Study of large-scale functional brain networks and topological properties in patients with major de-pressive disorder
Objective To explore the changes of large-scale functional brain networks and network topological properties in patients with major depressive disorder(MDD)whose diagnosis had not changed af-ter 5 years of follow-up.Methods Totally 521 cases of hospitalized MDD patients were recruited from Janu-ary 2012 to August 2018,and another 204 cases of gender-and age-matched healthy controls were recruited.All participants completed resting-state functional magnetic resonance scanning and clinical assessment.Their diagnosis were reviewed 5 years after discharge.A total of 258 participants whose diagnosis had not changed were counted into the MDD group for analysis.The differences in large-scale brain network connec-tivity between the two groups were analyzed by constructing a whole-brain functional network,on the basis of which the altered topological properties of the sensorimotor network(SMN),visual network(VN)and de-fault mode network(DMN)were further analyzed between the two groups.The SPSS 24.0 software was used for data analysis and the independent sample t-test and x2 test were used for the data comparison of the two groups.Results Compared with the healthy controls,the MDD group had significantly decreased network clustering,mainly involving the SMN,VN and DMN(edge P＜0.001,cluster P＜0.05).The MDD group had decreased functional connectivity(FC)strength within the SMN,VN and DMN networks,the FC strength be-tween the SMN and VN networks,between the frontoparietal network(FPN)and the DAN networks were de-creased(all P＜0.05,FDR corrected).Graph-theory analysis showed that local efficiency,clustering coeffi-cient,and normalized shortest path length were decreased in the MDD group,node efficiency was decreased in the left ventral medial prefrontal cortex and the middle of the bilateral insula,node centrality was de-creased in the middle of the bilateral insula and occipital lobe,and the betweenness was decreased in the middle of the right insula(all P＜0.05,FDR corrected).Conclusion MDD exhibits abnormal network functional connectivity,disruption of network topological properties,diminished optimal information process-ing,and to some extent reflects the severity of depressive symptoms.The decreased ability of information transfer flow in the insula plays an important role for the functional abnormality of the network.
Major depressive disorderResting-state functional magnetic resonance imagingLarge-scale brain networkNetwork topological property
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