Neuroimaging Insights into Depression and Parkinson's Disease

Advances in neuroimaging have elucidated both structural and functional brain alterations underpinning major depressive disorder (MDD) and the depressive symptoms that often accompany Parkinson’s disease (PD). In MDD, high-resolution magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) studies reveal widespread network dysregulation, including hypermetabolism in frontal and subcortical regions, altered cerebellar coupling with default-mode and executive networks, and disturbance of motor-related circuits that may underlie psychomotor retardation. In PD, depression correlates with cortical atrophy in parietal-occipital-temporal regions, hippocampal shrinkage and reduced gyrification in insular and temporal cortices, as well as disrupted limbic-prefrontal connectivity. Resting-state functional imaging consistently implicates the prefrontal-limbic system, default-mode network and cerebellar circuits in mood regulation, while task-based and perfusion studies highlight aberrant blood flow in anterior cingulate, basal ganglia and association cortices. Together, these findings point to overlapping yet disease-specific biomarkers: MDD is characterised by hypermetabolism and connectivity imbalances across cognitive control and affective networks, whereas PD with depression displays pronounced morphological changes and subcortical-cortical decoupling. These insights not only deepen our mechanistic understanding but also pave the way for targeted neuromodulation, individualised treatment planning and early identification of at-risk individuals.

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Neuroimaging Insights into Depression and Parkinson's Disease publication trend

The graph below shows the total number of articles in neuroimaging insights into depression and parkinson's disease across all publications each year (not limited to Nature Index journals).

Technical terms

Functional connectivity: Statistical dependence between neurophysiological signals from distinct brain regions, often measured at rest to infer network organisation.

Voxel-based morphometry (VBM): A neuroimaging analysis technique that assesses local concentrations of grey matter across the brain using statistical comparisons of voxel-wise data.

Surface-based morphometry (SBM): Analysis of cortical thickness, surface area and gyrification by mapping the brain’s cortical sheet onto a two-dimensional surface.

Regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF): Measurement of blood supply to specific brain regions, reflecting metabolic activity, frequently assessed with SPECT or perfusion MRI.

Gyrification index: Quantitative measure of cortical folding complexity, calculated as the ratio between total cortical surface and exposed cortical surface.

Resting-state functional MRI: Imaging of spontaneous low-frequency blood-oxygen-level-dependent signal fluctuations to characterise intrinsic brain networks without external tasks.

References

1. Motor versus Psychomotor? Deciphering the Neural Source of Psychomotor Retardation in Depression. Advanced Science (2024).
2. A multi-site 99mTc-HMPAO SPECT study of cerebral blood flow in a community sample of patients with major depression. Translational Psychiatry (2024).
3. Alterations in cortical volume and complexity in Parkinson's disease with depression. CNS Neuroscience & Therapeutics (2024).
4. Cortical gyrification pattern of depression in Parkinson’s disease: a neuroimaging marker for disease severity?. Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience (2023).
5. Common and distinct roles of amygdala subregional functional connectivity in non-motor symptoms of Parkinson’s disease. npj Parkinson's Disease (2023).
6. Altered Cerebellar Functional Connectivity with Intrinsic Connectivity Networks in Adults with Major Depressive Disorder. PLOS ONE (2012).
7. Altered Resting-State Brain Activity and Connectivity in Depressed Parkinson’s Disease. PLOS ONE (2015).