美国纽约威尔康奈尔医学院精神科Conor Liston和Charles J. Lynch共同合作，近期取得重要工作进展。他们研究发现了抑郁症患者的前纹状体显著性网络扩展。相关研究成果2024年9月4日在线发表于《自然》杂志上。

据介绍，几十年的神经影像学研究表明，抑郁症患者的大脑结构和连接性存在适度差异，阻碍了对疾病发病机制的理解或危险因素的识别。此外，尽管抑郁症是偶发性的，但很少有纵向的神经影像学研究，这限制了对驱动情绪状态转变的机制的理解。新兴的精确功能标测领域使用密集采样的纵向神经成像数据来显示健康个体之间和健康个体之间大脑网络拓扑图和连接性的行为上有意义的差异，但这种方法尚未应用于抑郁症。

使用精确的函数映射和几个深度采样个体的样本，研究人员发现大多数抑郁症患者的大脑皮层中的额纹状体显著性网络几乎扩展了两倍。这种效应在几个样本中是可复制的，主要是由网络边界转移引起的，在不同的个体中发生了三种不同的侵犯模式。随着时间的推移，显著网络的扩展是稳定的，不受情绪状态的影响，在青春期后期抑郁症发作前的儿童中可以检测到。在1.5年的时间里，对扫描了62次的个体进行纵向分析，确定了额纹状体回路的连接变化，这些变化追踪了特定症状的波动，并预测了未来的快感缺失症状。

总之，这一研究确定了一种类似大脑网络拓扑结构的特征，这种特征可能会带来抑郁的风险，以及额纹状体回路中情绪状态依赖性连接的变化，这些变化可以预测抑郁症状随时间的出现和缓解。

附：英文原文

Title: Frontostriatal salience network expansion in individuals in depression

Author: Lynch, Charles J., Elbau, Immanuel G., Ng, Tommy, Ayaz, Aliza, Zhu, Shasha, Wolk, Danielle, Manfredi, Nicola, Johnson, Megan, Chang, Megan, Chou, Jolin, Summerville, Indira, Ho, Claire, Lueckel, Maximilian, Bukhari, Hussain, Buchanan, Derrick, Victoria, Lindsay W., Solomonov, Nili, Goldwaser, Eric, Moia, Stefano, Caballero-Gaudes, Cesar, Downar, Jonathan, Vila-Rodriguez, Fidel, Daskalakis, Zafiris J., Blumberger, Daniel M., Kay, Kendrick, Aloysi, Amy, Gordon, Evan M., Bhati, Mahendra T., Williams, Nolan, Power, Jonathan D., Zebley, Benjamin, Grosenick, Logan, Gunning, Faith M., Liston, Conor

Issue&Volume: 2024-09-04

Abstract: Decades of neuroimaging studies have shown modest differences in brain structure and connectivity in depression, hindering mechanistic insights or the identification of risk factors for disease onset1. Furthermore, whereas depression is episodic, few longitudinal neuroimaging studies exist, limiting understanding of mechanisms that drive mood-state transitions. The emerging field of precision functional mapping has used densely sampled longitudinal neuroimaging data to show behaviourally meaningful differences in brain network topography and connectivity between and in healthy individuals2,3,4, but this approach has not been applied in depression. Here, using precision functional mapping and several samples of deeply sampled individuals, we found that the frontostriatal salience network is expanded nearly twofold in the cortex of most individuals with depression. This effect was replicable in several samples and caused primarily by network border shifts, with three distinct modes of encroachment occurring in different individuals. Salience network expansion was stable over time, unaffected by mood state and detectable in children before the onset of depression later in adolescence. Longitudinal analyses of individuals scanned up to 62 times over 1.5years identified connectivity changes in frontostriatal circuits that tracked fluctuations in specific symptoms and predicted future anhedonia symptoms. Together, these findings identify a trait-like brain network topology that may confer risk for depression and mood-state-dependent connectivity changes in frontostriatal circuits that predict the emergence and remission of depressive symptoms over time.

DOI: 10.1038/s41586-024-07805-2

Source: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-024-07805-2