Objective

Depression runs in families and has been associated with dysfunctional limbic connectivity. Whether aberrant limbic connectivity is a risk factor for or a consequence of depression is unclear. To examine this question, we compared resting state functional connectivity (RSFC) in youth with depressive disorders (DEP), healthy offspring of parents with depression (DEP-risk), and healthy comparison (HC) youth.

Method

Magnetic resonance imaging at rest was acquired from 119 youth, aged 8 to 17 years (DEP, n = 41, DEP-risk, n = 39, and HC, n = 39) and analyzed using seed-based RSFC in bilateral amygdala and nucleus accumbens (NAcc), covarying for age, IQ, and sex.

Results

We found distinct risk- and disorder-specific patterns of RSFC across groups. DEP-risk and DEP youth shared reduced negative amygdala−right frontal cortex RSFC and reduced positive amygdala−lingual gyrus RSFC compared to HC youth (p < .001). DEP-risk youth had weaker negative amygdala−precuneus RSFC compared to DEP and HC youth (p < .001), suggesting a resilience marker for depression. In contrast, DEP youth had increased positive NAcc−left frontal cortex RSFC and reduced positive NAcc−insula RSFC compared to DEP-risk and HC youth (p < .001), suggestive of disorder-specific features of depression. Greater depression severity was correlated with disorder-specific amygdala and NAcc RSFC (p < .05).

Conclusion

RSFC in the amygdala and NAcc may represent selective disorder- and risk-specific markers in youth with, and at familial risk for, depression. Longitudinal studies are needed to determine whether these patterns predict long-term clinical outcomes.

中文翻译：

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抑郁和高危青年的边缘内在联系

客观的

抑郁症在家庭中存在，并且与功能障碍的边缘连接有关。边缘连接异常是否是抑郁症的危险因素或后果尚不清楚。为了研究这个问题，我们比较了患有抑郁症 (DEP) 的青少年的静息状态功能连接 (RSFC)、患有抑郁症的父母的健康后代 (DEP 风险) 和健康对照 (HC) 青少年。

方法

从 119 名 8 至 17 岁的青年（DEP，n = 41，DEP 风险，n = 39 和 HC，n = 39）获得静止磁共振成像，并使用基于种子的 RSFC 在双侧杏仁核和核中进行分析伏隔核（NAcc），年龄、智商和性别的共变。

结果

我们发现不同组别不同的风险和疾病特异性 RSFC 模式。与 HC 青年相比，DEP 风险和 DEP 青年共享减少的负杏仁核-右额叶皮层 RSFC 和减少的正杏仁核-舌回 RSFC ( p  < .001)。与 DEP 和 HC 青年相比，DEP 风险青年的杏仁核-楔前叶 RSFC 负性较弱（p  < .001），表明抑郁症的复原力标记。相比之下，与 DEP 风险和 HC 青年相比，DEP 青年的 NAcc-左额叶皮质 RSFC 阳性增加，而 NAcc-脑岛 RSFC 阳性减少 ( p  < .001)，这表明抑郁症的疾病特异性特征。抑郁症的严重程度与疾病特异性杏仁核和 NAcc RSFC 相关（p  < .05）。

结论

杏仁核和 NAcc 中的 RSFC 可能代表患有抑郁症和有家族风险的青少年的选择性障碍和风险特异性标志物。需要进行纵向研究来确定这些模式是否可以预测长期临床结果。