Gender differences in brain region activation during verbal fluency task as detected by fNIRS in patients with depression

作者：Hailong Lyu, Miaomiao Zhao, Pengfeng Xu, Ying Li, Chaonan Jiang, Haoyang Zhao, Wenjing Shen, Xiaohan Hu, Kaiqi Wang, Yi Xu, Manli Huang · 发表于：The World Journal of Biological Psychiatry · 年份：2023 · DOI：10.1080/15622975.2023.2287735 · 被引用次数：15 · 研究领域：Optical Imaging and Spectroscopy Techniques、Functional Brain Connectivity Studies、Neural and Behavioral Psychology Studies

Background Gender plays a role in the mechanisms of depression, but fewer studies have focused on gender differences in the abnormal activation of brain regions when patients perform specific cognitive tasks.Methods A total of 110 major depressive disorder (MDD) patients and 106 healthy controls were recruited. The relative change in oxygen-haemoglobin (oxy-Hb) concentration during the verbal fluency task were measured by a 52-channel near-infra-red spectroscopy (NIRS) system. Differences in brain region activation between patients and healthy controls and between genders of depression patients were compared.Results MDD patients demonstrated significantly decreased [oxy-Hb] changes in the right inferior frontal gyrus (p = 0.043) compared to healthy controls. A marked increase in leftward functional language lateralisation in the inferior frontal gyrus was observed in the MDD group in contrast to the HC group (p = 0.039). Furthermore, female patients in the MDD group exhibited significant reductions in [oxy-Hb] changes in the right frontal region (specifically, the superior and middle frontal gyrus; p = 0.037) compared with male patients.Conclusions Gender impacts depression-related brain activation during cognitive tasks, potentially influencing depression’s pathogenesis.