Citation

Yan CG, Chen X, Li L, Castellanos FX, Bai TJ, Bo QJ, Cao J, Chen GM, Chen NX, Chen W, Cheng C, Cheng YQ, Cui XL, Duan J, Fang YR, Gong QY, Guo WB, Hou ZH, Hu L, Kuang L, Li F, Li KM, Li T, Liu YS, Liu ZN, Long YC, Luo QH, Meng HQ, Peng DH, Qiu HT, Qiu J, Shen YD, Shi YS, Wang CY, Wang F, Wang K, Wang L, Wang X, Wang Y, Wu XP, Wu XR, Xie CM, Xie GR, Xie HY, Xie P, Xu XF, Yang H, Yang J, Yao JS, Yao SQ, Yin YY, Yuan YG, Zhang AX, Zhang H, Zhang KR, Zhang L, Zhang ZJ, Zhou RB, Zhou YT, Zhu JJ, Zou CJ, Si TM, Zuo XN, Zhao JP, Zang YF. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U. S. A. 2019; 116(18): 9078-9083.

Affiliation

Zhejiang Key Laboratory for Research in Assessment of Cognitive Impairments, Hangzhou, Zhejiang 311121, China.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2019, National Academy of Sciences)

DOI

10.1073/pnas.1900390116

PMID

30979801

Abstract

Major depressive disorder (MDD) is common and disabling, but its neuropathophysiology remains unclear. Most studies of functional brain networks in MDD have had limited statistical power and data analysis approaches have varied widely. The REST-meta-MDD Project of resting-state fMRI (R-fMRI) addresses these issues. Twenty-five research groups in China established the REST-meta-MDD Consortium by contributing R-fMRI data from 1,300 patients with MDD and 1,128 normal controls (NCs). Data were preprocessed locally with a standardized protocol before aggregated group analyses. We focused on functional connectivity (FC) within the default mode network (DMN), frequently reported to be increased in MDD. Instead, we found decreased DMN FC when we compared 848 patients with MDD to 794 NCs from 17 sites after data exclusion. We found FC reduction only in recurrent MDD, not in first-episode drug-naïve MDD. Decreased DMN FC was associated with medication usage but not with MDD duration. DMN FC was also positively related to symptom severity but only in recurrent MDD. Exploratory analyses also revealed alterations in FC of visual, sensory-motor, and dorsal attention networks in MDD. We confirmed the key role of DMN in MDD but found reduced rather than increased FC within the DMN. Future studies should test whether decreased DMN FC mediates response to treatment. All R-fMRI indices of data contributed by the REST-meta-MDD consortium are being shared publicly via the R-fMRI Maps Project.

Copyright © 2019 the Author(s). Published by PNAS.

Language: en

Keywords

REST-meta-MDD; default mode network; functional connectivity; major depressive disorder; resting-state fMRI