Association of microstructural white matter abnormalities with cognitive dysfunction in geriatric patients with major depression

White matter abnormalities in major depressive disorder with melancholic and atypical features: A diffusion tensor imaging study

“…Past DTI studies on MDD showed abnormalities of white matter fibers in the bilateral parahippocampi, bilateral internal and external capsules, left superior longitudinal fasciculus, left inferior front‐occipital fasciculus, left posterior thalamic radiation, cingulum, and posterior corpus callosum . A DTI‐based study that evaluated the structural connectomic changes present in MDD revealed that the regions impaired in this disorder are those involved in the default‐mode network and in frontal‐subcortical connections .…”

“…Previous studies have reported structural brain changes in patients with MDD, particularly in the hippocampus . Studies using diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) have shown a variety of abnormalities in white matter fibers, such as those of the left superior longitudinal fasciculus, left inferior front‐occipital fasciculus to posterior thalamic radiation, unilateral or lateral parahippocampus, bilateral internal capsule and external capsule, and cingulum to posterior corpus callosum . These wide‐ranging findings may have arisen from the heterogeneity of the disorder, as there is some evidence that different MDD subtypes have different behavioral and neurochemical presentations .…”

“…[8][9][10][11][12] Studies using diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) have shown a variety of abnormalities in white matter fibers, such as those of the left superior longitudinal fasciculus, [13][14][15] left inferior front-occipital fasciculus to posterior thalamic radiation, 13,16 unilateral or lateral parahippocampus, 13,17 bilateral internal capsule and external capsule, 13,18 and cingulum to posterior corpus callosum. 16,17,19 These wide-ranging findings may have arisen from the heterogeneity of the disorder, as there is some evidence that different MDD subtypes have different behavioral and neurochemical presentations. 20,21 Some studies have focused on the relation between structural or functional changes of the brain and MDD subtypes.…”

Diffusion tensor imaging studies in late‐life depression: systematic review and meta‐analysis

“…Cingulum. Seven studies (Bae et al, 2006;Nobuhara et al, 2006;Yuan et al, 2010;Taylor et al, 2011;Alves et al, 2012;Sexton et al, 2012;Charlton et al, 2013) with 261 patients and 216 controls investigating FA of the Cg were included in the meta-analysis. A small to medium effect size of 0.40 (95% CI = À0.03 to 0.83, p = 0.07, Figure 4a) and a significant level of study heterogeneity (Q (7) = 28.72, p < 0.001, I 2 = 79.12%) were found.…”

Recent Advances in Neuroimaging Biomarkers in Geriatric Psychiatry

“…Further support for lesion location playing a part also comes from DTI, where fractional anisotropy (FA) serves as a measure of myelin integrity. Elderly subjects with MDD were shown to have reduced FA (i.e., decreased myelin integrity) in the right posterior cingulate cluster vs. controls, which correlated with poorer performance on cognitive tasks [62]. Interestingly, FA was shown to correlate with Framington Stroke Risk Profile (FSRP), a well-validated risk-prediction algorithm, in specific white matter tracts (namely the corpus callosum), providing further support for the vascular hypothesis of depression via particular cortico-limbic tracts [63].…”