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. 2022 Dec:58:101161.
doi: 10.1016/j.dcn.2022.101161. Epub 2022 Oct 10.

Neural markers of familial risk for depression - A systematic review

Anna Nazarova  1 , Matthias Schmidt  2 , Jacob Cookey  1 , Rudolf Uher  3
Affiliations

Neural markers of familial risk for depression - A systematic review

Anna Nazarova et al. Dev Cogn Neurosci. 2022 Dec.

Abstract

Structural and functional brain alterations are found in adults with depression. It is not known whether these changes are a result of illness or exist prior to disorder onset. Asymptomatic offspring of parents with depression offer a unique opportunity to research neural markers of familial risk to depression and clarify the temporal sequence between brain changes and disorder onset. We conducted a systematic review to investigate whether asymptomatic offspring at high familial risk have structural and functional brain changes like those reported in adults with depression. Our literature search resulted in 44 studies on 18,645 offspring ranging from 4 weeks to 25 years old. Reduced cortical thickness and white matter integrity, and altered striatal reward processing were the most consistent findings in high-risk offspring across ages. These alterations are also present in adults with depression, suggesting the existence of neural markers of familial risk for depression. Additional studies reproducing current results, streamlining fMRI data analyses, and investigating underexplored topics (i.e intracortical myelin, gyrification, subcortical shape) may be among the next steps required to improve our understanding of neural markers indexing the vulnerability to depression.

Keywords: Adolescence; Childhood; Depression; Familial high risk; Infancy; Neuroimaging.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Systematic review PRISMA flow diagram for study selection.
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Structural brain changes in high familial risk offspring across age compared to adults with MDD. Note: ‘No data’ indicates that no studies have been performed on this brain structure for the given age group. ‘Reduced’ indicates that all studies found a reduction or decrease in the investigated brain structure. ‘Increased’ indicates that all studies on a given topic found an increase in the brain structure measured. ‘No change’ indicates that all studies on the given topic found no statistically significant result between FHR and FLR. ‘Inconsistent’ indicates that at least one of two or more studies on a given topic found a result that is opposite to the findings of others.
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Functional brain changes in high familial risk offspring across age compared to adults with MDD.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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