Study Report
Reference
| Citation | Ballmaier, 2004 PubMed |
| Full Info | Ballmaier, M., Kumar, A., Thompson, P.M., Narr, K.L., Lavretsky, H., Estanol, L., Deluca, H. and Toga, A.W. (2004) Localizing gray matter deficits in late-onset depression using computational cortical pattern matching methods. Am J Psychiatry, 161, 2091-2099.
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Study
| Hypothesis or Background |
The authors used magnetic resonance imaging and an image analysis technique known as cortical pattern matching to map cortical gray matter deficits in elderly depressed patients with an illness onset after age 60 (late-onset depression).
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| Sample Information | Seventeen patients with late-onset depression (11 women and six men; mean age=75.24, SD=8.52) and 17 group-matched comparison subjects (11 women and six men; mean age=73.88, SD=7.61) were included. |
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| Method Detail | Detailed spatial analyses of gray matter were conducted across the entire cortex by measuring local proportions of gray matter at thousands of homologous cortical surface locations in each subject, and these patterns were matched across subjects by using elastic transformations to align sulcal topography. To visualize regional changes, statistical differences were mapped at each cortical surface location in three dimensions. |
| Method Keywords | magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) |
| Result | The late-onset depression group exhibited significant gray matter deficits in the right lateral temporal cortex and the right parietal cortex, where decreases were most pronounced in sensorimotor regions. The statistical maps also showed gray matter deficits in the same regions of the left hemisphere that approached significance after permutation testing. No significant group differences were detected in frontal cortices or any other anatomical region. |
| Conclusions | Regionally specific decreases of gray matter occur in late-onset depression, supporting the hypothesis that this subset of elderly patients with major depression presents with certain unique neuroanatomical abnormalities that may differ from patients with an earlier onset of illness. |
Relationships reported by
Ballmaier, 2004
| Component A Approved Name (Name in Paper) |
Component A Type |
Component B Approved Name (Name in Paper) |
Component B Type |
Statistical Result |
Relationship Description |
Result Category (Positive/Negative)) |
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MDD
|
syndrome |
Frontal Lobe (frontal cortices) |
brain morphology and function |
|
No significant group differences were detected in frontal cortices or any other anatomical region. |
Negative
|
|
MDD
|
syndrome |
right parietal cortex (right parietal cortex) |
brain morphology and function |
|
The late-onset depression group exhibited significant gray matter deficits in the right lateral temporal cortex and the right parietal cortex, where decreases were most pronounced in sensorimotor regions. |
Positive
|
|
MDD
|
syndrome |
right temporal region (right lateral temporal cortex) |
brain morphology and function |
|
The late-onset depression group exhibited significant gray matter deficits in the right lateral temporal cortex and the right parietal cortex, where decreases were most pronounced in sensorimotor regions. |
Positive
|
