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Association of cognitive impairment and reduced cortical thickness in prefrontal cortex and anterior cingulate cortex with treatment-resistant depression

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Abstract

Accumulating evidence suggests the critical role of cortical thinning in the pathophysiology of major depressive disorder. However, the association of cortical thickness and cognitive impairment with treatment-resistant depression (TRD) has rarely been investigated. In total, 48 adult patients with TRD and 48 healthy controls were recruited and administered a series of neurocognitive and neuroimaging examinations, including 1-back and 2-back working memory tasks and brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Whole-brain cortical thickness analysis was performed to investigate the differences in the cortical thickness between patients with TRD and controls. The patients had reduced cortical thickness in the frontal cortex, particularly at the left frontal pole, left inferior frontal cortex, and left anterior cingulate cortex, and left middle temporal cortex compared with the healthy controls. Moreover, in the 2-back working memory task, the cortical thickness in the left frontal pole and left anterior cingulate cortex was positively associated with mean error in the patients, but not in the controls. Reduced cortical thickness in the frontal pole and anterior cingulate cortex is associated with TRD and related cognitive impairment. Our study indicated the crucial effects of the frontal and temporal cortical thickness on the pathophysiology of TRD and cognitive impairment in patients with TRD.

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Funding

The study was supported by grant from Taipei Veterans General Hospital (V106B-020, V107B-010, V107C-181, V108B-012, V110C-025, V110B-002), Yen Tjing Ling Medical Foundation (CI-109-21, CI-109-22, CI-110-30) and Ministry of Science and Technology, Taiwan (107-2314-B-075-063-MY3, 108-2314-B-075 -037, 110-2314-B-075-026, 110-2314-B-075-024-MY3). The funding source had no role in any process of our study.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychiatry, Taipei Veterans General Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan

    Mu-Hong Chen, Pei-Chi Tu, Wei-Chen Lin, Cheng-Ta Li, Ya-Mei Bai, Shih-Jen Tsai & Tung-Ping Su

  2. Institute of Brain Science, National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University, Taipei, Taiwan

    Mu-Hong Chen, Wei-Chen Lin, Cheng-Ta Li, Ya-Mei Bai, Shih-Jen Tsai & Tung-Ping Su

  3. Division of Psychiatry, School of Medicine, National Yang-Ming University, Taipei, Taiwan

    Mu-Hong Chen, Wei-Chen Lin, Cheng-Ta Li, Ya-Mei Bai, Shih-Jen Tsai & Tung-Ping Su

  4. Department of Medical Research, Taipei Veterans General Hospital, No. 201, Sec. 2, Shih-Pai Road, Taipei 112, Taiwan

    Wan-Chen Chang & Pei-Chi Tu

  5. Institute of Philosophy of Mind and Cognition, National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University, Taipei, Taiwan

    Pei-Chi Tu

  6. Division of Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine, National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University, Taipei, Taiwan

    Pei-Chi Tu & Tung-Ping Su

  7. Department of Nuclear Medicine, and Division of Radiology Oncology, Department of Oncology, Taipei Veterans General Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan

    Wen-Sheng Huang

  8. Department of Psychiatry, General Cheng Hsin Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan

    Tung-Ping Su

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  1. Mu-Hong Chen
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Contributions

Drs MHC and TPS designed the study and drafted the manuscript; Ms WCC and Dr PCT analyzed the imaging data and performed the statistics; Drs WCL, CTL, WSH, YMB, and SJT critically reviewed and revised the manuscripts; All authors approved the publication.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Pei-Chi Tu or Tung-Ping Su.

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This study was performed in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki and was approved by the Taipei Veterans General Hospital Institutional Review Board. Informed consent was provided by all of the participants.

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Chen, MH., Chang, WC., Tu, PC. et al. Association of cognitive impairment and reduced cortical thickness in prefrontal cortex and anterior cingulate cortex with treatment-resistant depression. Brain Imaging and Behavior 16, 1854–1862 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11682-021-00613-6

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