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. 2021 Oct;18(10):1025-1033.
doi: 10.30773/pi.2021.0099. Epub 2021 Oct 13.

Alterations in the Occipital Cortex of Drug-Naïve Adults With Major Depressive Disorder: A Surface-Based Analysis of Surface Area and Cortical Thickness

Jee Soo Lee  1 , Wooyoung Kang  2 , Youbin Kang  2 , Aram Kim  2 , Kyu-Man Han  1 , Woo-Suk Tae  3 , Byung-Joo Ham  1
Affiliations

Alterations in the Occipital Cortex of Drug-Naïve Adults With Major Depressive Disorder: A Surface-Based Analysis of Surface Area and Cortical Thickness

Jee Soo Lee et al. Psychiatry Investig. 2021 Oct.

Abstract

Objective: Advances in surface-based morphometric methods have allowed researchers to separate cortical volume into cortical thickness (CTh) and surface area (SA). Although CTh alterations in major depressive disorder (MDD) have been observed in numerous studies, few studies have described significant SA alterations. Our study aimed to measure patients' SAs and to compare it with their CTh to examine whether SA exhibits alteration patterns that differ from those of CTh in drug-naïve patients with MDD.

Methods: A total of 71 drug-naïve MDD patients and 111 healthy controls underwent structural magnetic resonance imaging, and SA and CTh were analyzed between the groups.

Results: We found a smaller SA in the left superior occipital gyrus (L-SOG) in drug-naïve patients with MDD. In the CTh analysis, the bilateral fusiform gyrus, left middle occipital gyrus, left temporal superior gyrus, and right posterior cingulate showed thinner cortices in patients with MDD, while the CTh of the bilateral SOG, right straight gyrus, right posterior cingulate, and left lingual gyrus were increased.

Conclusion: Compared with the bilateral occipito-temporal changes in CTh, SA alterations in patients with MDD were confined to the L-SOG. These findings may improve our understanding of the neurobiological mechanisms of SA alteration in relation to MDD.

Keywords: Cortical thickness; Major depressive disorder; Occipital cortex; Surface area.

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Conflict of interest statement

Kyu-Man Han, a contributing editor of the Psychiatry Investigation, was not involved in the editorial evaluation or decision to publish this article. All remaining authors have declared no conflicts of interest.

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