Effects of Antidepressant Treatment on Cognitive Control Network in Patients with Major Depressive Disorder

ZHENG Kai-zhong; LI Liang; LIU Yang; LU Hong-bing; LI Bao-juan

doi:10.13730/j.issn.1009-2595.2017.04.003

Abstract：Objective To explore changes in functional connectivity of cognitive control network(CCN) in major depressive disorder (MDD) patients before and after antidepressant treatment.Methods Twenty-seven MDD patients were tested by resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging(fMRI) before and after treatment, meanwhile, twenty-seven matched healthy people were performed the same process.Independent component analysis(ICA) was performed to decompose the fMRI images into spatial independent components.The dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC), dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC) and posterior cingulate cortex (PCC) in the encephalic region were created a CCN template, and the most matched independent components in it were selected as subnetworks of CCN.The changes of CCN subnetworks infunctional connectivities after antidepressant treatment were performed to two-sample t-tests.Results According to the decomposition results of ICA,CNN was divided into two spatial independent sub-networks, and the time series in two sub-networks were synchronous in default-mode.Compared with healthy subjects , functional connectivity of MDD group before treatment was significantly increased in the middle frontal gyrusin both two sub-networks(P<0.001).The functional connectivity in CCN was remarkablly reduced in MDD patients after antidepressant treatment(P<0.001).However, in one of the sub-network, abnormalities in functional connectivity of the CCN persisted in the post-treatment group.Recovery results were different.The functional connectivity in sub-network 1 returned to normal, and functional connectivity in sub-network 2 was higher than control group.Conclusion Altered functional connectivity of the CCN in patients with MDD was partially normalized after antidepressant treatment with the improvement of the symptoms.With the improvement of clinical symptom, CNN connectivities in MDD patients tend to be normal after effective antidepression treatment.