Key result
Major depressive disorder was associated with significantly decreased task-related heart rate variability (RMSSD and SDANN) and altered prefrontal cortex functional connectivity during a go/no-go task compared to healthy controls.
Why the study?
To investigate the neural mechanism of interactions between autonomic nervous system and cognitive function in major depressive disorder using magnetoencephalography measurements.
Case-Control (n=38)
No
p-value: p=0.000334
Decreased task-related HRV in MDD patients is associated with inhibitory dysfunction and altered functional connectivity in the prefrontal cortex, suggesting its potential as an index of autonomic dysregulation in MDD.
Task-related HRV may index inhibitory dysfunction via PFC connectivity in MDD; leaves open clinical utility pending prospective validation.
The regulation of the autonomic nervous system (ANS) can improve cognitive function in major depressive disorders (MDD). Heart rate variability (HRV) derives from the dynamic control of the ANS and reflects the balance between the activities of the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems by measuring tiny changes in adjacent heart beats. Task-related HRV may reflect the association between the flexibility of cognition and ANS function. The study was to investigate the neural mechanism of interactions between ANS and cognitive function in MDD with Magnetoencephalography (MEG) measurements. Participants included 20 MDD patients and 18 healthy controls (HCs). All participants were measured with a go/no-go task MEG. HRV indices, the standard deviation of the average normal-to-normal (NN) interval calculated over short periods (SDANN) and the square root of the mean squared differences of successive NN intervals (RMSSD), were derived from the raw MEG data. Results showed that MDD patients showed decreased SDANN and RMSSD. In MDD patients, both resting-state and task-related RMSSD were related to inhibitory and control dysfunction. In the go/no-go task, many areas in the prefrontal cortex (PFC) are responsible for an individual's inhibitory function. A brain MEG functional connectivity analysis revealed that there were significant differences in four brain regions within the prefrontal cortex (PFC) between MDD patients and HCs. Task-related RMSSD in HCs were related to the functional connectivity between the left middle frontal gyrus and the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), while in MDD patients, these values were not related to the above functional connectivity but were related to the functional connectivity between the left middle frontal gyrus and insula. However, the resting-state RMSSD value was not related to these significant difference functional connectivity networks in all participants. It concludes that the decreased task-related HRV is associated with inhibitory dysfunction through functional inter-region connectivity in the PFC in MDD, and the task-related HRV can be used as an index of the association between MDD and autonomic dysregulation.
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Zhou et al. (2020) conducted a case-control in Major Depressive Disorder (n=38). Major Depressive Disorder vs. Healthy controls was evaluated on Task-related RMSSD (heart rate variability) (p=0.000334). Major depressive disorder was associated with significantly decreased task-related heart rate variability (RMSSD and SDANN) and altered prefrontal cortex functional connectivity during a go/no-go task compared to healthy controls.
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