Neuroimaging techniques in the diagnosis and treatment of depressive disorders

Volel' B.A.; Akhapkin R.V.; Ustyuzhanin D.V.; Andryushchenko A.V.; Shariya M.A.; Ternovoy S.K.

doi:https://doi.org/10.17116/jnevro201711721163-168

Close metadata

Recommended articles:

Methods for determining the extent of ischemic changes in brain matter in the prognosis of clinical outcome after successful thromboextraction. S.S. Korsakov Journal of Neurology and Psychiatry. 2025;(3-2):17-27

Cognitive impairment in patients with multiple sclerosis. S.S. Korsakov Journal of Neurology and Psychiatry. 2025;(4-2):67-73

Effect of polymorphic variants of the HTR2A gene on the effectiveness and safety of sertraline in patients with mixed anxiety-depressive disorder. S.S. Korsakov Journal of Neurology and Psychiatry. 2025;(8):75-84

Oxidative stress and depression in Parkinson’s disease. S.S. Korsakov Journal of Neurology and Psychiatry. 2025;(9):131-138

Mediastinal staging in planning the management of patients with non-small cell lung cancer. P.A. Herzen Journal of Oncology. 2025;(2):57-63

Objectification of Pain in Patients with Endometriosis. (Literature review and own data). Russian Journal of Human Reproduction. 2025;(2):62-85

Sellar collision tumors: difficulties of preoperative neuroimaging and selection of surgical approach. Case reports and literature review. Burdenko's Journal of Neurosurgery. 2025;(3):75-82

Neuropathic pain in chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathies: analysis of 64 cases. Russian Journal of Pain. 2025;(2):45-53

Psychodermatological aspects of psoriasis, current condition of problem. Russian Journal of Clinical Dermatology and Venereology. 2025;(4):403-411

Depressive disorders in women during the menopausal transition and menopause. Russian Bulletin of Obstetrician-Gynecologist. 2025;(5):41-46

Abstract:

In studying of the neurobiological mechanisms of unipolar depressive disorders (uDD) great potential associated with the use of neuroimaging techniques such as positron emission tomography (PET) and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). The article provides an overview of recent neuroimaging data relating to the structural and functional features of the brain in patients with uDD. Results are presented according to the methods of studies (resting state, during emotional and cognitive tests) and correlated with the main actual neurobiological concepts of depressive disorders. The possibilities of imaging studies to assess and predict the results of antidepressant therapy are considered.

Keywords:

brain imaging

neuroimaging positron emission tomography

functional magnetic resonance imaging

depressive disorders

antidepressants

psychotherapy

Authors:

Volel' B.A.

Pervyĭ MGMU im. I.M. Sechenova Minzdrava Rossii, Moskva

Akhapkin R.V.

Gosudarstvennyĭ nauchnyĭ tsentr sotsial'noĭ i sudebnoĭ psikhiatrii im. V.P. Serbskogo, Moskva

Ustyuzhanin D.V.

Russian Cardiology Research Center, Moscow, Russia

Andryushchenko A.V.

Moscow Scientific and Practical Center of Dermatovenereology and Cosmetology, Moscow, Russia, 119071

Shariya M.A.

FGBU National medical research cardiology center of Russia, Moscow, Russia

Ternovoy S.K.

FGBU National medical research cardiology center of Russia, Moscow, Russia

Close metadata

References:

Smulevich AB, Dubnitskaya EB. Depression in Primary Medical Care. Psikhicheskie rasstroistva v obshchei meditsine. 2010;1:4-12. (In Russ.).
Kessler Ronald C. The costs of depression. The psychiatric Clinics of north America. 2012;35(1):1. doi:10.1016/j.psc.2011.11.005
Shamrei VK, Abritalin EYu, Tarumov DA, Korzenev AV. Neuroimaging diagnosis of depressive disorders. SPb. 2013. (In Russ.).
Graham J, Salimi-Khorshidi G, Hagan C, Walsh N, Goodyer I, Lennox B, Suckling J. Meta-analytic evidence for neuroimaging models of depression: state or trait? Journal of affective disorders. 2013;151(2):423-431. doi:10.1016/j.jad.2013.07.002
Ilyin SA, Tsukarzi EE, Mosolov SN. Comparative study of transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) and electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) in therapy-resistant depressions. Biologicheskie metody terapii psikhicheskikh rasstroistv (Dokazatel'naya meditsina — klinicheskoi praktike). M.: Sotsial'no-politicheskaya mysl'; 2012. (In Russ.).
Chen JJ, Liu Z, Zhu D, Li Q, Zhang H, Huang H, Wei Y, Mu J, Yang D, Xie P. Bilateral vs. unilateral repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation in treating major depression: a meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials. Psychiatry research. 2014;219(1):51-57. doi:10.1016/j.psychres.2014.05.010
Palmer SM, Crewther SG, Carey LM. A meta-analysis of changes in brain activity in clinical depression. Frontiers in human neuroscience. 2015;8:1045. doi:10.3389/fnhum.2014.01045
Price JL, Drevets WC. Neurocircuitry of mood disorders. Neuropsychopharmacology. 2010;35(1):192-216. doi:10.1038/npp.2009.104
Wikipedia — the free encyclopedia. Accessed November 1,2016. Available at: http://wikipedia.org
Mayberg HS. Limbic-cortical dysregulation: a proposed model of depression. The Journal of neuropsychiatry and clinical neurosciences. 1997;9(3):471-481. doi:10.1176/jnp.9.3.471
Bora E, Harrison BJ, Davey CG, Yücel M, Pantelis C. Meta-analysis of volumetric abnormalities in cortico-striatal-pallidal-thalamic circuits in major depressive disorder. Psychological medicine. 2012;42(04):671-681. doi:10.1017/S0033291711001668
Hamilton JP, Furman DJ, Chang C, Thomason ME, Dennis E, Gotlib IH. Default-mode and task-positive network activity in major depressive disorder: implications for adaptive and maladaptive rumination. Biological psychiatry. 2011;70(4):327-333. doi:10.1016/j.biopsych.2011.02.003
Sheline YI, Barch DM, Price JL, Rundle MM, Vaishnavi SN, Snyder AZ, Mintuna MA, Wanga S, Coalson RS, Raichle ME. The default mode network and self-referential processes in depression. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 2009;106(6):1942-1947. doi:10.1073/pnas.0812686106
Alexander GE, DeLong MR, Strick PL. Parallel organization of functionally segregated circuits linking basal ganglia and cortex. Annual review of neuroscience. 1986;9(1):357-381. doi:10.1146/annurev.ne.09.030186.002041
LeDoux JE. Emotion circuits in the brain. Annual Review of Neuroscience. 2000;23:155-184.
Öngür D, Price JL. The organization of networks within the orbital and medial prefrontal cortex of rats, monkeys and humans. Cerebral cortex. 2000;10(3):206-219. doi:10.1093/cercor/10.3.206
Phillips ML, Drevets WC, Rauch SL, Lane R. Neurobiology of emotion perception I: The neural basis of normal emotion perception. Biological psychiatry. 2003;54(5):504-514. doi:10.1016/S0006-3223(03)00168-9
Mayberg HS, Liotti M, Brannan SK, McGinnis S, Mahurin RK, Jerabek PA, Silva JA, Tekell JL, Martin CC, Lancaster JL, Fox PT. Reciprocal limbic-cortical function and negative mood: converging PET findings in depression and normal sadness. American Journal of Psychiatry. 1999;156:675-682.
Freedman LJ, Insel TR, Smith Y. Subcortical projections of area 25 (subgenual cortex) of the macaque monkey. Journal of Comparative Neurology. 2000;421(2):172-188. doi:10.1002/(SICI)10969861(20000529)421:2172::AID-CNE43.0.CO;2-8
Fitzgerald PB, Laird AR, Maller J, Daskalakis ZJ. A meta‐analytic study of changes in brain activation in depression. Human brain mapping. 2008;29(6):683-695. doi:10.1002/hbm.20426
Stuhrmann A, Suslow T, Dannlowski U. Facial emotion processing in major depression: a systematic review of neuroimaging findings. Biology of mood & anxiety disorders. 2011;1(1):1. doi:10.1186/2045-5380-1-10
Lanteaume L, Khalfa S, Régis J, Marquis P, Chauvel P, Bartolomei F. Emotion induction after direct intracerebral stimulations of human amygdala. Cerebral Cortex. 2007;17(6):1307-1313. doi:10.1093/cercor/bhl041
Liu CH, Jing B, Ma X, Xu PF, Zhang Y, Li F, Wang CY. Voxel-based morphometry study of the insular cortex in female patients with current and remitted depression. Neuroscience. 2014;262:190-199. doi:10.1016/j.neuroscience.2013.12.058
Diener C, Kuehner C, Brusniak W, Ubl B, Wessa M, Flor H. A meta-analysis of neurofunctional imaging studies of emotion and cognition in major depression. Neuroimage. 2012;61(3):677-685. doi:10.1016/j.neuroimage.2012.04.005
Fitzgerald PB, Srithiran A, Benitez J, Daskalakis ZZ, Oxley TJ, Kulkarni J, Egan GF. An fMRI study of prefrontal brain activation during multiple tasks in patients with major depressive disorder. Human Brain Mapping. 2008;29(4):490-501. doi:10.1002/hbm.20414
Egner T. Prefrontal cortex and cognitive control: motivating functional hierarchies. Nature neuroscience. 2009;12(7):821-822. doi:10.1038/nn0709-821
Bauer I, Hughes M, Rowsell R, Cockerell R, Pipingas A, Crewther S, Crewther D. Omega‐3 supplementation improves cognition and modifies brain activation in young adults. Human Psychopharmacology: Clinical and Experimental. 2014;29(2):133-144. doi:10.1002/hup.2379
Haier RJ, Siegel BV, Nuechterlein KH, Hazlett E, Wu JC, Paek J, Browning HL, Buchsbaum MS. Cortical glucose metabolic rate correlates of abstract reasoning and attention studied with positron emission tomography. Intelligence. 1988;12(2):199-217. doi:10.1016/0160-2896(88)90016-5
Aron AR, Robbins TW, Poldrack RA. Inhibition and the right inferior frontal cortex. Trends in cognitive sciences. 2004;8(4):170-177. doi:10.1016/j.tics.2004.02.010
Haber SN, Calzavara R. The cortico-basal ganglia integrative network: the role of the thalamus. Brain research bulletin. 2009;78(2):69-74. doi:10.1016/j.brainresbull.2008.09.013
Hamilton JP, Etkin A, Furman DJ, Lemus MG, Johnson RF, Gotlib IH. Functional neuroimaging of major depressive disorder: a meta-analysis and new integration of baseline activation and neural response data. American Journal of Psychiatry. 2012;169:693-703. doi:10.1176/appi.ajp.2012.11071105
Kühn S, Gallinat J. Resting-state brain activity in schizophrenia and major depression: a quantitative meta-analysis. Schizophrenia bulletin. 2013;39(2):358-365. doi:10.1093/schbul/sbr151
Pessoa L. On the relationship between emotion and cognition. Nature reviews neuroscience. 2008;9(2):148-158. doi:10.1038/nrn2317
Pessoa L. Précis on The Cognitive-Emotional Brain. Behavioral and Brain Sciences. 2015;38:71. doi:10.1017/S0140525X14000120
Fox MD, Snyder AZ, Vincent JL, Raichle ME. Intrinsic fluctuations within cortical systems account for intertrial variability in human behavior. Neuron. 2007;56(1):171-184. doi:10.1016/j.neuron.2007.08.023
Mandell D, Siegle GJ, Shutt L, Feldmiller J, Thase ME. Neural substrates of trait ruminations in depression. Journal of abnormal psychology. 2014;123(1):35. doi:10.1037/a0035834
Hamani C, Mayberg H, Stone S, Laxton A, Haber S, Lozano AM. The subcallosal cingulate gyrus in the context of major depression. Biological psychiatry. 2011;69(4):301-308. doi:10.1016/j.biopsych.2010.09.034
Hamani C, Mayberg H, Stone S, Laxton A, Haber S, Lozano AM. The subcallosal cingulate gyrus in the context of major depression. Biological psychiatry. 2011;69(4):301-308. doi:10.1016/j.biopsych.2010.09.034
Disner SG, Beevers CG, Haigh EA, Beck AT. Neural mechanisms of the cognitive model of depression. Nature Reviews Neuroscience. 2011;12(8):467-477. doi:10.1038/nrn3027
Etkin A, Egner T, Kalisch R. Emotional processing in anterior cingulate and medial prefrontal cortex. Trends in cognitive sciences. 2011;15(2):85-93. doi:10.1016/j.tics.2010.11.004
Mayberg HS. Modulating dysfunctional limbic-cortical circuits in depression: towards development of brain-based algorithms for diagnosis and optimised treatment. British medical bulletin. 2003;65(1):193-207. doi:10.1093/bmb/65.1.193
Drevets WC, Price JL, Furey ML. Brain structural and functional abnormalities in mood disorders: implications for neurocircuitry models of depression. Brain structure and function. 2008;213(1-2):93-118. doi:10.1007/s00429-008-0189-x
Menon V, Uddin LQ. Saliency, switching, attention and control: a network model of insula function. Brain Structure and Function. 2010;214(5-6):655-667. doi:10.1007/s00429-010-0262-0
Seeley WW, Menon V, Schatzberg AF, Keller J, Glover GH, Kenna H, Reiss AL, Greicius MD. Dissociable intrinsic connectivity networks for salience processing and executive control. The Journal of neuroscience. 2007;27(9):2349-2356. doi:10.1523/JNEUROSCI.5587-06.2007
Chen, C. H., Ridler, K., Suckling, J., Williams, S., Fu, C. H., Merlo-Pich, E., & Bullmore, E. Brain imaging correlates of depressive symptom severity and predictors of symptom improvement after antidepressant treatment. Biological psychiatry. 2007;62(5):407-414. Doi:10.1016/j.biopsych.2006.09.018.
Keedwell, P. A., Drapier, D., Surguladze, S., Giampietro, V., Brammer, M., & Phillips, M. Subgenual cingulate and visual cortex responses to sad faces predict clinical outcome during antidepressant treatment for depression. Journal of affective disorders. 2010;120(1):120-125. Doi:10.1016/j.jad.2009.04.031.
Mayberg HS, Brannan SK, Tekell JL, Silva JA, Mahurin RK, McGinnis S, Jerabek PA. Regional metabolic effects of fluoxetine in major depression: serial changes and relationship to clinical response. Biological psychiatry. 2000;48(8):830-843. doi:10.1016/S0006-3223(00)01036-2
Kennedy SH, Konarski JZ, Segal ZV, Lau MA, Bieling PJ, McIntyre RS, Mayberg HS. Differences in brain glucose metabolism between responders to CBT and venlafaxine in a 16-week randomized controlled trial. American Journal of Psychiatry. 2007;164(5):778-788. doi:10.1176/appi.ajp.164.5.778
Drevets WC, Bogers W, Raichle ME. Functional anatomical correlates of antidepressant drug treatment assessed using PET measures of regional glucose metabolism. European Neuropsychopharmacology. 2002;12(6):527-544. doi:10.1016/S0924-977X(02)00102-5
Sheline YI, Barch DM, Donnelly JM, Ollinger JM, Snyder AZ, Mintun MA. Increased amygdala response to masked emotional faces in depressed subjects resolves with antidepressant treatment: an fMRI study. Biological psychiatry. 2001;50(9):651-658. doi:10.1016/S0006-3223(01)01263-X
Fu CH, Williams SC, Cleare AJ, Brammer MJ, Walsh ND, Kim J, Andrew CM, Pich EM, Williams PM, Reed LJ, Mitterschiffthaler MT. Attenuation of the neural response to sad faces in major depression by antidepressant treatment: a prospective, event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging study. Archives of general psychiatry. 2004;61(9):877-889. doi:10.1001/archpsyc.61.9.877
Davidson RJ, Irwin W, Anderle MJ, Kalin NH. The neural substrates of affective processing in depressed patients treated with venlafaxine. American journal of Psychiatry. 2003;160(1):64-75. doi:10.1176/appi.ajp.160.1.64
Fossati P, Jabourian M, Laredo J, Allailli N, Lehericy S, Delaveau P. 1501 — Early effects of agomelatine on self-referential processing in acute depressed patients: a fmri study. European Psychiatry. 2013;28:1. doi:10.1016/S0924-9338(13)76520-9
Delaveau P, Jabourian M, Lemogne C, Allaïli N, Choucha W, Girault N, Lehericya S, Laredod J, Fossati P. Antidepressant short-term and long-term brain effects during self-referential processing in major depression. Psychiatry Research: Neuroimaging. 2016;247:17-24. doi:10.1016/j.pscychresns.2015.11.007
Goldapple K, Segal Z, Garson C, Lau M, Bieling P, Kennedy S, Mayberg H. Modulation of cortical-limbic pathways in major depression: treatment-specific effects of cognitive behavior therapy. Archives of general psychiatry. 2004;61(1):34-41. doi:10.1001/archpsyc.61.1.34
Fu CH, Williams SC, Brammer MJ, Suckling J, Kim J, Cleare AJ, Walsh ND, Mitterschiffthaler MT, Bullmore ET. Neural responses to happy facial expressions in major depression following antidepressant treatment. American Journal of Psychiatry. 2007;164(4):599-607. doi:10.1176/appi.ajp.164.4.599