Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Wu, Guo-Rong
• Baeken, Chris

Titel

Lateralized subgenual ACC metabolic connectivity patterns in refractory melancholic depression: does it matter?

Ist Teil von

• Cerebral cortex (New York, N.Y. 1991), 2023-03, Vol.33 (7), p.3490-3497

Ort / Verlag

United States: Oxford University Press

Erscheinungsjahr

2023

Quelle

Oxford Journals 2020 Medicine

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• Abstract Although treatment resistance to antidepressant pharmacotherapy is quite common, the phenomenon of refractory major depressive disorder (rMDD) is not well understood. Nevertheless, the metabolic activity of the subgenual anterior cingulate cortex (sgACC) has been put forward as a possible metabolic biomarker of clinical prediction and response, albeit sgACC lateralization differences in functional connectivity have not yet been extensively examined. Also not in the refractory depressed state. To examine sgACC lateralization differences in metabolic connectivity, we recruited 43 right-handed antidepressant-free unipolar melancholic rMDD patients and 32 right-handed healthy controls to participate in this 18FDG PET study and developed a searchlight-based interregional covariance connectivity approach. Compared to non-depressed individuals, sgACC covariance analysis showed stronger metabolic connections with frontolimbic brain regions known to be affected in the depressed state. Furthermore, whereas the left sgACC showed stronger metabolic connections with ventromedial prefrontal cortical regions, implicated in anhedonia, suicidal ideation, and self-referential processes, the right sgACC showed significantly stronger metabolic connections with posterior hippocampal and cerebellar regions, respectively specialized in memory and social processing. Overall, our results substantiate earlier research that the sgACC is a metabolic key player when clinically depressed and that distinct lateralized sgACC metabolic connectivity patterns are present.