Resting-state Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging Study For The Adolescents With Stress-related Vulnerability Of Depression

Objectiven Recent years,the incidence of adolescent depression has been increasing.As a susceptible factor of depression,childhood trauma not only affects the occurrence and development of depression,but also is closely related to the treatment effect and prognosis of depression.To explore the characteristics of spontaneous neural activity and brain function changes in adolescents with early life stress(ELS)by taking advantage of resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging(rs-fMRI),we used various analysis method including regional homogeneity(ReHo),amplitude low-frequency fluctuation(ALFF)and fractional amplitude of low-frequency fluctuation(fALFF)to observe the features of brain function in the subjects exposed ELS at high risk for depression,then explored the neuropathological mechanism of the subjects vulnerabled to depression with ELS and provided scientific theoretical basis for the protection,diagnosis and treatment of the subjects vulnerabled to depression with ELS.Methods The teenagers with stress-related vulnerability of depression are diagnosed by psychological researchers and psychiatrists on the results of the questionnaires.36 adolescents group with history of early life stress and 31 gender,age and education level matched healthy controls group underwent resting-state fMRI scans using 3.0T MRI,then analysised and compared the ReHo,ALFF,fALFF of the brain regions between the two group.Results Compared with the healthy controls,the adolescents with ELS showed significantly decreased ReHo in the right superior frontal gyrus,middle frontal gyrus,parahippocampa gyrus and left superior frontal gyrus,middle temporal gyrus,left superior temporal gyrus;the adolescents with ELS showed significantly decreased ALFF in the left cerebellum posterior lobe and increased ALFF in the left superior temporal gyrus,left insula and right cerebellum posterior lobe;the adolescents with ELS showed significantly decreased fALFF in the left cerebellum posterior lobe,left cingulate cortex,left middle frontal gyrus and increased fALFF in the right medial frontal gyrus,left precuneus.Conclusion Compared with the healthy controls,individual vulnerabled to depression with ELS had abnormal brain regions in rest-state mainly distributed in frontal lobe,temporal lobe,precuneus,cingulate cortex,insula,cerebellum posterior lobe and parahippocampa gyrus.Those brain regions with abnormal neuronal signal fluctuations had some similarities with the most patients with major depressive disorder in the past research.And we can speculate that these brain regions with abnormal spontaneous activity might be a important neuropathological mechanism of the subjects vulnerabled to depression with ELS.