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These findings provide novel evidence regarding the trait and state markers of depression on neural responses to psychosocial stress. Regional activation changes in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex and precuneus may reflect the trait markers of depression. Hyperactivation in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and striatum may represent a state-dependent compensatory mechanism during depression remission.

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Purpose: Although efforts have been made to identify neurobiological characteristic of major depressive disorder (MDD) in recent years, trait- and state-related biological characteristics of MDD still remains unclear. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), the aim of this study was to explore whether altered spontaneous neural activities in MDD are trait- or state- related.Materials and Methods: Resting-state fMRI data were analyzed for 72 current MDD (cMDD) patients (first-episode, medication-naïve), 49 remitted MDD (rMDD) patients, and 78 age- and sex- matched healthy control (HC) subjects. The values of amplitude of low-frequency fluctuation (ALFF) were compared between groups.Results: Compared with the cMDD group, the rMDD group had increased ALFF values in the left middle occipital gyrus, left middle temporal gyrus and right cerebellum anterior lobe. Besides, compared with the HC group, the cMDD group had decreased ALFF values in the left middle occipital gyrus. Further analysis explored that the mean ALFF values in the left middle occipital gyrus, left middle temporal gyrus and right cerebellum anterior lobe were correlated positively with BDI scores in rMDD patients.Conclusion: Abnormal activity in the left middle occipital gyrus, left middle temporal gyrus and right cerebellum anterior lobe may be state-specific in current (first-episode, medication-naïve) and remitted (medication-naïve) depression patients. Furthermore, the state-related compensatory effect was found in these brain areas.

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Background: Childhood maltreatment is a strong risk factor for the development of depression in later life. However, the neurobiological mechanisms underlying this vulnerability are not well understood. As depression has been associated with dysfunction of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis and increased responsiveness to psychosocial stressors, we speculated that childhood maltreatment may lead to lasting alteration of the stress response system, thereby increasing the risk of depression. This study investigated the effects of childhood maltreatment on the stress response in healthy subjects while controlling for psychiatric condition. Methods: Forty-eight healthy young adults (24 females) with childhood maltreatment experience and 48 healthy controls (33 females) without such experience were administered the Montreal Imaging Stress Task during functional magnetic resonance imaging. Childhood maltreatment experience was assessed using the 28-item Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (CTQ). Between-group differences in subjective stress levels, whole brain activations and cortisol levels were assessed. Results: Relative to healthy control subjects, individuals exposed to childhood maltreatment exhibited higher subjective stress and cortisol levels. Neurofunctionally, participants with histories of childhood maltreatment displayed significantly increased activation in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC), insula and precuneus, and decreased activation in ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) relative to healthy controls during the psychosocial stress task. Activations in dlPFC and insula correlated with CTQ scores in the childhood maltreatment group. Conclusion: The results of this study show that childhood maltreatment induces lasting changes in brain function and HPA-axis responsiveness to stress. The observed

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