ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Psychiatry
Sec. Neuroimaging
An Exploratory Study of Altered Regional Homogeneity in Parkinson's Disease with Depression
Shihua Liu
XUDONG ZHU
Yan Chen
Chao Zhang
Xiaowei Zhu
Rumeng Zhang
Lei Chen
Bin Li
Ping Zhong
Suzhou hospital of Anhui Medical University, China, Suzhou, China
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Abstract
Background: Depression is a prevalent non-motor symptom in Parkinson's disease (PD), yet its pathogenesis is unclear and biomarkers are lacking. This rs-fMRI study used Regional Homogeneity (ReHo) to explore neural correlates in PD with depression (DPD). Methods: We included 23 DPD, 24 non-depressed PD (NDPD), and 20 healthy controls (HC). ReHo analysis was applied to identify regional brain activity differences. Correlations between ReHo values and depression severity (HAMD scores) were examined. ROC analysis assessed the diagnostic utility of ReHo changes. Results: Compared to NDPD, DPD showed increased ReHo in the left inferior temporal gyrus (ITG) and decreased ReHo in the right middle frontal gyrus (MFG), left insula, and left hippocampus. ReHo in left ITG positively correlated with HAMD scores (r=0.4347, P=0.0023), while right MFG (r=-0.5262, P=0.0001), left insula, and left hippocampus (r=-0.4049, P=0.0048) showed negative correlations. ROC analysis indicated that ReHo in the left insula and hippocampus could distinguish DPD (AUC=0.8062). Conclusion: DPD is associated with distinct ReHo alterations. Abnormalities in the left ITG, right MFG, left insula, and left hippocampus may reflect the neural basis of DPD. Our exploratory analyses suggest that altered ReHo in the left insula and left hippocampus may hold potential as neuroimaging biomarkers.
Summary
Keywords
Depression, Neuroimaging Biomarkers, Parkinson's disease, regional homogeneity, resting-state functional MRI
Received
23 December 2025
Accepted
18 February 2026
Copyright
© 2026 Liu, ZHU, Chen, Zhang, Zhu, Zhang, Chen, Li and Zhong. 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: Shihua Liu
Disclaimer
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