title: A preliminary study of functional connectivity in comorbid adolescent depression.
abstract: Major depressive disorder (MDD) begins frequently in adolescence and is associated with severe outcomes, but the developmental neurobiology of MDD is not well understood. Research in adults has implicated fronto-limbic neural networks in the pathophysiology of MDD, particularly in relation to the subgenual anterior cingulate cortex (ACC). Developmental changes in brain networks during adolescence highlight the need to examine MDD-related circuitry in teens separately from adults. Using resting state functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), this study examined functional connectivity in adolescents with MDD (n=12) and healthy adolescents (n=14). Seed-based connectivity analysis revealed that adolescents with MDD have decreased functional connectivity in a subgenual ACC-based neural network that includes the supragenual ACC (BA 32), the right medial frontal cortex (BA 10), the left inferior (BA 47) and superior frontal cortex (BA 22), superior temporal gyrus (BA 22), and the insular cortex (BA 13). These preliminary data suggest that MDD in adolescence is associated with abnormal connectivity within neural circuits that mediate emotion processing. Future research in larger, un-medicated samples will be necessary to confirm this finding. We conclude that hypothesis-driven, seed-based analyses of resting state fMRI data hold promise for advancing our current understanding of abnormal development of neural circuitry in adolescents with MDD.
authors.affiliation: University of Minnesota Medical School, Department of Psychiatry, Minneapolis, MN, United States. rega0026@umn.edu
authors.forename: Kathryn R
authors.initials: KR
authors.lastname: Cullen
authors.forename: Dylan G
authors.initials: DG
authors.lastname: Gee
authors.forename: Bonnie
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Klimes-Dougan
authors.forename: Vilma
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Gabbay
authors.forename: Leslie
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Hulvershorn
authors.forename: Bryon A
authors.initials: BA
authors.lastname: Mueller
authors.forename: Jazmin
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Camchong
authors.forename: Christopher J
authors.initials: CJ
authors.lastname: Bell
authors.forename: Alaa
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Houri
authors.forename: Sanjiv
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kumra
authors.forename: Kelvin O
authors.initials: KO
authors.lastname: Lim
authors.forename: F Xavier
authors.initials: FX
authors.lastname: Castellanos
authors.forename: Michael P
authors.initials: MP
authors.lastname: Milham
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000679:Amygdala / Q000098:blood supply / Q000503:physiopathology; D001931:Brain Mapping; D002540:Cerebral Cortex / Q000098:blood supply / Q000503:physiopathology; D003865:Major Depressive Disorder / Q000503:physiopathology*; D017352:Echo-Planar Imaging; D005260:Female; D006179:Gyrus Cinguli / Q000098:blood supply / Q000503:physiopathology; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009415:Nerve Net / Q000503:physiopathology; D055815:Young Adult