Depression in the elderly population has shown increased likelihood of neurological disorders due to structural changes in the subcortical area. However, further investigation into depression related subcortical changes is needed due to mismatches in structural analysis results between studies as well as scarcities in research regarding subcortical connectivity patterns of subclinical depression populations. This study aims to investigate structural differences in subcortical regions of aged participants with subclinical depression using 3Tesla MRI. In structural analysis, volumes of each subcortical region were measured to observe the volumetric difference and asymmetry between groups, but no significant difference was found. In addition, fractional anisotropy (FA) and apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) did not show any significant differences between groups. Structural analysis using probabilistic tractography indicated that the connection strength between left nucleus accumbens-right hippocampus, and right thalamus-right caudate was higher in the control group than the subclinical depression group. The differences in subcortical connection strength of subclinical depression groups, have shown to correlate with emotional and cognitive disorders, such as anxiety and memory impairment. We believe that the analysis of structural differences and cross-regional network measures in subcortical structures can help identify neurophysiological changes occurring in subclinical depression.

中文翻译：

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老年亚临床抑郁症皮层下结构的初步比较：3T MRI 结构分析。


由于皮质下区域的结构变化，老年人群的抑郁症显示出神经系统疾病的可能性增加。然而，由于研究之间结构分析结果的不匹配以及亚临床抑郁症人群皮质下连接模式研究的缺乏，需要进一步调查抑郁症相关的皮质下变化。本研究旨在使用 3Tesla MRI 调查患有亚临床抑郁症的老年参与者皮质下区域的结构差异。在结构分析中，测量了每个皮质下区域的体积以观察组间的体积差异和不对称性，但没有发现显着差异。此外，各向异性分数（FA）和表观扩散系数（ADC）在组间没有显示出任何显着差异。概率纤维束成像的结构分析表明，对照组左伏隔核-右海马、右丘脑-右尾状核之间的连接强度高于亚临床抑郁症组。亚临床抑郁症群体皮质下连接强度的差异已被证明与情绪和认知障碍（例如焦虑和记忆障碍）相关。我们相信，分析皮层下结构的结构差异和跨区域网络测量可以帮助识别亚临床抑郁症中发生的神经生理变化。