ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Psychiatry
Sec. Mood Disorders
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2025.1539702
Altered static and dynamic functional connectivity in major depression disorder accompanied by high anxiety:evidence from the REST-meta-MDD consortium
Provisionally accepted
- 1Chengdu Gaoxin Southwest Children’s hospital, Chengdu, China
- 2The Second Affiliated Hospital of Chengdu Medical College, China National Nuclear Corporation 416 Hospital, Chengdu, China, chengdu, China
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Background: Major depressive disorder (MDD) is a prevalent mental health condition characterized by persistent low mood, diminished interest in pleasurable activities, and anhedonia. Some patients with depression experience high levels of anxiety, complicating clinical treatment. However, the underlying pathological mechanisms remain unclear.The sample comprised 178 participants, including 73 MDD with high anxiety symptom subjects, 55 MDD with low anxiety symptom and 50 healthy controls registered from multiple sites based on the REST-meta-MDD Project in China. Resting state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rs-fMRI) data was recorded. We conducted large-scale static and dynamic functional connectivity analysis to identify specific brain connectivity distinguishing MDD with low and high anxiety symptoms.Results: While MDD patients with high and low anxiety symptoms exhibit overlapping alterations in dynamic functional connectivity between the auditory cortex and nodes of the salience network, their distinct clinical profiles may be associated with differential functional connectivity patterns between components of the default mode network (DMN) and the visual network (VN), as well as between components of the basal ganglia network (BGN) and VN.The VN-DMN-BGN functional circuit may help elucidate the underlying pathological mechanisms associated with varying levels of anxiety in depressive disorders. Understanding these neural correlation could contribute to the development of targeted therapeutic strategies for MDD.
Keywords: Major Depressive Disorder, Anxiety, default model network, functional connectivity, fMRI
Received: 06 Dec 2024; Accepted: 12 May 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Li, Zeng, Zhou, Lin and Li. 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: Lujun Li, Chengdu Gaoxin Southwest Children’s hospital, Chengdu, China
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