title: An MRI study of the superior temporal subregions in patients with current and past major depression.
abstract: The superior temporal gyrus (STG), especially its lateral portion, and temporal pole (TP) both play a central role in emotional processing, but it remains largely unknown whether patients with major depressive disorder (MDD) exhibit morphologic changes in these regions. We delineated the STG subregions [planum polare (PP), Heschl gyrus (HG), planum temporale (PT), rostral STG, and caudal STG] and TP using magnetic resonance imaging in 29 currently depressed patients (mean age=32.5 years, 7 males), 27 remitted depressed patients (mean age=35.1 years, 9 males), and 33 age- and gender-matched healthy control subjects (mean age=34.0 years, 12 males). Both current and remitted MDD patients showed a significant volume reduction of the left PT and bilateral caudal STG as compared with healthy controls. The TP volume did not differ between the groups. The right PT volume was negatively correlated with total score on the Beck Depression Inventory in the MDD patients as a whole. Medication, presence of melancholia, and comorbidity with anxiety disorders did not affect the TP and STG volumes. These findings suggest that the volume reduction of the STG, but not the TP, may represent enduring brain changes in MDD even after recovery from depression, but right STG volume may also be related to the severity of depressive symptoms.
authors.affiliation: Melbourne Neuropsychiatry Centre, Department of Psychiatry, University of Melbourne and Melbourne Health, Victoria, Australia. tsutomu@med.u-toyama.ac.jp
authors.forename: Tsutomu
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Takahashi
authors.forename: Murat
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Yücel
authors.forename: Valentina
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Lorenzetti
authors.forename: Mark
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Walterfang
authors.forename: Yasuhiro
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Kawasaki
authors.forename: Sarah
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Whittle
authors.forename: Michio
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Suzuki
authors.forename: Christos
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Pantelis
authors.forename: Nicholas B
authors.initials: NB
authors.lastname: Allen
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001931:Brain Mapping; D003658:Decision Making, Computer-Assisted; D003865:Major Depressive Disorder / Q000473:pathology*; D005260:Female; D007839:Functional Laterality / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000379:methods; D008297:Male; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D013223:Statistics as Topic; D013702:Temporal Lobe / Q000473:pathology*