Abstract:
ob<x>jective To investigate the changes of brain functional activity in resting-state functional magnetic resonance (fMRI) before and after modified electroconvulsive therapy (MECT), further clarify the neuroimaging mechanism of MECT in first-episode patients with Major depressive disorder(MDD). Methods fMRI scan was performed before MECT in 28 MDD patients with first-episode,and another fMRI scan followed after 2 weeks of MECT (6 times on average).Meanwhile,the 24 Hamilton Depression Scale (HAMD-24) of MDD patients were evaluated before and after MECT.Imaging data were processed by the DPARSF software ba<x>sed on Matlab platform,where a total of 5,000 permutation tests were used.The results were obtained with threshold-free cluster enhancement (TFCE) correction.The mALFF voxel difference between pre-treatment and pro-treatment was highlighted as a seed point to calculate the different brain regions of the whole-brain functional connectivity (FC).The results were corrected by alphasim correction.The mALFF value and FC value of different brain regions were further related with the clinical treatment score reduction rate. Results Compared with pre-treatment state,the total score of HAMD-24 in MDD patients after MECT was significantly decreased,and the difference was statistically significant (P<0.001). Compared with pre-treatment state, the mALFF values of the postcentral gyrus of both sides of the MDD patients with MECT decreased(P<0.05). When the left postcentral gyrus was highlighted as the seed point, the FC of the left postcentral gyrus to the right calcarine gyrus,the right lingual gyrus were decreased after MECT in MDD patients(P<0.05). Conclusions MECT may relieve symptoms of depression by regulating the low frequency amplitude of the postcentral gyrus of MDD patients and regulating function connection of the left postcentral gyrus to the right calcarine gyrus,the right lingual gyrus.Therefore,the fMRI takes a great important application value in investigating the changes in brain function before and after MECT in depressed patients.