Abstract
The regulation of the autonomic nervous system (ANS) can improve cognitive function in major depressive disorders (MDD). Heart rate variability (HRV) derives from the dynamic control of the ANS and reflects the balance between the activities of the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems by measuring tiny changes in adjacent heart beats. Task-related HRV may reflect the association between the flexibility of cognition and ANS function. The study was to investigate the neural mechanism of interactions between ANS and cognitive function in MDD with Magnetoencephalography (MEG) measurements. Participants included 20 MDD patients and 18 healthy controls (HCs). All participants were measured with a go/no-go task MEG. HRV indices, the standard deviation of the average normal-to-normal (NN) interval calculated over short periods (SDANN) and the square root of the mean squared differences of successive NN intervals (RMSSD), were derived from the raw MEG data. Results showed that MDD patients showed decreased SDANN and RMSSD. In MDD patients, both resting-state and task-related RMSSD were related to inhibitory and control dysfunction. In the go/no-go task, many areas in the prefrontal cortex (PFC) are responsible for an individual’s inhibitory function. A brain MEG functional connectivity analysis revealed that there were significant differences in four brain regions within the prefrontal cortex (PFC) between MDD patients and HCs. Task-related RMSSD in HCs were related to the functional connectivity between the left middle frontal gyrus and the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), while in MDD patients, these values were not related to the above functional connectivity but were related to the functional connectivity between the left middle frontal gyrus and insula. However, the resting-state RMSSD value was not related to these significant difference functional connectivity networks in all participants. It concludes that the decreased task-related HRV is associated with inhibitory dysfunction through functional inter-region connectivity in the PFC in MDD, and the task-related HRV can be used as an index of the association between MDD and autonomic dysregulation.
Highlights
Major depressive disorder (MDD) is a serious health care problem worldwide, according to the report of illness-induced disability [1]
The criteria for the HC group were as follows: 1) did not meet the criteria of any DSM-5 axis I disorder or personality disorders according to the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-5 (SCID5, Chinese version); 2) age from 18 years old to 65 years old; 3) HAMD (17-item edition) scores ≤ 7; 4) no history of any kind of psychiatric disorder; 5) no diagnosis of alcohol, drug, or other substance dependence; and 6) no diagnosis of any kind of head injury, neurological disorder or systemic disease that might have an effect on the central nervous system
There were no significant differences between the demographic characteristics of the participants in Gender ratio (M/F)
Summary
Major depressive disorder (MDD) is a serious health care problem worldwide, according to the report of illness-induced disability [1]. MDD is a more severe state of depressive symptomatology in which patients present multiple depressive symptoms and show significant distress or impaired functioning. Of the many depressive symptoms, cognitive impairments are common in MDD. Cognitive function is an individual’s ability to process information. Cognitive dysfunction is prevalent and is associated with the early onset of depression and with longer depressive episodes in MDD patients; it has an adverse impact on treatment outcomes, as well as on functional recovery [2]. Inhibitory and control function is a critical cognitive function that can be defined as interference control, prepotent response inhibition, and resistance to interference. Prepotent response inhibition is the ability to suppress or withhold a (motor) response, which can be measured by the go/no-go task [3]
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