Affiliations: [a] Department of Psychiatry, Sir Run Run Shaw Hospital, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, and the Collaborative Innovation Center for Brain Science, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China | [b] Tongde Hospital of Zhejiang Provence, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China | [c] Center for Cognitive Brain Disorders & Zhejiang Key Laboratory for Research in Assessment of Cognitive Impairments, Hangzhou Normal University, Hangzhou, China | [d] The Affiliated Hospital of Hangzhou Normal University, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China | [e] Key Laboratory of Medical Neurobiology of Chinese Ministry of Health, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China
Correspondence:
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Correspondence to: Wei Chen, Department of Psychiatry, Sir Run Run Shaw Hospital, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, and the Collaborative Innovation Center for Brain Science, No.3 East Qingchun Road, Hangzhou, Zhejiang 310016, China. Tel.: +86 571 86006375; Fax: +86 571 86006962; srrcw@zju.edu.cn
Abstract: Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is characterized by progressive cognitive decline along with neuropsychiatric symptoms including depression and psychosis. Depression is a common psychiatric disorder occurring in people across the lifespan. Accumulating evidence indicates that depression may be a prodrome and/or a “risk factor” for AD. However, whether AD and depression share a common pathophysiological pathway is still unclear. The aim of this study was to identify regional alterations in brain function associated with depressive symptoms in mild AD patients. Thirty-two mild AD patients were evaluated using the Neuropsychiatric Inventory and Hamilton Depression Rating Scale, and were divided into two groups: 15 AD patients with depressive symptoms (D-AD) and 17 non-depressed AD (nD-AD) patients. Using the approach of regional homogeneity (ReHo), we characterized resting-state regional brain activity in D-AD and nD-AD patients. Compared with nD-AD patients, D-AD patients showed decreased ReHo in the right precentral gyrus, right superior frontal gyrus, right middle frontal gyrus, and right inferior frontal cortex. Our findings show regional brain activity alterations in D-AD patients. Thus, D-AD pathogenesis may be attributed to abnormal neural activity in multiple brain regions.
Keywords: Alzheimer’s disease, depressive symptoms, regional homogeneity, resting state functional magnetic resonance imaging
