The fNIRS evaluation of frontal and temporal lobe cortical activation in Chinese first-episode medication-naïve and recurrent depression during a verbal fluency task

Ting Yang; Hongyu Wang; Haiyue Dai; Juan Hui; Jintong Zhang; Juan Li; Guimei Cui; Juan Wang; Junlin Mu; Zhaohui Zhang

doi:10.3389/fpsyt.2023.1132666

The fNIRS evaluation of frontal and temporal lobe cortical activation in Chinese first-episode medication-naïve and recurrent depression during a verbal fluency task

Front Psychiatry. 2023 Apr 11:14:1132666. doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2023.1132666. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Ting Yang¹, Hongyu Wang², Haiyue Dai², Juan Hui², Jintong Zhang¹, Juan Li^{2

3}, Guimei Cui², Juan Wang², Junlin Mu², Zhaohui Zhang^{1

3}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Neurology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Xinxiang Medical University, Xinxiang, China.
² The Second Affiliated Hospital of Xinxiang Medical University, Xinxiang, China.
³ Henan Key Laboratory of Neurorestoratology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Xinxiang Medical University, Xinxiang, China.

Abstract

Background: Functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) identifies neurophysiological differences between psychiatric disorders by assessing cortical hemodynamic function. Few trials have studied differences in brain functional activity between first-episode medication-naïve depression patients (FMD) and recurrent major depression (RMD). We aimed to determine the differences between FMD and RMD in oxygenated hemoglobin concentration ([oxy-Hb]), and to investigate the correlation between frontotemporal cortex activation and clinical symptoms.

Methods: We recruited 40 patients with FMD, 53 with RMD, and 38 healthy controls (HCs) from May 2021 to April 2022. Symptom severity was assessed with the 24-item Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HAM-D) and the Hamilton Anxiety Rating Scale (HAM-A). A 52-channel fNIRS measured changes in [oxy-Hb] during VFT performance.

Results: Both patient groups performed poorly during the VFT task compared with HC (FDR p < 0.05), but there was no significant difference between the two patient groups. Analysis of variance showed that mean [oxy-Hb] activation was lower in both the frontal and temporal lobes in the MDD group compared with HCs (FDR p < 0.05). Additionally, patients with RMD had a significantly lower hemodynamic response in the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) and dorsal frontal pole cortex (DFPC) than patients with FMD (FDR p < 0.05). No significant correlation was found between changes in mean [oxy-Hb] and either medical history or clinical symptoms (FDR p < 0.05).

Conclusion: The presence of different neurofunctional activity in some of the same brain regions in FMD and RMD patients implied a link between the level of complexity activation in frontal regions and the stage of MDD. Cognitive impairment may already be present at the beginning of an MDD episode.

Clinical trial registration: www.chictr.org.cn, identifier ChiCTR2100043432.

Keywords: VFT; first-episode; functional near-infrared spectroscopy; major depressive disorder; recurrent.

Grants and funding

This study was supported by Henan Key Laboratory of Neurorestoratology (Grant No. HNSJXF-2021-013), Henan Key Laboratory of Neurorestoratology (Grant No. HNSJXF-2021-003), and the Graduate Innovative Research Project of First Affiliated Hospital of Xinxiang Medical University (YJSCX202179Y).