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Updated: May 9, 2026
Design and Implementation of an fMRI Study Examining Thought Suppression in Young Women with, and At-risk, for Depression
Published on: May 19, 2015
Resting-state functional connectivity of subgenual anterior cingulate cortex in depressed adolescents
Colm G Connolly1, Jing Wu, Tiffany C Ho
1Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco; Department of Psychiatry, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco.
Background:
Very few studies have been performed to understand the underlying neural substrates of adolescent major depressive disorder (MDD). Studies in depressed adults have demonstrated that the subgenual anterior cingulate cortex (sgACC) plays a pivotal role in depression and have revealed aberrant patterns of resting-state functional connectivity (RSFC). Here, we examine the RSFC of the sgACC in medication-naïve first-episode adolescents with MDD.
Methods:
Twenty-three adolescents with MDD and 36 well-matched control subjects underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging to assess the RSFC of the sgACC.
Results:
We observed elevated connectivity between the sgACC and the insula and between the sgACC and the amygdala in the MDD group compared with the control subjects. Decreased connectivity between the sgACC and the precuneus was also found in the MDD group relative to the control subjects. Within the MDD group, higher levels of depression significantly correlated with decreased connectivity between the sgACC and left precuneus. Increased rumination was significantly associated with reduced connectivity between sgACC and the middle and inferior frontal gyri in the MDD group.
Conclusions:
Our study is the first to examine sgACC connectivity in medication-naïve first-episode adolescents with MDD compared with well-matched control participants. Our results suggest aberrant functional connectivity among the brain networks responsible for salience attribution, executive control, and the resting-state in the MDD group compared with the control participants. Our findings raise the possibility that therapeutic interventions that can restore the functional connectivity among these networks to that typical of healthy adolescents might be a fruitful avenue for future research.
