Sex differences in aberrant functional connectivity of three core networks and subcortical networks in medication-free adolescent-onset major depressive disorder

作者：Chunyu Yang, Zilin Zhou, Weijie Bao, Ruihan Zhong, Mengyue Tang, Yidan Wang, Yingxue Gao, Xinyue Hu, Lianqing Zhang, Lihua Qiu, Weihong Kuang, Xiaoqi Huang, Qiyong Gong · 发表于：Cerebral Cortex · 年份：2024 · DOI：10.1093/cercor/bhae225 · 被引用次数：15 · 研究领域：Functional Brain Connectivity Studies、Mental Health Research Topics、Treatment of Major Depression

Major depressive disorder demonstrated sex differences in prevalence and symptoms, which were more pronounced during adolescence. Yet, research on sex-specific brain network characteristics in adolescent-onset major depressive disorder remains limited. This study investigated sex-specific and nonspecific alterations in resting-state functional connectivity of three core networks (frontoparietal network, salience network, and default mode network) and subcortical networks in adolescent-onset major depressive disorder, using seed-based resting-state functional connectivity in 50 medication-free patients with adolescent-onset major depressive disorder and 56 healthy controls. Irrespective of sex, compared with healthy controls, adolescent-onset major depressive disorder patients showed hypoconnectivity between bilateral hippocampus and right superior temporal gyrus (default mode network). More importantly, we further found that females with adolescent-onset major depressive disorder exhibited hypoconnectivity within the default mode network (medial prefrontal cortex), and between the subcortical regions (i.e. amygdala, striatum, and thalamus) with the default mode network (angular gyrus and posterior cingulate cortex) and the frontoparietal network (dorsal prefrontal cortex), while the opposite patterns of resting-state functional connectivity alterations were observed in males with adolescent-onset major depressive disorder, relative to their sex-matched healthy controls. Moreo...