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Negative family and interpersonal relationship are associated with centromedial amygdala functional connectivity alterations in adolescent depression

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Abstract

The amygdala, known for its functional heterogeneity, plays a critical role in the neural mechanism of adolescent major depressive disorder (aMDD). However, changes in its subregional functional networks in relation to stressful factors remain unclear. We recruited 78 comorbidity-free, medication-naive aMDD patients and 40 matched healthy controls (HC) to explore changes in resting-state functional connectivity (FC) across four amygdala subregions: the centromedial nucleus (CM), the basolateral nucleus (LB), the superficial nucleus (SF), and the amygdalostriatal transition area (Astr). Then, we performed partial correlation analysis to investigate the relationship between amygdala subregional FC and stressful factors as measured by the Chinese Version of Family Environment Scale (FES-CV) and the Adolescent Self-Rated Life Events Scale (ASLEC). Compared to HC, aMDD patients demonstrated significantly decreased functional connectivity between the left CM and left precentral gyrus, as well as between left SF and left precentral gyrus, and between left LB and posterior cingulate gyrus (PCC)/precuneus. In aMDD group, left CM-precentral gyrus FC exhibited negative correlation with interpersonal relationship and punishment, and positive correlation with family cohesion and expressiveness. This study reveals distinct patterns of abnormal functional connectivity among amygdala subregions in aMDD. Our findings suggest that the CM network, in particular, may be involved in stress-related factors in aMDD, which provide a potential target for the prevention and treatment of adolescent depression.

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Data availability

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

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Funding

This study is supported by grants from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (82372080), the Natural Science Foundation of Sichuan Province (2022NSFSC0052), the Postdoctoral Fellowship Program of China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (GZC20231804), and the Medical Research project of Sichuan Province (S20008). All authors have declared that they have no competing or potential conflicts of interest.

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Author notes

  1. Weijie Bao and Yingxue Gao contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Huaxi MR Research Center (HMRRC), Functional and Molecular Imaging Key Laboratory of Sichuan Province, Department of Radiology, West China Hospital of Sichuan University, No.37 Guo Xue Xiang, Chengdu, 610041, China

    Weijie Bao, Yingxue Gao, Lingxiao Cao, Zilin Zhou, Xinyue Hu, Hailong Li & Xiaoqi Huang

  2. Research Unit of Psychoradiology, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, Chengdu, China

    Xiaoqi Huang

  3. Department of Radiology, Sichuan Mental Health Center, The Third Hospital of Mianyang, Mianyang, China

    Ruohan Feng, Lihua Zhuo, Hongwei Li & Xinqin Ouyang

  4. Department of Psychiatry, Sichuan Mental Health Center, The Third Hospital of Mianyang, Mianyang, China

    Guoping Huang

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  1. Weijie Bao
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Contributions

XH, WB and YG conceived and designed the study. XH and GH supervised the conduct of the study. RF, XO, HL and LZ are responsible for data acquisition. WB, ZZ and YG analyzed the neuroimaging and clinical data. WB, HL and LC performed the statistical analysis. WB and HL assisted with related literature search. WB and YG drafted the initial manuscript, and YG, LC XH and GH reviewed and revised the manuscript. All the authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Xiaoqi Huang.

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This research was approved by the Ethics Committee of the Third People’s Hospital of Mianyang, and it is all done in accordance with the ethical standards set out in the 1964 Declaration of Helsinki and its subsequent amendments.

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On behalf of all authors, the corresponding author states that there is no conflict of interest.

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Bao, W., Gao, Y., Feng, R. et al. Negative family and interpersonal relationship are associated with centromedial amygdala functional connectivity alterations in adolescent depression. Eur Child Adolesc Psychiatry (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00787-024-02456-0

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