title: Functional and structural alterations in the cingulate motor area relate to decreased fronto-striatal coupling in major depressive disorder with psychomotor disturbances.
abstract: Psychomotor disturbances are a classic feature of major depressive disorders. These can manifest as lack of facial expressions and decreased speech production, reduced body posture and mobility, and slowed voluntary movement. The neural correlates of psychomotor disturbances in depression are poorly understood but it has been suggested that outputs from the cingulate motor area (CMA) to striatal motor regions, including the putamen, could be involved. We used functional and structural magnetic resonance imaging to conduct a region-of-interest analysis to test the hypotheses that neural activation patterns related to motor production and gray matter volumes in the CMA would be different between depressed subjects displaying psychomotor disturbances (n = 13) and matched healthy controls (n = 13). In addition, we conducted a psychophysiological interaction analysis to assess the functional coupling related to self-paced finger-tapping between the caudal CMA and the posterior putamen in patients compared to controls. We found a cluster of increased neural activation, adjacent to a cluster of decreased gray matter volume in the caudal CMA in patients compared to controls. The functional coupling between the left caudal CMA and the left putamen during finger-tapping task performance was additionally decreased in patients compared to controls. In addition, the strength of the functional coupling between the left caudal CMA and the left putamen was negatively correlated with the severity of psychomotor disturbances in the patient group. In conclusion, we found converging evidence for involvement of the caudal CMA and putamen in the generation of psychomotor disturbances in depression.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Melbourne Neuropsychiatry Centre, The University of Melbourne , Melbourne, VIC , Australia ; Section of Psychiatry, Department of Clinical Neuroscience, Karolinska Institutet , Stockholm , Sweden ; Department of Clinical Science, Intervention and Technology (CLINTEC), Division of Medical Imaging and Technology, Karolinska Institutet , Stockholm , Sweden.
authors.forename: Benny
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Liberg
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Melbourne Neuropsychiatry Centre, The University of Melbourne , Melbourne, VIC , Australia ; Monash Clinical and Imaging Neuroscience, School of Psychology and Psychiatry, Monash University , Clayton, VIC , Australia.
authors.forename: Paul
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Klauser
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Melbourne Neuropsychiatry Centre, The University of Melbourne , Melbourne, VIC , Australia ; School of Psychological Sciences, Monash University , Melbourne, VIC , Australia.
authors.forename: Ian H
authors.initials: IH
authors.lastname: Harding
authors.affiliation: Section of Psychiatry, Department of Clinical Neuroscience, Karolinska Institutet , Stockholm , Sweden.
authors.forename: Mats
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Adler
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Melbourne Neuropsychiatry Centre, The University of Melbourne , Melbourne, VIC , Australia ; Department of Medicine Huddinge, Karolinska Institutet , Stockholm , Sweden.
authors.forename: Christoffer
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Rahm
authors.affiliation: Section of Psychiatry, Department of Clinical Neuroscience, Karolinska Institutet , Stockholm , Sweden.
authors.forename: Johan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Lundberg
authors.affiliation: Section of Psychiatry, Department of Clinical Neuroscience, Karolinska Institutet , Stockholm , Sweden.
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Masterman
authors.affiliation: Primary Care Research Unit, Department of General Practice, The University of Melbourne , Melbourne, VIC , Australia ; Centre for Family Medicine (CeFAM), Department of Neurobiology, Care Sciences and Society, Karolinska Institutet , Stockholm , Sweden.
authors.forename: Caroline
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Wachtler
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Science, Intervention and Technology (CLINTEC), Division of Medical Imaging and Technology, Karolinska Institutet , Stockholm , Sweden ; Department of Medical Physics, Karolinska University Hospital Huddinge , Stockholm , Sweden.
authors.forename: Tomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Jonsson
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Science, Intervention and Technology (CLINTEC), Division of Medical Imaging and Technology, Karolinska Institutet , Stockholm , Sweden ; Department of Radiology, Karolinska University Hospital , Stockholm , Sweden.
authors.forename: Maria
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kristoffersen-Wiberg
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Melbourne Neuropsychiatry Centre, The University of Melbourne , Melbourne, VIC , Australia.
authors.forename: Christos
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Pantelis
authors.affiliation: Department of Energy and Engineering, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences , Uppsala , Sweden.
authors.forename: Björn
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Wahlund
keywords: bipolar disorder; cingulate cortex; cingulate motor area; major depression; psychomotor disturbances; putamen; striatum