Abstract
To analyze the functioning of the posterior cingulate cortex (PCC) in depression, we performed the first fully voxel-level resting state functional-connectivity neuroimaging analysis of depression of the PCC, with 336 patients with major depressive disorder and 350 controls. Voxels in the PCC had significantly increased functional connectivity with the lateral orbitofrontal cortex, a region implicated in non-reward and which is thereby implicated in depression. In patients receiving medication, the functional connectivity between the lateral orbitofrontal cortex and PCC was decreased back towards that in the controls. In the 350 controls, it was shown that the PCC has high functional connectivity with the parahippocampal regions which are involved in memory. The findings support the theory that the non-reward system in the lateral orbitofrontal cortex has increased effects on memory systems, which contribute to the rumination about sad memories and events in depression. These new findings provide evidence that a key target to ameliorate depression is the lateral orbitofrontal cortex.
Highlights
To analyze the functioning of the posterior cingulate cortex (PCC) in depression, we performed the first fully voxellevel resting state functional-connectivity neuroimaging analysis of depression of the PCC, with 336 patients with major depressive disorder and 350 controls
To investigate the brain areas between which there was different functional connectivity in depression, and whether it was increased or decreased, the functional connectivity (FC) of the posterior cingulate cortex voxels with significant differences of FC was measured for each of the AAL2 regions within which the voxels were located. (A list of abbreviations of the AAL2 areas[14] is provided in Table S1.) The functional connectivity differences are shown in Table 1, which shows the MNI coordinates of the different groups of voxels found in different brain areas that had significantly different FC in depression, the numbers of such voxels, and a significance score
Had significantly increased functional connectivity with the lateral orbitofrontal cortex, a region implicated in non-reward and which is thereby implicated in depression
Summary
To analyze the functioning of the posterior cingulate cortex (PCC) in depression, we performed the first fully voxellevel resting state functional-connectivity neuroimaging analysis of depression of the PCC, with 336 patients with major depressive disorder and 350 controls. Voxels in the PCC had significantly increased functional connectivity with the lateral orbitofrontal cortex, a region implicated in non-reward and which is thereby implicated in depression. The findings support the theory that the non-reward system in the lateral orbitofrontal cortex has increased effects on memory systems, which contribute to the rumination about sad memories and events in depression. These new findings provide evidence that a key target to ameliorate depression is the lateral orbitofrontal cortex. It has been shown that the functional connectivity of the posterior cingulate cortex is related to the rumination in depression[12]. Cheng et al Translational Psychiatry (2018)8:90 to analyze how the posterior cingulate cortex may be related to depression[13]
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