Dorsolateral Prefrontal Activation in Emotional Autobiographical Task in Depressed and Anxious College Students: An fNIRS Study

Different activation in dorsolateral prefrontal cortex between anxious depression and non-anxious depression during an autobiographical memory task: A fNIRS study

OBJECTIVE

Using functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) previous studies have found that activation differences in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) during an autobiographical memory task (AMT) under the condition of different emotional valences may be neurophysiological markers of depression and different depression subtypes. Additionally, compared with non-anxious depression, anxious depression presents abnormal hemodynamic activation in the DLPFC. This study aimed to use fNIRS to investigate hemodynamic activation in the DLPFC of depression patients with and without anxiety during AMT triggered by different emotional valence stimuli.

METHODS

We recruited 194 patients with depression (91 with non-anxious depression, 103 with anxious depression) and 110 healthy controls from Chinese college students. A 53-channel fNIRS was used to detect cerebral hemodynamic differences in the three groups during AMT.

RESULTS

The results showed that: (1) the activation of oxy-Hb in the left DLPFC was significantly higher under positive emotional valence than under negative emotional valence for healthy controls and patients with non-anxious depression, while there was no significant difference between positive and negative emotional valence observed in response to anxious depression; and (2) Oxy-Hb activation under negative emotional valence was significantly higher in the anxious depression group than in the non-anxious depression group.

CONCLUSIONS

This study revealed that the hemodynamic hyperactivation of negative emotional valence in the left DLPFC may be due to the neurophysiological differences between anxious and non-anxious patients with depression.

Differences in prefrontal cortex activation in Chinese college students with different severities of depressive symptoms: A large sample of functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) findings

BACKGROUND

Previous studies proposed that functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) can be used to distinguish between not only different severities of depressive symptoms but also different subgroups of depression, such as anxious and non-anxious depression, bipolar and unipolar depression, and melancholia and non-melancholia depression. However, the differences in brain haemodynamic activation between depression subgroups (such as confirmed depression [CD] and suspected depression [SD]) with different symptom severities and the possible correlation between symptom severity and haemodynamic activation in specific brain regions using fNIRS have yet to be clarified.

METHODS

The severity of depression symptoms was classified using the Hospital Anxiety and Depression scale (HADS) and the Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview by psychiatrists. We recruited 654 patients with depression who had varying severities of depressive symptoms, including 276 with SD and 378 with CD, and 317 with HCs from among Chinese college students. The 53-channel fNIRS was used to detect the cerebral hemodynamic difference of the three groups during the VFT (verbal fluency task).

RESULTS

Compared with the HC, region-specific fNIRS leads indicate CD patients had significant lower haemodynamic activation in three particular prefrontal regions: 1) right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC), 2) bilateral frontopolar cortex (FPC), and 3) right Broca's area (BA). SD vs. HC comparisons revealed only significant lower haemodynamic activation in the right FPC area. Compared to SD patients, CD patients exhibited decreased hemodynamic activation changes in the right DLPFC and the right BA. Correlation analysis established a significant negative correlation between the hemodynamic changes in the bilateral FPC and the severity of depressive symptoms.

CONCLUSIONS

The right DLPFC and right BA are expected to be physiological mechanisms to distinguish depression subgroups (CD, SD) with different symptom severities. The haemodynamic changes in the bilateral FPC was nagatively associated with the symptom severity of depression.

Abnormal prefrontal cortical activation during the GO/NOGO and verbal fluency tasks in adult patients with comorbid generalized anxiety disorder and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder: An fNIRS study

Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) and adult attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) are commonly reported comorbidities. Adult GAD patients with comorbid ADHD are often underdiagnosed and undertreated. To explore the clinical value of functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) data for assisting in the accurate diagnosis of ADHD in individuals with GAD, haemoglobin (HbO) concentration changes in the prefrontal cortex (PFC) were detected via fNIRS in 49 patients with both GAD and ADHD, 46 patients with GAD, and 34 healthy controls (HCs) during a verbal fluency task (VFT) and a GO/NOGO task. The correlations between PFC fNIRS data and the severity of inattention and hyperactivity symptoms assessed using the adult ADHD Self-Report Scale (ASRS) were analyzed. Our results showed that, during the GO/NOGO task, channels in the left dorsolateral PFC (channels 28 and 29) were hyperactivated, while channels in the medial PFC (channels 36, 37, and 47) were hypoactivated in participants with ADHD and GAD compared with those with GAD alone. During the VFT, compared with the HC group, both the ADHD + GAD group and the GAD group exhibited significantly decreased HbO activation in the medial PFC (channels 37, 38, and 48) and in the left ventrolateral PFC (channel 39); moreover, no difference was found between the ADHD + GAD group and the GAD group. Activation in the left dorsolateral PFC (channels 28 and 29) during the GO/NOGO task showed a significant positive correlation with ASRS-inattention scores. Our results indicated that fNIRS data collected during the GO/NOGO task may help to distinguish patients with comorbid GAD and ADHD from those with GAD alone.

Dorsolateral prefrontal activation in depressed young adults with and without suicidal ideation during an emotional autobiographical memory task: A fNIRS study

OBJECTIVE

Previous studies have proved that there is a strong association between dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and mood symptoms. This study aimed at using functional near-infrared spectroscopy technology to invest brain activity in dlPFC of depressed individuals with and without suicidal ideation during emotional autobiographical memory test, and to understand their differences in brain cognitive mechanisms. It is helpful to improve our ability to predict and subsequently to prevent suicide.

METHODS

85 young adults participated in the study by a simple random sampling method, with health control (34participants), depression with suicidal ideation (17participants), and depression without suicidal ideation (34participants). The average oxyhemoglobin in dlPFC of subjects during EAMT was collected by a 53-channel fNIRS imaging device.

RESULTS

A marginal significant difference was found between three groups in left dlPFC and right dlPFC. Post hoc analysis revealed that: (1) under negative emotion, depression without suicidal ideation group had higher activation than healthy control group in left dlPFC. (2) under positive emotion, depression with suicidal ideation group had lower activation than healthy control in right dlPFC.

CONCLUSIONS

Results indicated that the depressed individuals with suicidal ideation had some deficits in executive function in right dlPFC, while the depressed adults without suicidal ideation may have mechanism of resource compensatory recruitment in left dlPFC and the dlPFC abnormality involved in the pathophysiology, may localize within left hemisphere. The depressed individuals with and without suicidal ideation had the different mechanisms in dlPFC and fNIRS can be a neuroimaging biomarker characterizing or predicting suicidality in depressed individuals.