Vulnerable Brain Regions in Adolescent Major Depressive Disorder: A Resting-state Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging Activation Likelihood Estimation Meta-analysis

Overview

Journal World J Psychiatry

Publisher Baishideng Publishing Group

Specialty Psychiatry

Date 2024 Apr 15

PMID 38617984

Authors

Hui Ding

Qin Zhang

Yan-Ping Shu

Bin Tian

Ji Peng

Yong-Zhe Hou

Gang Wu

Li-Yun Lin

Jia-Lin Li

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Background: Adolescent major depressive disorder (MDD) is a significant mental health concern that often leads to recurrent depression in adulthood. Resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rs-fMRI) offers unique insights into the neural mechanisms underlying this condition. However, despite previous research, the specific vulnerable brain regions affected in adolescent MDD patients have not been fully elucidated.

Aim: To identify consistent vulnerable brain regions in adolescent MDD patients using rs-fMRI and activation likelihood estimation (ALE) meta-analysis.

Methods: We performed a comprehensive literature search through July 12, 2023, for studies investigating brain functional changes in adolescent MDD patients. We utilized regional homogeneity (ReHo), amplitude of low-frequency fluctuations (ALFF) and fractional ALFF (fALFF) analyses. We compared the regions of aberrant spontaneous neural activity in adolescents with MDD healthy controls (HCs) using ALE.

Results: Ten studies (369 adolescent MDD patients and 313 HCs) were included. Combining the ReHo and ALFF/fALFF data, the results revealed that the activity in the right cuneus and left precuneus was lower in the adolescent MDD patients than in the HCs (voxel size: 648 mm, < 0.05), and no brain region exhibited increased activity. Based on the ALFF data, we found decreased activity in the right cuneus and left precuneus in adolescent MDD patients (voxel size: 736 mm, < 0.05), with no regions exhibiting increased activity.

Conclusion: Through ALE meta-analysis, we consistently identified the right cuneus and left precuneus as vulnerable brain regions in adolescent MDD patients, increasing our understanding of the neuropathology of affected adolescents.

Citing Articles

Protocol for a nested case-control study: identifying neuroimaging biomarkers for the progression of subclinical depression and qi-stagnation constitution to major depressive disorder in adolescents.

Wang J, Zhang C, Zhang Y, Liu Y, Zhang J, Fang X Front Psychiatry. 2025; 15:1516846.

PMID: 39906680 PMC: 11790624. DOI: 10.3389/fpsyt.2024.1516846.

Neural Modulation Alteration to Positive and Negative Emotions in Depressed Patients: Insights from fMRI Using Positive/Negative Emotion Atlas.

Feng Y, Zeng W, Xie Y, Chen H, Wang L, Wang Y Tomography. 2024; 10(12):2014-2037.

PMID: 39728906 PMC: 11679919. DOI: 10.3390/tomography10120144.

References

Zhang B, Qi S, Liu S, Liu X, Wei X, Ming D . Altered spontaneous neural activity in the precuneus, middle and superior frontal gyri, and hippocampus in college students with subclinical depression. BMC Psychiatry. 2021; 21(1):280. PMC: 8167968. DOI: 10.1186/s12888-021-03292-1. View

Bradley K, Colcombe S, Henderson S, Alonso C, Milham M, Gabbay V . Neural correlates of self-perceptions in adolescents with major depressive disorder. Dev Cogn Neurosci. 2016; 19:87-97. PMC: 4912932. DOI: 10.1016/j.dcn.2016.02.007. View

Stang A . Critical evaluation of the Newcastle-Ottawa scale for the assessment of the quality of nonrandomized studies in meta-analyses. Eur J Epidemiol. 2010; 25(9):603-5. DOI: 10.1007/s10654-010-9491-z. View

Eickhoff S, Bzdok D, Laird A, Kurth F, Fox P . Activation likelihood estimation meta-analysis revisited. Neuroimage. 2011; 59(3):2349-61. PMC: 3254820. DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2011.09.017. View

Thapar A, Collishaw S, Pine D, Thapar A . Depression in adolescence. Lancet. 2012; 379(9820):1056-67. PMC: 3488279. DOI: 10.1016/S0140-6736(11)60871-4. View

Messina A, Cucci G, Crescimanno C, Signorelli M . Clinical anatomy of the precuneus and pathogenesis of the schizophrenia. Anat Sci Int. 2023; 98(4):473-481. DOI: 10.1007/s12565-023-00730-w. View

Afzali M, Dagher A, Bourque J, Spinney S, Conrod P . Cross-lagged Relationships Between Depressive Symptoms and Altered Default Mode Network Connectivity Over the Course of Adolescence. Biol Psychiatry Cogn Neurosci Neuroimaging. 2021; 7(8):774-781. DOI: 10.1016/j.bpsc.2021.10.018. View

Zhou Y, Song Y, Chen C, Yan S, Chen M, Liu T . Abnormal amplitude of low-frequency fluctuation values as a neuroimaging biomarker for major depressive disorder with suicidal attempts in adolescents: A resting-state fMRI and support vector machine analysis. Front Psychol. 2023; 14:1146944. PMC: 9998935. DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1146944. View

Kim J, Suh S, Lee H, Lee J, Lee M . Cortical and subcortical gray matter alterations in first-episode drug-naïve adolescents with major depressive disorder. Neuroreport. 2019; 30(17):1172-1178. PMC: 6855326. DOI: 10.1097/WNR.0000000000001336. View

10.

Hu L, Xiao M, Ai M, Wang W, Chen J, Tan Z . Disruption of resting-state functional connectivity of right posterior insula in adolescents and young adults with major depressive disorder. J Affect Disord. 2019; 257:23-30. DOI: 10.1016/j.jad.2019.06.057. View

11.

Salvia E, Tissier C, Charron S, Herent P, Vidal J, Lion S . The local properties of bold signal fluctuations at rest monitor inhibitory control training in adolescents. Dev Cogn Neurosci. 2019; 38:100664. PMC: 6969344. DOI: 10.1016/j.dcn.2019.100664. View

12.

Liu C, Pan W, Zhu D, Mao P, Ren Y, Ma X . Altered Intrinsic Brain Activity in Patients With Late-Life Depression: A Resting-State Functional MRI Study. Front Psychiatry. 2022; 13:894646. PMC: 9168034. DOI: 10.3389/fpsyt.2022.894646. View

13.

Yan M, Chen J, Liu F, Li H, Huang R, Tang Y . Disrupted Regional Homogeneity in Major Depressive Disorder With Gastrointestinal Symptoms at Rest. Front Psychiatry. 2021; 12:636820. PMC: 8187583. DOI: 10.3389/fpsyt.2021.636820. View

14.

Zhu J, Lin X, Lin C, Zhuo C, Yu Y . Selective functional dysconnectivity of the dorsal-anterior subregion of the precuneus in drug-naive major depressive disorder. J Affect Disord. 2017; 225:676-683. DOI: 10.1016/j.jad.2017.08.084. View

15.

Zhang X, Cao J, Huang Q, Hong S, Dai L, Chen X . Severity related neuroanatomical and spontaneous functional activity alteration in adolescents with major depressive disorder. Front Psychiatry. 2023; 14:1157587. PMC: 10113492. DOI: 10.3389/fpsyt.2023.1157587. View

16.

Grossberg A, Rice T . Depression and Suicidal Behavior in Adolescents. Med Clin North Am. 2022; 107(1):169-182. DOI: 10.1016/j.mcna.2022.04.005. View

17.

Fischer A, Ellwood-Lowe M, Colich N, Cichocki A, Ho T, Gotlib I . Reward-circuit biomarkers of risk and resilience in adolescent depression. J Affect Disord. 2019; 246:902-909. PMC: 6391738. DOI: 10.1016/j.jad.2018.12.104. View

18.

Zhu D, Zhang C, Yang Y, Zhang Y, Zhao W, Zhang B . The relationship between sleep efficiency and clinical symptoms is mediated by brain function in major depressive disorder. J Affect Disord. 2020; 266:327-337. DOI: 10.1016/j.jad.2020.01.155. View

19.

Rzepa E, McCabe C . Anhedonia and depression severity dissociated by dmPFC resting-state functional connectivity in adolescents. J Psychopharmacol. 2018; 32(10):1067-1074. PMC: 6380625. DOI: 10.1177/0269881118799935. View

20.

Zang Y, Zuo X, Milham M, Hallett M . Toward a Meta-Analytic Synthesis of the Resting-State fMRI Literature for Clinical Populations. Biomed Res Int. 2015; 2015:435265. PMC: 4478294. DOI: 10.1155/2015/435265. View