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MRI shows structural abnormalities in medial frontal pole of individuals with depression

MRI analysis indicated smaller volume in the medial frontal pole among individuals with depression, compared with healthy controls.

“The heterogeneous human frontal pole has been identified as a node in the dysfunctional network of major depressive disorder. The contribution of the medial (socioaffective) versus lateral (cognitive) frontal pole to major depression pathogenesis is currently unclear,” Sebastian Bludau, PhD, of the Institute of Neuroscience and Medicine, Research Center Jülich, Germany, and colleagues wrote.

Researchers conducted multisite voxel- and region-based morphometric MRI analysis among 73 individuals with depression and 73 individuals without psychiatric history. First, they compared frontal pole volume by subdivision-wise classical morphometric analysis, then frontal pole volume was compared by subdivision-naïve multivariate searchlight analysis based on support vector machines.

Subdivision-wise classical morphometric analysis indicated significantly smaller medical frontal pole among individuals with depression, which negatively correlated with disease severity and duration.

Histologically uninformed multivariate voxel-wise statistics showed converging evidence for structural abnormalities specific to the medial area of the frontal pole in individuals with depression, according to researchers.

“These complementary analyses confirmed that the volume of left [area frontopolaris 2 (Fp2)] was smaller in depressed patients than in healthy comparison subjects. Additionally this regional atrophy also correlated negatively with disease severity and duration, and it allowed the discrimination between patients and comparison subjects,” Bludau and colleagues wrote. “In line with earlier functional decoding of areas [area frontopolaris 1 (Fp1)] and Fp2, this highlights social-affective processes as associated with atrophy in the left medial frontal pole in depressed patients. This potential implication of socio-emotional processing in the pathophysiology of major depressive disorder is closely related to its clinical hallmarks, including mood disturbances and rumination.” – by Amanda Oldt

Disclosure: Bludau reports no relevant financial disclosures. Please see the full study for a list of all authors’ relevant financial disclosures.