Near‐infrared spectroscopy for examination of prefrontal activation during cognitive tasks in patients with major depressive disorder: A meta‐analysis of observational studies

Abstract

Aims: Near-infrared spectroscopy has the potential for aiding the diagnosis of major depressive disorder. The purpose of this study was to systematically review the evidence from observational studies regarding the use of near-infrared spectroscopy in patients with major depressive disorder and to identify the characteristic pattern of prefrontal lobe activity in major depressive disorder.Methods: MEDLINE, PubMed, Cochrane Library and Web of Science databases were searched in December 2013. All case-control studies were included. The quality of evidence was examined using the Newcastle-Ottawa Quality Assessment Scale. The primary outcome measures were the mean oxygenated and deoxygenated hemoglobin alterations of the cerebral cortex during cognitive activation periods. The standard mean difference for the overall pooled effects across the included studies was estimated using random or fixed effect models. The primary outcome measures were included in the meta-analysis.Results: Fourteen studies met the inclusion criteria. Six studies (n = 692 participants) were included in the analysis of the mean oxygenated hemoglobin alterations; the pooled mean standardized difference was −0.74 (95% confidence interval, −0.97 to −0.52), indicating that patients with major depressive disorder were associated with attenuated increase in oxygenated hemoglobin during cognitive activation in the prefrontal regions compared to healthy controls. Five studies (n = 668 participants) were included in the analysis of mean deoxygenated-hemoglobin changes; the pooled standardized mean difference was 0.18 (95% confidence interval, −0.20 to 0.56).Conclusions: Using near-infrared spectroscopy measurements, we observed that compared to healthy subjects, patients with major depressive disorder had significantly lower prefrontal activation during cognitive tasks.

Increase of frontal cerebral blood volume during transcranial magnetic stimulation in depression is related to treatment effectiveness: A pilot study with near‐infrared spectroscopy

“…NIRS is a non-invasive method to assess CBF by measuring hemoglobin concentration using nearinfrared light absorption in the brain, and has been widely applied to mental disorders, including depression. 13 Although spatial resolution is less precise in NIRS in comparison with other techniques, including functional magnetic resonance imaging and single-photon emission computed tomography, NIRS has the advantage in the temporal resolution and was adequate for simultaneous measurement with magnetic stimulation in the present study. The results support the usefulness of fHbC measurement during TMS for evaluating its clinical effectiveness.…”

“…We used near‐infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) to measure frontal cerebral hemoglobin concentration (fHbC) reflecting cerebral blood volume during stimulation and assessed the relation with treatment effectiveness. NIRS is a non‐invasive method to assess CBF by measuring hemoglobin concentration using near‐infrared light absorption in the brain, and has been widely applied to mental disorders, including depression . Although spatial resolution is less precise in NIRS in comparison with other techniques, including functional magnetic resonance imaging and single‐photon emission computed tomography, NIRS has the advantage in the temporal resolution and was adequate for simultaneous measurement with magnetic stimulation in the present study.…”

High-dose antidepressants affect near-infrared spectroscopy signals: A retrospective study

“…So far, numerous studies, using multi-channel NIRS, have provided evidence that NIRS signals could work as promising diagnostic biomarkers for MDD, bipolar disorder, and schizophrenia. In fact, oxy-Hb activation during a verbal fluency task (VFT) (a straight-forward task for assessment of executive function) has consistently been reported to be decreased in MDD patients, compared with healthy controls (Matsuo et al, 2002, Matsuo et al, 2005, Suto et al, 2004, Takizawa et al, 2014, Tomioka et al, 2015, Usami et al, 2014, Zhang et al, 2015). In addition, a recent multi-site study found that frontal hemodynamic patterns detected with NIRS during a short VFT differentiated MDD patients from those with bipolar disorder or schizophrenia with > 70% accuracy (Takizawa et al, 2014).…”

Randomised controlled trial of ketamine augmentation of electroconvulsive therapy to improve neuropsychological and clinical outcomes in depression (Ketamine-ECT study)

“…This would have had 80% power to detect an ES of 0.5 with a two-sided alpha level of 0.05 between groups and an ES of 0.57 with a two-sided alpha level of 0.05 between groups. A meta-analysis of fNIRS studies in depressed patients 145 found an ES difference compared with control subjects of 0.74 in frontal cortex HbO response to cognitive tasks activating the frontal cortex.…”