Abnormal Global Brain Functional Connectivity in MDD Patients with Childhood Trauma： A Resting-State fMRI Study / 中山大学学报(医学科学版)

ABSTRACT

ObjectiveChildhood trauma （CT） is considered one of the major risk factors for developing major depressive disorder （MDD） in adulthood. However， the neural basis of MDD patients with CT （CT-MDD） remains poorly understood. Therefore， the objective of our study is to explore the resting-state global brain functional connectivity （FC） in CT-MDD. MethodsA total of 34 CT-MDD and 34 healthy controls performed resting-state fMRI. Whole-brain voxel-level degree centrality （DC） analysis was performed， and the brain regions with significant differences between the two groups were selected as region of interest （ROI） for further estimating the global brain FC. Subsequently， correlation analysis was performed between DC values， FC values in abnormal brain areas and clinical characteristics. ResultsThe CT-MDD group showed increased DC value of the right middle frontal gyrus （MFG） compared with the healthy controls. Seed-based FC revealed that the CT-MDD group showed increased connections between the left precuneus and the right MFG or the right medial prefrontal cortex， relative to healthy controls （threshold at P<0.05）. Additionally， the DC value of the right MFG was correlated with the severity of CT. ConclusionOur results show the increased FC between the left precuneus and the ROI （right MFG） as well as the right medial prefrontal cortex， which are two important brain regions within the default mode network （DMN）， and might suggest increased synchronism between the cognitive executive networks and DMN in CT-MDD. These findings may provide insights into the pathophysiological mechanisms underlying CT-MDD.