face infection, isolation, and delay in starting school, and thus, their emotional stress should be observed.

METHODS

This study used self-designed questionnaires and artificial intelligence (AI) to assess and analyze the emotional state of over 30,000 college students during the outbreak period in January (T1) and home quarantine in February (T2). This survey used online questionnaire (www.wjx.cn) to investigate the emotion information of college students.

RESULTS

In the T1 survey, the "Typhoon Eye Effect" appeared. College students in Hubei are calmer than those outside Hubei in T1. However, in T2, an emotional "infection point" appeared, there was an "Exposure Effect", the negative emotions of students in Hubei largely increased and became higher than students outside Hubei.

CONCLUSION

This survey found that there is an emotional "infection point" in February among college students, especially in the Hubei area. College students in Hubei are calmer than those outside Hubei in T1. In contrast, college students in Hubei were more nervous and scared than those outside Hubei in T2. This epidemic has caused the students to experience significant pressure and negative emotions. Therefore, universities and society should pay attention to their emotional adjustment, there are some suggestions such as establish the mental health organizations, test students' emotion status regularly.

Conscientiousness mediates the link between brain structure and consideration of future consequence

The individual difference in valuing immediate and future outcomes is referred to as consideration of future consequences (CFC, including CFC-Future [CFC-F] and CFC-Immediate [CFC-I]), which significantly influences daily behaviour. Although CFC is believed to be affected by brain features and personalities, the relational model of brain correlates, personalities and CFC has yet to be determined. This study was designed to explore the brain structure related to CFC-F and CFC-I and the mediating role of conscientiousness. We adopted a voxel-based morphometry study and used grey matter density (GMD) as an indication of brain structure. The results showed that GMD in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (VMPFC) was positively associated with CFC-F; however, we did not find relevant regions affecting CFC-I. Furthermore, conscientiousness was found to mediate the relationship between GMD in the VMPFC and CFC-F. This study provides initial evidence concerning the neural basis of CFC-F and argues that the features of brain structure could be associated with CFC-F through related high-order personality traits. Additionally, the distinction between CFC-F and CFC-I may be based on differences in brain structure.

Data on gray matter alterations in anxious depression

This data article provided additional data related to the research article entitled "Brain structural abnormalities in emotional regulation and sensory processing regions associated with anxious depression" Peng et al.,2019. Correlation analyses were conducted for clinical information (HAMD total, anxiety/somatization scores, HAMA total and illness duration) and identified regional gray matter volumes in all patients with anxious depression and non-anxious depression. More detailed correlation analysis was applied for each item of anxiety factor and reginal gray matter volumes to find which items were more associated with structural alterations in patients. Data showed that mean values of regional gray matter volumes in left postcentral gyrus (PCG) were positively associated with HAMD total and anxiety factor scores in anxious depression group. More detailed correlation analysis considering each item of anxiety factor revealed that, item 10 (psychic anxiety) and Item15 (hypochondriasis) were most significantly and positively associated with regional gray matter volumes in left PCG in anxious group. While HAMA scores and illness duration showed no significant correlation with any regional gray matter volume in both patient groups. Sample size matched groups were selected to explore possible replicability of imaging results. It revealed that different gray matter volumes in right inferior frontal gyrus were most robust findings among three groups. And anxious group had larger gray matter volumes in left PCG than non-anxious depression, despite of not survived after multiple comparisons corrections.

Reduced Resting State Neural Activity in the Right Orbital Part of Middle Frontal Gyrus in Anxious Depression

BACKGROUND

Anxious depression (AD), which is generally recognized as a common clinical subtype of major depressive disorder (MDD), holds distinctive features compared with unanxious depression (UAD). However, the neural mechanism of AD still remains unrevealed. To give insight to it, we compared resting-state functional magnetic resonance amplitude of low-frequency fluctuation (ALFF) and functional connectivity (FC) between AD and UAD patients.

METHOD

The data were collected from 60 AD patients, 38 UAD patients, and 60 matched healthy controls. The ALFF and seed-based FC were examined. Pearson correlations were computed between ALFF/FC and clinical measures.

RESULTS

In Comparison with the UAD group, the ALFF value of the right orbital part of middle frontal gyrus (RO-MFG) decreased in AD group. Specifically, the ALFF values of the RO-MFG were negatively correlated with retardation factor scores in AD group (r = -0.376, p = 0.003).

CONCLUSIONS

AD patients exhibited disturbed intrinsic brain function compared with UAD patients. The decreased activity of the RO-MFG is indicative of the alterations involved in the neural basis of AD.