CLINICAL TRIAL article
Front. Neurol.
Sec. Applied Neuroimaging
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fneur.2025.1599733
This article is part of the Research TopicDecoding Neuroplasticity: Innovations in fMRI Methodologies and Disease InsightsView all 4 articles
fNIRS Evidence of Abnormal Frontotemporal Cortex Activation and Functional Connectivity in Depressed Patients after Stroke: Neuromodulatory Mechanisms from Mild to Moderate Depression
Provisionally accepted
- Wenzhou TCM Hospital of Zhejiang Chinese Medical University, Wenzhou, China
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Background: Post-stroke depression (PSD) is a prevalent psychiatric complication following a stroke, significantly delaying neurological recovery. The assessment of scales in clinical diagnosis often lacks objectivity, while functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) has been recognized as an adjunctive diagnosis of depression. This research was designed to evaluate whether fNIRS signals can differentiate different degrees of PSD and explore the pathogenesis behind PSD. Methods: We recruited 56 stroke patients treated at the Wenzhou TCM Hospital of Zhejiang Chinese Medical University and stratified them into three groups according to PSD severity: non-PSD (n = 18), mild-PSD (n = 19), and moderate-PSD (n = 19). fNIRS was employed to monitor frontotemporal cortical activity while administering a verbal fluency task across all participant groups. Differences in hemodynamic activity and functional connectivity across six frontotemporal cortex subregions were examined in three patient groups, and their correlations with 17-item Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HAMD-17) scores were evaluated. Results: In terms of brain activation, the moderate-PSD group demonstrated significantly diminished activation in four particular brain regions in comparison to the non-PSD group (P < 0.05): the bilateral medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC), the ipsilateral dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC), and the contralateral temporal lobe (TL), and the activation intensity within these regions was negatively associated with HAMD-17 scores (L-mPFC: rs = -0.315,
Keywords: post-stroke depression, fNIRS, brain activation, functional connectivity, Frontotemporal cortex
Received: 28 Mar 2025; Accepted: 07 Jul 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Zhou, Liu, Chen, Chen, Pan and Zhi. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Yinghao Zhi, Wenzhou TCM Hospital of Zhejiang Chinese Medical University, Wenzhou, China
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