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Meta-Analysis
. 2022 Oct 1:314:19-26.
doi: 10.1016/j.jad.2022.06.014. Epub 2022 Jun 21.

Altered spontaneous brain activity in major depressive disorder: An activation likelihood estimation meta-analysis

Jixiang Yuan  1 , Hua Yu  2 , Minglan Yu  3 , Xuemei Liang  1 , Chaohua Huang  1 , Rongfang He  1 , Wei Lei  1 , Jing Chen  1 , Jianning Chen  4 , Youguo Tan  5 , Kezhi Liu  1 , Tao Zhang  1 , Huairong Luo  6 , Bo Xiang  7
Affiliations
Meta-Analysis

Altered spontaneous brain activity in major depressive disorder: An activation likelihood estimation meta-analysis

Jixiang Yuan et al. J Affect Disord. .

Abstract

Background: Wide application of resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) in psychiatric research has revealed that major depressive disorder (MDD) manifest abnormal neural activities in several brain regions involving key resting state networks. However, inconsistent results have hampered our understanding of the exact neuropathology associated with MDD. Therefore, our aim was to conduct a meta-analysis to identify the consistent vulnerable brain regions of MDD in resting state, and to reveal the potential pathogenesis of MDD.

Methods: A systematic review analysis was conducted on studies involving brain resting-state changes in MDD using low-frequency amplitude (ALFF), fractional low-frequency amplitude (fALFF) and regional homogeneity (ReHo) analysis. The meta-analysis was based on the activation likelihood estimation method, using the software of Ginger ALE 2.3.

Results: 25 studies (892 MDD and 799 healthy controls) were included. Based on the meta-analysis results of ReHo, we found robust reduction of resting-state spontaneous brain activity in MDD, including the left cuneus and right middle occipital gyrus (cluster size = 216, 256 mm3, uncorrected P < 0.0001), while no increased spontaneous activation in any of the brain regions. We also found reduced ALFF in the left middle occipital gyrus (cluster size = 224 mm3, uncorrected P < 0.0001), and no increased spontaneous brain activation in any regions.

Conclusion: Our meta-analysis study using the activation likelihood estimation method demonstrated that MDD showed significant abnormalities in spontaneous neural activity, compared with healthy controls, mainly in areas associated with visual processing, such as the cuneus and the middle occipital gyrus. Dysfunction of these brain regions may be one of the pathogenesis of MDD.

Keywords: Activation likelihood estimation; Major depressive disorder; Meta-analysis; Resting-state fMRI.

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