Despite an abundance of research related to the functional and structural changes of the brain in patients with geriatric depression, knowledge related to early alterations such as decreased white matter connectivity and their association with cognitive decline remains lacking. We aimed to investigate early alterations in hippocampal microstructure and identify their associations with memory function in geriatric patients with subclinical depression. Nineteen participants with subclinical geriatric depression and 19 healthy controls aged ≥65 years exhibiting general cognitive function within the normal range were included in the study and underwent assessments of verbal memory. Hippocampal subfield volumes were determined based on T1-weighted magnetization-prepared rapid gradient echo (T1-MPRAGE) images, while group tractography and connectometry analyses were conducted using diffusion tensor images. Our findings indicated that the volumes of whole bilateral hippocampus, cornus ammonis (CA) 1, molecular layer, left subiculum, CA3, hippocampal tail, right CA4, and granule cell/molecular layers of the dentate gyrus (GC-ML-DG) were significantly smaller in the subclinical depression group than in the control group. In the subclinical depression group, verbal learning was positively correlated with the volumes of the CA1, GC-ML-DG, molecular layer, and whole hippocampus in the right hemisphere. The fractional anisotropy of the bilateral fornix was also significantly lower in the subclinical depression group and exhibited a positive correlation with verbal learning and recall in both groups. Our results suggest that hippocampal microstructure is disrupted and associated with memory in patients with subclinical depression.
Keywords: depression; diffusion tensor imaging; geriatric psychiatry; hippocampus; memory.