Abstract
Objective: To investigate the dynamic functional connectivity (dFC) abnormalities of the raphe nucleus in adolescent patients with first-episode depression and its correlation with clinical characteristics and cognitive function. Methods: A total of 30 adolescent patients with untreated depression [Depression Groups, 17 males and 13 females, median age 16.5 (15.0, 17.0) years] and 29 age-, gender-and education-[Healthy Controls, 17 males and 12 females, median age 17.0 (16.0, 18.0) years] matched healthy controls underwent resting functional MRI examinations and their clinical data were obtained in the First Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University.The raphe nuclei was subdivided into dorsal raphe nuclei (DRN) and median raphe nuclei (MRN). Seed-based dFC of the raphe nucleus was conducted to analyze the abnormal dFC between DRN and whole brain gray matter as well as MRN. Clinical characteristics and cognitive function were evaluated using HAMD-17 and Wisconsin card sorting (WSCT), respectively. The difference of dFC between the two groups was compared. The variance values of dFC in the different brain regions were extracted and subsequently used for evaluating the correlation between the scores of HAMD-17 as well as cognitive tests. Results: Compared with HC, the depression group had an significantly increased variance of dFC in the right superior temporal gyrus (MNI coordinate:33,-12,-12; voxel size 468; t=4.715), extending to the right insula, lentiform nucleus, putamen and Rolandic_Oper_R (aal) (GRF correction, voxel-P<0.005,cluster-P<0.05). Significant negative correlations were observed between the variance in the different brain regions and the total scores andthe factor of retardation scores of HAMD-17 as well the total time, the time of correct thinking, the time of mistake thinking and the number of non-persistent errors of WSCT in depression groups (r=-0.388, -0.365, -0.488, -0.470, -0.412, -0.390, respectively, all P<0.05). Conclusion: The variability of the dFC between the DRN and the temporal insula regions as well as striatum was increased in adolescent patients with untreated depression and associated with the severity and cognitive abnormality.
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