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Cerebello-cerebral Functional Connectivity Networks in Major Depressive Disorder: a CAN-BIND-1 Study Report

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Abstract

Neuroimaging studies have demonstrated aberrant structure and function of the “cognitive-affective cerebellum” in major depressive disorder (MDD), although the specific role of the cerebello-cerebral circuitry in this population remains largely uninvestigated. The objective of this study was to delineate the role of cerebellar functional networks in depression. A total of 308 unmedicated participants completed resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging scans, of which 247 (148 MDD; 99 healthy controls, HC) were suitable for this study. Seed-based resting-state functional connectivity (RsFc) analysis was performed using three cerebellar regions of interest (ROIs): ROI1 corresponded to default mode network (DMN)/inattentive processing; ROI2 corresponded to attentional networks, including frontoparietal, dorsal attention, and ventral attention; ROI3 corresponded to motor processing. These ROIs were delineated based on prior functional gradient analyses of the cerebellum. A general linear model was used to perform within-group and between-group comparisons. In comparison to HC, participants with MDD displayed increased RsFc within the cerebello-cerebral DMN (ROI1) and significantly elevated RsFc between the cerebellar ROI1 and bilateral angular gyrus at a voxel threshold (p < 0.001, two-tailed) and at a cluster level (p < 0.05, FDR-corrected). Group differences were non-significant for ROI2 and ROI3. These results contribute to the development of a systems neuroscience approach to the diagnosis and treatment of MDD. Specifically, our findings confirm previously reported associations between MDD, DMN, and cerebellum, and highlight the promising role of these functional and anatomical locations for the development of novel imaging-based biomarkers and targets for neuromodulation therapies. ClinicalTrials.gov TRN: NCT01655706; Date of Registration: August 2nd, 2012.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to acknowledge the contributions of Mojdeh Zamyadi and Jacqueline Harris for data quality control, Andrew Davis and Geoffrey Hall for sequence assessment and standardization, Yuelee Khoo for statistical analysis of the demographics data, and Alice Rueda for analysis of the neuroimaging data.

Funding

Canadian Biomarker Integration Network in Depression (CAN-BIND) is an Integrated Discovery Program carried out in partnership with, and financial support from, the Ontario Brain Institute, an independent non-profit corporation, funded partially by the Ontario government. The opinions, results, and conclusions are those of the authors and no endorsement by the Ontario Brain Institute is intended or should be inferred. Additional funding was provided by Canadian Institutes of Health Research, Lundbeck, Bristol Myers Squibb, and Servier. Funding and/or in-kind support was also provided by the investigators’ academic institutions.

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Contributions

Study conceptualization: Sheeba Arnold Anteraper, Venkat Bhat; methodology development: Sheeba Arnold Anteraper, Nathan. W. Churchill, Venkat Bhat; formal analysis and investigation: Nathan W. Churchill, Tom A. Schweizer, Venkat Bhat; writing — original draft preparation: Sheeba Arnold Anteraper, Xavier Guell, Ilya Demchenko, Venkat Bhat; writing — review and editing: Sheeba Arnold Anteraper, Xavier Guell, Yoon Ji Lee, Jovicarole Raya, Ilya Demchenko, Nathan W. Churchill, Benicio N. Frey, Stefanie Hassel, Raymond W. Lam, Glenda M. MacQueen, Roumen Milev, Tom A. Schweizer, Stephen C. Strother, Susan Whitfield-Gabrieli, Sidney H. Kennedy, Venkat Bhat. All authors read and approved the final version of the manuscript. The data acquisition was supported by the CAN-BIND Investigator Team. There were no separate resources for this project.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Venkat Bhat.

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Ethics Approval

The authors assert that all procedures contributing to this work comply with the ethical standards of the relevant national and institutional committees on human experimentation and with the Helsinki Declaration of 1975, as revised in 2008. All study procedures were approved by the Institutional Ethics Board at University Health Network, Toronto, Ontario, Canada; Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, Toronto, Ontario, Canada; St. Joseph’s Healthcare, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada; Providence Care Hospital, Kingston, Ontario, Canada; Djavad Mowafaghian Centre for Brain Health, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada; and Hotchkiss Brain Institute, Calgary, Alberta, Canada.

Consent to Participate and Publish

All participants provided written, informed consent to participate in the study and have their data published.

Conflict of Interest

SAA, XG, YJL, JR, ID, NWC, BNF, SH, GMM, TAS, and SWG have no conflicts of interest to declare. RWL has received honoraria or research funds from Allergan, Asia–Pacific Economic Cooperation, BC Leading Edge Foundation, Canadian Institutes of Health Research, Canadian Network for Mood and Anxiety Treatments, Canadian Psychiatric Association, Hansoh, Healthy Minds Canada, Janssen, Lundbeck, Lundbeck Institute, Mitacs, Myriad Neuroscience, Ontario Brain Institute, Otsuka, Pfizer, St. Jude Medical, University Health Network Foundation, and VGH-UBC Hospital Foundation. RM has received consulting and speaking honoraria from AbbVie, Allergan, Eisai, Janssen, KYE, Lallemand, Lundbeck, Otsuka, and Sunovion, and research grants from CAN-BIND, Canadian Institutes of Health Research, Janssen, Lallemand, Lundbeck, Nubiyota, Ontario Brain Institute, and Ontario Mental Health Foundation. SCS reports partial support from Canadian Biomarker Integration Network in Depression and Canadian Institutes of Health Research (MOP 137097) grants during the conduct of the study, and grants from Ontario Brain Institute, Canadian Foundation for Innovation and Brain Canada, outside the submitted work. He is also a senior scientific advisor for the neuroimaging data analysis company ADMdx, Inc. ( www. admdx.com), which specializes in brain image analysis to enable diagnosis, prognosis, and drug effect detection for Alzheimer disease and various other forms of dementia. SHK has received honoraria or research funds from Abbott, Alkermes, Allergan, Boehringer Ingelheim, Brain Canada, Canadian Institutes of Health Research, Janssen, Lundbeck, Lundbeck Institute, Ontario Brain Institute, Ontario Research Fund, Otsuka, Pfizer, Servier, Sunovion, Sun Pharmaceuticals, and holds stock in Field Trip Health. VB is supported by an Academic Scholar Award from the University of Toronto Department of Psychiatry, and has received research support from Canadian Institutes of Health Research, Brain & Behavior Foundation, Ministry of Health Innovation Funds, Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada, Department of Defense, Canada, New Frontiers in Research Fund, and an investigator-initiated trial from Roche Canada.

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Anteraper, S.A., Guell, X., Lee, Y.J. et al. Cerebello-cerebral Functional Connectivity Networks in Major Depressive Disorder: a CAN-BIND-1 Study Report. Cerebellum 22, 26–36 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12311-021-01353-5

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