Yunhan Wang,1 Jinxue Wei,2 Yushun Yan,2 Min Wang,2 Huanhuan Fan,2 Yue Du,2 Xiao Yang,2 Xiaohong Ma,2 Xiaojuan Ma1 

1Department of Ultrasound, West China Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu, People’s Republic of China; 2Mental Health Center and Institute of Psychiatry, West China Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu, People’s Republic of China

Correspondence: Xiaojuan Ma, Email xiaojuanma@126.com

Background: Adolescent MDD has become a significant public health issue, yet its underlying mechanisms remain unclear. Multimodal brain imaging techniques offer a powerful method for exploring complex mental disorders. However, evidence focusing on the multimodal brain networks and structural-functional coupling in adolescent depression is still limited.
Methods: Participants with major depressive disorder (MDD) were Han Chinese individuals aged 13 to 18 who had been unmedicated for at least two weeks. We conducted multimodal MRI acquisitions, including structural MRI (sMRI), resting-state functional MRI (rsfMRI), and Diffusion Tensor Imaging (DTI). The cortex was parceled into 360 regions using the HCP-MMP atlas. Functional connectivity and deterministic structural connectivity matrices were constructed, and structural-functional coupling coefficients were calculated. Differences in connectivity and coupling coefficients between the MDD and healthy controls (HCs) groups were identified.
Results: A total of 25 adolescents with MDD (mean age: 15.68 years, standard deviation [SD]: 1.18; Female: 21 (84.00%)) and 27 hCs (mean age: 14.30 years, standard deviation [SD]: 1.51; Female: 13 (48.15%)) were included in the analysis. There were 9 structural connections and 122 functional connections that differed between the two groups, involving multiple cortical regions. Additionally, we identified structural-functional coupling differences in three brain areas, specifically the posterior cingulate cortex and the ventral visual cortex.
Conclusion: Adolescent MDD involves disruptions in brain structural networks, functional networks, and structural-functional coupling. These differing indicators may serve as potential biomarkers for adolescent MDD.

Keywords: major depressive disorder, adolescents, structural-functional coupling, brain network, magnetic resonance imaging