Study of functional brain homogeneity in female patients with major depressive disorder

Women are at a twofold higher risk of developing major depressive disorder (MDD) than that of men. However, the investigation of female MDD patients functional brain activity is rare and the detailed mechanism remains unclear. The present work is to explore the altered spontaneous neural activity measured with regional homogeneity (ReHo) in female MDD patients using resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) technique. Twelve MDD females and twelve matched healthy participants were included in the study. The ReHo analysis method was used to detect regional homogeneity features across the whole brain. Increased ReHo value was found in the left anterior cingulate gyrus (ACC_L) and right fusiform gyrus, and decreased ReHo value in the right putamen, left middle frontal gyrus and left middle occipital gyrus was shown in female MDD patients compared to healthy controls. Also, a significant positive correlation between patients ReHo value and HAMA score (r = 0.59, p = 0.045) was found in the ACC_L. The study of spontaneous neuronal activity alteration using ReHo analysis improves our understanding about the mechanism of female depression.