The brain imaging mechanisms of visual cognitive impairment in depression

Abstract

Major depressive disorder (MDD) is one of the most common psychiatric disorders.It is characterized by emotional, cognitive, and physical symptoms which can also cause severe disability and disease burden. The current study found that patients with MDD have cognitive impairment in both acute and remission phases, which seriously affect the prognosis of patients. The impairment of visual cognitive function greatly affects the social function of MDD patients and the current researches showed that visual cognitive impairment of MDD patients is closely related to the functional connection in the brain, which can be reflected by different degrees of neuroimaging changes in the frontal, occipital, temporal, and parietal regions.The change of visual cognitive function in patients with MDD is mainly influenced by the frontal lobe and the occipital lobe, which may be related to the large number of visual cortex in the anatomy of the two brain regions. The activation of the frontal lobe may be positively related to the patient's visual cognitive impairment; the reduction of the occipital lobe activity may have an impact on the visual process and may be the starting factor for cognitive impairment. The active enhancement of the parietal region plays an important role in the visual short-term memory. In addition, the temporo-parietal junction is also found to be involved in the processing of visual and working memory, and the activation of temporal lobe and parietal lobe can be observed.This review summarizes recent researches at home and abroad and reveals the visual perception of MDD patients in different ways in each different brain regions. Key words: Major depressive disorder; Visual cognitive; Brain imaging