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Updated: Jul 10, 2025
Design and Implementation of an fMRI Study Examining Thought Suppression in Young Women with, and At-risk, for Depression
Published on: May 19, 2015
Gender differences in brain region activation during verbal fluency task as detected by fNIRS in patients with
Hailong Lyu1,2,3, Miaomiao Zhao1,2,3, Pengfeng Xu1,2,3
1Department of Psychiatry, The First Affiliated Hospital, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Key Laboratory of Mental Disorder's Management of Zhejiang Province, Hangzhou, China.
Background:
Gender plays a role in the mechanisms of depression, but fewer studies have focused on gender differences in the abnormal activation of brain regions when patients perform specific cognitive tasks.
Methods:
A total of 110 major depressive disorder (MDD) patients and 106 healthy controls were recruited. The relative change in oxygen-haemoglobin (oxy-Hb) concentration during the verbal fluency task were measured by a 52-channel near-infra-red spectroscopy (NIRS) system. Differences in brain region activation between patients and healthy controls and between genders of depression patients were compared.
Results:
MDD patients demonstrated significantly decreased [oxy-Hb] changes in the right inferior frontal gyrus (p = 0.043) compared to healthy controls. A marked increase in leftward functional language lateralisation in the inferior frontal gyrus was observed in the MDD group in contrast to the HC group (p = 0.039). Furthermore, female patients in the MDD group exhibited significant reductions in [oxy-Hb] changes in the right frontal region (specifically, the superior and middle frontal gyrus; p = 0.037) compared with male patients.
Conclusions:
Gender impacts depression-related brain activation during cognitive tasks, potentially influencing depression's pathogenesis.
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