REVIEW article
Front. Psychiatry
Sec. Perinatal Psychiatry
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2025.1660550
This article is part of the Research TopicPerinatal mental health: Depression, Anxiety, Stress, and FearView all 22 articles
Postpartum depression-associated localized neural dysfunction: A voxel-wise meta-analysis of amplitude and synchronization alterations in resting-state fMRI
Provisionally accepted
- 1Shenzhen Bao An Peoples Hospital, Shenzhen, China
- 2The First Affiliated Hospital of Chongqing Medical University, Chongqing, China
- 3Guangzhou University of Chinese Medicine, Guangzhou, China
- 4Fujian Provincial Maternity and Children's Hospital Department of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Fuzhou, China
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Background: Resting-state fMRI studies in postpartum depression (PPD) have reported voxel-wise alterations in measures of neural amplitude and synchronization, yet scarce meta-analysis has quantitatively synthesized these findings. We performed a coordinate-based meta-analysis to identify convergent amplitude and synchronization dysfunction in PPD. Methods: We conducted a comprehensive search for whole-brain voxel-wise resting-state fMRI studies comparing PPD patients with healthy postpartum controls that reported local amplitude or synchronization metrics.. Peak coordinates were analyzed using the Anisotropic effect size-signed differential mapping to delineate whole-brain functional alterations.. Results: Ten studies (288 PPD patients, 279 controls) contributed 62 peak foci. Our analysis revealed that PPD patients exhibited increased activity in the left fusiform gyrus (FFG.L), left middle occipital gyrus (MOG.L), while showing decreased activity in the left anterior cingulate gyrus (ACG.L), the right superior temporal gyrus (STG.R), the right insula (INS.R) and the right precentral gyrus (PreCG.R) compared to healthy subjects. Jackknife sensitivity analysis indicated minimal impact on the overall results when eliminating any single study. Meta-regression analysis revealed a correlation between MOG.L functional activity and Edinburgh postnatal depression scale scores. Conclusion: Abnormally elevated functional activity in the FFG.L, MOG.L, along with reduced activity in the ACG.L, STG.R, INS.R and PreCG.R, may serve as potential biomarkers for PPD. Additionally, abnormal functional activity in the visual cortex, and the prefrontal cortex-limbic system may be associated with PPD.
Keywords: postpartum depression, Voxel-wise meta-analysis, Resting-state fMRI, Localized neural dysfunction, Intrinsic neural dynamics
Received: 06 Jul 2025; Accepted: 10 Sep 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 QIU, Wang, Zhao, Chen and Lin. 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: Shangjie Chen, Shenzhen Bao An Peoples Hospital, Shenzhen, China
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