Intrinsic brain abnormalities in female major depressive disorder patients with childhood trauma: A resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging study

Abstract

ObjectiveChildhood trauma is a strong predictor of major depressive disorder (MDD). Women are more likely to develop MDD than men. However, the neural basis of female MDD patients with childhood trauma remains unclear. We aimed to identify the specific brain regions that are associated with female MDD patients with childhood trauma.MethodsWe recruited 16 female MDD patients with childhood trauma, 16 female MDD patients without childhood trauma, and 20 age- and education level-matched healthy controls. All participants underwent resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Regional brain activity was evaluated as the amplitude of low-frequency fluctuation (ALFF). Furthermore, functional connectivity (FC) analyses were performed on areas with altered ALFF to explore alterations in FC patterns.ResultsThere was increased ALFF in the left middle frontal gyrus (MFG) and the right postcentral gyrus (PoCG) in MDD with childhood trauma compared with MDD without childhood trauma. The areas with significant ALFF discrepancies were selected as seeds for the FC analyses. There was increased FC between the left MFG and the bilateral putamen gyrus. Moreover, ALFF values were correlated with childhood trauma severity.ConclusionOur findings revealed abnormal intrinsic brain activity and FC patterns in female MDD patients with childhood trauma, which provides new possibilities for exploring the pathophysiology of this disorder in women.

Depressed patients with childhood maltreatment display altered intra- and inter-network resting state functional connectivity

“…In recent years, there have been a surge of studies investigating the long-term consequences of CM in depressed patients using rs-fMRI with various analytical methods. Some used seed-based interregional, or seed-based whole-brain functional connectivity analysis ( Xu et al, 2019 , Chen et al, 2022 , Luo et al, 2022 , Luo et al, 2022 , Wang et al, 2022 , Wang et al, 2022 , Goltermann et al, 2023 , Liu et al, 2024 ), others employed spatial independent component analysis (ICA; Fadel et al, 2021 , Luo et al, 2022 ). All these studies describe numerous intra-network and inter-network alterations of FC as a consequence of childhood trauma or maltreatment, but there's a great deal of variability between the reported changes.…”