Abnormal changes of functional connectivity between anterior cingulate cortex and amygdala in ado-lescents patients with first-episode depression / 中华行为医学与脑科学杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To study the resting-state functional connectivity( FC) changes of anterior cingulate cortex(ACC) and amygdala in adolescent patients with medication-naive first-episode major de-pressive disorder(MDD).Methods Medication-naive first-episode MDD adolescents( n＝30) and pair-wise matched healthy controls(HCs,n＝29) underwent resting-state functional magnetic resonance images(fM-RI).To study whether there were different in FC changes between amygdala and ACC and whole brain re-gions,and whether abnormal FC was related to clinical characteristics.Results Compared with HCs,the ado-lescent MDD patients showed decreased FC between the left amygdala and right thalamus( MNI x,y,z15,－21,18)(t＝－2.85)and increased FC between the left amygdala and the bilateral temporal middle gyrus,left occipital gyrus,right medial prefrontal cortex(MPFC)(MNI x,y,z9,66,15) ( t＝2.80).The right amygdale showed decreased FC with bilateral middle frontal gyrus,left caudate(MNI x,y,z－15,－9,21)(t＝－2.53), right thalamus(MNI x,y,z12,－36,12)(t＝－3.01),right cerebellum(MNI x,y,z3,－84,－33)(t＝－2.45) and increased FC with right temporal middle gyrus,right MPFC( MNI x,y,z6,69,12) ( t＝2.41).The left ACC showed decreased FC with left cerebellum( MNI x,y,z12,－87,－24) ( t＝－2.36),left frontal inferior triangle gyrus,right frontal inferior orbital gyrus and increased FC with right frontal middle orbital gyrus.The right ACC showed decreased FC with left caudate(MNI x,y,z－15,21,6)(t＝－2.29),right temporal middle gyrus,right MPFC(MNI x,y,z9,54,36)(t＝－2.29),right frontal inferior orbital gyrus,right angular(MNI x,y,z45,－51,21)(t＝－3.01),left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex(MNI x,y,z－21,33,36) ( t＝－2.61).The increased FC between the left amygdale and bilateral temporal middle gyrus showed positive correlation with the score of HAMD(r＝0.50,P＜0.05;r＝0.45,P＜0.05).And the FC between the right amygdale and right middle frontal gyrus was positive correlation with duration of disease( r＝0.63,P＜0.05).Conclusion There is widespread FC disorder in amygdala and ACC in adolescents patients with first-episode depression.Abnor-mal FC changes may be the neuropathological mechanism of depression.