Left Cerebral Cortex Complexity in Patients with Major Depression Disorder: A Small-Sample Pilot Study

Jian Liu; Xinying Chen; Chuanxin Liu; Min Chen; Deguo Jiang; Xiaodong Lin; Gongying Li; Hongjun Tian; Lina Wang; Chuanjun Zhuo; Wenzhen Tu

doi:10.5152/pcp.2021.20060

Left Cerebral Cortex Complexity in Patients with Major Depression Disorder: A Small-Sample Pilot Study

Psychiatry Clin Psychopharmacol. 2021 Sep 1;31(3):245-251. doi: 10.5152/pcp.2021.20060. eCollection 2021 Sep.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ Department of Psychiatry, Tianjin Anding Hospital, Tianjin Mental Health Center, Tianjin, China.
² Department of Psychiatry, School of Mental Health, Jining Medical University, Jining, Shandong Province, China.
³ Department of Psychiatry, Wenzhou Seventh People's Hospital, Wenzhou, Zhejiang Province, China.
⁴ Key Laboratory of Sensory Processing Disturbance of Mental Disorder (LSPDMD_Laboratory), Tianjin Fourth Central Hospital, Tianjin, China.

Abstract

Objective: To investigate cerebral cortical complexity (CCC) in patients with first-episode, drug-naive major depressive disorder (MDD) with source-based morphometry (SBM) analyses.

Methods: We used the SBM parameters gyrification index (GI) and fractal dimension (FD) to evaluate CCC in 14 first-episode, drug-naive patients diagnosed with MDD. The severity of depression symptoms was assessed with the 17-item Hamilton Depression Scale (HAMD-17). GI and FD alterations in the MDD group, relative to healthy controls (HCs), were correlated with depression symptom severity with GI/FD.

Results: Increased GIs in the MDD group, relative to HCs, were found mainly in the left postcentral gyrus, whereas GI reductions were found in the left angular gyrus, left lingual gyrus, left superior temporal gyrus, and left insular cortex. Increased FDs in the MDD group, relative to HCs, were located in the superior frontal gyrus. In contrast, decreased FDs were located in the left superior temporal gyrus and left superior frontal gyrus.

Conclusion: Although the group differences in GI and FD values obtained did not withstand family-wise error (FWE) correction, the results show a consistent trend of alterations in left-hemisphere CCC in first-episode, drug-naive patients diagnosed with MDD. These findings support the hypothesis that there is a pattern of subtle neocortical aberrations in early-stage MDD.

Keywords: Cerebral cortex complexity; depression; fractal dimension; gyrification index; magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI); source-based morphometry (SBM).

2021 authors.

Grants and funding

This work was supported by grants from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (81871052 to C.Z., 81801679 and 81571319 to Y.X.), the Key Projects of the Natural Science Foundation of Tianjin, China (17JCZDJC35700 to C.Z.), the Tianjin Health Bureau Foundation (2014KR02 to C.Z.), the National Key Research and Development Program of China (2016YFC1307004 to Y.X.), the Shanxi Science and Technology Innovation Training Team’s Multidisciplinary Team for Cognitive Impairment (201705D131027 to Y.X.), the Zhejiang Public Welfare Fund Project (LGF18H090002 to D.J.), and the key project of the Wenzhou Science and Technology Bureau (ZS2017011 to X.L.).