Reproducibility of functional brain alterations in major depressive disorder: Evidence from a multisite resting-state...

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Psychiatry
• Medical Imaging

Background:

• Major depressive disorder (MDD) is associated with brain function alterations, but findings lack consistency due to limited large-scale, multisite data.
• Reproducibility of neuroimaging findings in MDD is crucial for clinical translation.

Purpose of the Study:

• To identify reproducible patterns of brain functional alterations in MDD using a large, multisite resting-state functional MRI (R-fMRI) dataset.
• To investigate factors influencing the reproducibility of these findings, including statistical methods, clinical variables, and sample size.

Main Methods:

• Utilized a large R-fMRI dataset from 1434 participants (709 MDD patients, 725 controls) across five Chinese centers.
• Computed functional activity using amplitude of low-frequency fluctuations, regional homogeneity, and functional connectivity strength.
• Performed reproducibility analyses considering statistical strategies, global signal regression, center effects, clinical variables, and sample size.

Main Results:

• Observed significant hypoactivity in orbitofrontal, sensorimotor, and visual cortices, and hyperactivity in frontoparietal cortices in MDD patients.
• These alterations were robust across different statistical analyses, global signal regression, and medication status, showing good cross-center consistency.
• Episode status and age of disease onset influenced between-group differences, while brain-clinical variable relationships showed poor cross-center reproducibility.
• Bootstrap analyses indicated a need for at least 400 subjects per group for 50% reproducibility of significant alterations.

Conclusions:

• Identified reproducible patterns of functional brain alterations in MDD, providing crucial guidance for future neuroimaging research.
• Highlighted influencing factors such as episode status and age of onset, emphasizing the need for standardized methodologies in MDD neuroimaging studies.