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. 2008 Apr;29(4):490-501.
doi: 10.1002/hbm.20414.

An fMRI study of prefrontal brain activation during multiple tasks in patients with major depressive disorder

Paul B Fitzgerald  1 , Anusha Srithiran, Jessica Benitez, Zafiris Z Daskalakis, Tom J Oxley, Jayashri Kulkarni, Gary F Egan
Affiliations

An fMRI study of prefrontal brain activation during multiple tasks in patients with major depressive disorder

Paul B Fitzgerald et al. Hum Brain Mapp. 2008 Apr.

Abstract

Objective: Previous research has provided conflicting information regarding the pattern of brain activation associated with cognitive performance in depressed people. We aimed to assess brain activation related to cognitive performance during planning and working memory tasks.

Method: fMRI scans were conducted using a modified Tower of London task and a 2-back task in 13 patients with major depressive disorder and a matched control group.

Results: Task performance was impaired in the depressed group on the Tower of London task but there were no differences between the groups in task performance on the n-back task. The patient group showed widespread increased brain activation in both tasks. There was considerable overlap in increased activation between the two tasks, especially in right prefrontal cortical regions.

Conclusions: Patients with depression exhibit increased brain activation, especially in right prefrontal regions, across several types of cognitive task activity. Patients with depression may recruit greater brain regions to achieve similar or even poorer task performance than control subjects.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Regions significantly activated in patients compared with controls in the TOL task (blue‐green) and n‐back task (red‐yellow) as shown in neurological format (axial slices are z = 34 and 46, coronal slice is y = −10 mm).
Figure 2
Figure 2
Regions significantly correlated with the RTs in controls (blue‐green) and in patients (red‐yellow) during the performance of the TOL task for controls and patients, respectively. The images are displayed in the neurological format (Z = −6, 24, 28, and 48 mm).
Figure 3
Figure 3
Scatterplots showing the relationship between reaction times and percentage signal change/activation during the TOL task for controls [at −44, 6, 26: r 2 = 0.56, P < 0.05)] and patients [−40, 2, −6: r 2 = 0.42, P < 0.05)].
Figure 4
Figure 4
Significant regions of activation (cluster level threshold P corr < 0.001) comparing patients responses to controls for the pooled data (mean TOL and n‐back). Axial slices correspond to z = −16, 20, and 48 mm are shown.
Figure 5
Figure 5
Hemispheric predominance during n‐back task for (a) controls and (b) patients and the TOL task for (c) controls and (d) patients. The images are displayed in the neurological format and the z coordinate in millimeter is shown.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

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