Abstract
Background: Cognitive dysfunction is a common clinical feature of mental disorders. A number of functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) studies have shown reduced prefrontal activation during the verbal fluency task (VFT) in schizophrenia (SZ) and major depressive disorder (MDD). However, no studies have examined and compared the brain activation patterns during the Tower of London (TOL), which is another classic, high-sensitivity executive function testing tool, in these two serious mental disorders. This study aimed to assess the characteristics of brain activation during the two different cognitive tasks in SZ and MDD patients.Methods: This study recruited 30 patients with SZ, 30 patients with MDD, and 30 demographically matched healthy controls (HCs). The hemodynamic changes of the prefrontal cortex (PFC) were measured using 32-channel fNIRS during performance of the TOL task and VFT task.Results: SZ patients showed poorer VFT performance than MDD patients and HCs, and the two patient groups showed poorer TOL performance than HCs. Compared to HCs, both of the patient groups exhibited a significant decreased activation in the extensive PFC. Particularly in certain channels in the dorsolateral PFC (DLPFC), SZ patients exhibited significantly decreased hemodynamic changes than the MDD patients.Conclusions: Patients with SZ and MDD have different levels of impairment in different cognitive domains and different patterns of brain activation during the two cognitive tasks. Further research is needed to determine the use of fNIRS for clinical evaluation and diagnosis.
Highlights
Cognitive dysfunction is gaining attention as a common clinical feature of mental disorders, which has a large impact on quality of life and long-term prognosis
We found that SZ patients showed poorer performance on verbal fluency task (VFT) than Major depressive disorder (MDD) patients and healthy controls (HCs), and the two patient groups showed poorer performance on Tower of London (TOL) than HCs. functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) results indicated that the activation of the extensive prefrontal cortex (PFC) in the two patient groups was significantly lower than that in HCs during the two tasks
Our results showed that MDD patients planned and dealt with problems less effectively than HCs but had higher accuracy than SZ patients, which suggested that executive function impairment was more severe in SZ patients and were consistent with a previous study [15]
Summary
Cognitive dysfunction is gaining attention as a common clinical feature of mental disorders, which has a large impact on quality of life and long-term prognosis. Major depressive disorder (MDD) is characterized by impaired affect, cognitive dysfunction, and significant psychosocial impairment that may persist from weeks to years. It suggested that the cognitive dysfunction in MDD persists following symptomatic remission, which may contribute to social dysfunction and suicide ideation [3]. A number of functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) studies have shown reduced prefrontal activation during the verbal fluency task (VFT) in schizophrenia (SZ) and major depressive disorder (MDD). No studies have examined and compared the brain activation patterns during the Tower of London (TOL), which is another classic, high-sensitivity executive function testing tool, in these two serious mental disorders. This study aimed to assess the characteristics of brain activation during the two different cognitive tasks in SZ and MDD patients
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