Quantitative MRI at 7-Tesla reveals novel frontocortical myeloarchitecture anomalies in major depressive disorder

• Published in: Translational psychiatry 2024-06, Vol.14 (1), p.262-9, Article 262
• Main Authors: Heij, Jurjen, van der Zwaag, Wietske, Knapen, Tomas, Caan, Matthan W. A., Forstman, Birte, Veltman, Dick J., van Wingen, Guido, Aghajani, Moji
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: 59/57; 692/53/2421; 692/699/476/1414; Adult; Behavioral Sciences; Biological Psychology; Case-Control Studies; Depressive Disorder, Major - diagnostic imaging; Depressive Disorder, Major - pathology; Female; Gyrus Cinguli - diagnostic imaging; Gyrus Cinguli - pathology; Humans; Iron - metabolism; Magnetic Resonance Imaging; Male; Medicine; Medicine & Public Health; Mental depression; Middle Aged; Myelin Sheath - pathology; Neurosciences; Pharmacotherapy; Prefrontal Cortex - diagnostic imaging; Prefrontal Cortex - pathology; Psychiatry
• ISSN: 2158-3188; 2158-3188
• DOI: 10.1038/s41398-024-02976-y

Whereas meta-analytical data highlight abnormal frontocortical macrostructure (thickness/surface area/volume) in Major Depressive Disorder (MDD), the underlying microstructural processes remain uncharted, due to the use of conventional MRI scanners and acquisition techniques. We uniquely combined Ultra-High Field MRI at 7.0 Tesla with Quantitative Imaging to map intracortical myelin (proxied by longitudinal relaxation time T 1 ) and iron concentration (proxied by transverse relaxation time T 2 *), microstructural processes deemed particularly germane to cortical macrostructure. Informed by meta-analytical evidence, we focused specifically on orbitofrontal and rostral anterior cingulate cortices among adult MDD patients ( N  = 48) and matched healthy controls (HC; N  = 10). Analyses probed the association of MDD diagnosis and clinical profile (severity, medication use, comorbid anxiety disorders, childhood trauma) with aforementioned microstructural properties. MDD diagnosis ( p’s