Biological psychiatry
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Biological psychiatry · Dec 2013
Resting-state functional connectivity of subgenual anterior cingulate cortex in depressed adolescents.
Very few studies have been performed to understand the underlying neural substrates of adolescent major depressive disorder (MDD). Studies in depressed adults have demonstrated that the subgenual anterior cingulate cortex (sgACC) plays a pivotal role in depression and have revealed aberrant patterns of resting-state functional connectivity (RSFC). Here, we examine the RSFC of the sgACC in medication-naïve first-episode adolescents with MDD. ⋯ Our study is the first to examine sgACC connectivity in medication-naïve first-episode adolescents with MDD compared with well-matched control participants. Our results suggest aberrant functional connectivity among the brain networks responsible for salience attribution, executive control, and the resting-state in the MDD group compared with the control participants. Our findings raise the possibility that therapeutic interventions that can restore the functional connectivity among these networks to that typical of healthy adolescents might be a fruitful avenue for future research.