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Abstract
Recent developments in graph theory have heightened the need for investigating the disruptions in the topological structure of functional brain network in major depressive disorder (MDD). In this study, we employed resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and graph theory to examine the whole-brain functional networks among 42 MDD patients and 42 healthy controls. Our results showed that compared with healthy controls, MDD patients showed higher local efficiency and modularity. Furthermore, MDD patients showed altered nodal centralities of many brain regions, including hippocampus, temporal cortex, anterior cingulate gyrus and dorsolateral prefrontal gyrus, mainly located in default mode network and cognitive control network. Together, our results suggested that MDD was associated with disruptions in the topological structure of functional brain networks, and provided new insights concerning the pathophysiological mechanisms of MDD.
Highlights
Major depressive disorder (MDD) is one of the most prevalent mental disorders, and it is characterized by persistent feeling of sadness, low self-esteem, sleep disturbances, and withdrawal from pleasurable activities [1]
Graph theory analyses revealed that the global efficiencies of functional brain networks in major depressive disorder (MDD) patients and healthy controls were greater than regular networks but less than random networks, and the local efficiencies were greater than random networks but less than regular networks over the whole range of 0.03~0.50 (Fig 1)
Despite the common small-world properties, higher local efficiencies were found in MDD patients in comparison with healthy controls at the range of 0.15~0.30, whereas there were no significant differences in global efficiencies (Fig 1)
Summary
Major depressive disorder (MDD) is one of the most prevalent mental disorders, and it is characterized by persistent feeling of sadness, low self-esteem, sleep disturbances, and withdrawal from pleasurable activities [1]. Previous studies suggest that MDD has relationships with the regional deficits, and with the abnormal functional integration of distributed brain regions [3,4,5,6,7]. Using typical regional measures including regional homogeneity and the (fractional) amplitude of characteristic low-frequency fluctuations, a number of brain regions with abnormal activities in the resting-state have been identified associated with MDD, such as parahippocampal gyrus [4,5], prefrontal cortex [8,9,10], cingulate gyrus [11,12], fusiform gyrus [5,11], and thalamus [13]. Disruptions in functional connectivity have been observed between specific region pairs in MDD through functional connectivity analyses
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