AUTHOR=Hu Changchun , Jiang Wenhao , Huang Jie , Lin Jian , Huang Jialing , Wang Mei , Xie Jian , Yuan Yonggui 

TITLE=The amplitude of low-frequency fluctuation characteristics in depressed adolescents with suicide attempts: a resting-state fMRI study

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Psychiatry

VOLUME=Volume 14 - 2023

YEAR=2023

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychiatry/articles/10.3389/fpsyt.2023.1228260

DOI=10.3389/fpsyt.2023.1228260

ISSN=1664-0640

ABSTRACT=The amplitude of low-frequency fluctuation (ALFF) is a measure of spontaneous brain activity derived from resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rs-fMRI). Previous research has suggested that abnormal ALFF values may be associated with major depressive disorder (MDD) and suicide attempts in adolescents. In this study, our aim was to investigate the differences in ALFF values between adolescent MDD patients with and without a history of suicide attempts.Methods: The study included 34 adolescent depression patients with suicide attempts (SU group), 43 depression patients without suicide attempts (NSU group), and 36 healthy controls (HC group). Depression was diagnosed using a threshold score greater than 17 on the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HDRS).The rs-fMRIwas employed to calculate zALFF values and compare differences among the groups. Associations between zALFF values in specific brain regions and clinical variables such as emotion regulation difficulties were explored using Pearson partial correlation analysis. Receiver-Operating Characteristics (ROC) analysis assessed the ability of mean zALFF values to differentiate between SU and NSU groups.
Results: The SU group had significantly increased zALFF in the left inferior temporal gyrus(l-ITG) compared to both the NSU and HC groups. Additionally, the SU group exhibited higher zALFF in the right fusiform gyrus(r-FG) compared to the NSU group, but not the HC group. Both the SU and NSU groups showed increased zALFF values in theright inferior temporal gyrus (r-ITG)relative to the HC group. Partial correlation analysis revealed a negative correlation between zALFF values in the left superior and middle frontal gyrus (l-SFG, l-MFG) and the degree of emotional dysregulation in the SU group (R = -0.496, p = 0.003; R = -0.484, p = 0.005). Combining zALFF values from the l-ITG and r-FG achieved successful discrimination between depressed adolescents with and without suicide attempts (AUC = 0.855) with high sensitivity (86%) and specificity (71%).Conclusion: Depressed adolescents with suicidal behavior exhibit unique neural activity patterns in the inferior temporal gyrus and fusiform gyrus. These findings highlight the potential utility of these specific brain regions as biomarkers for identifying  suicide attempts in depressed adolescents. Furthermore, associations between emotion dysregulation and activity in their frontal gyrus regions were observed.