Alterations of Interhemispheric Functional Connectivity in Parkinson's Disease With Depression: A Resting-State Functional MRI Study

Background Depression is the most common non-motor symptom in patients with Parkinson's disease (PD) with unknown mechanisms, but the diagnostic criteria of PD with depression (PDD) are not uniform. Purpose The aim of the study was to investigate interhemispheric interactions between PDD patients and patients with PD without depression (PDND). Methods The voxel-mirrored homotopic connectivity (VMHC) combined with the seed-based method was used to investigate intrinsic resting-state functional connectivity (RSFC) in 33 PDD patients, 60 PDND, and 47 healthy controls (HCs). Results PDD patients exhibited a decreased VMHC in the bilateral medial frontal gyrus and paracentral lobule (MFG/PCL) than did PDND patients. Parkinson's disease with depression had a decreased VMHC in the bilateral precentral gyrus than had PDND and HC (p< 0.05). Parkinson's disease with depression had a decreased homotopic RSFC from the medial frontal gyrus (MFG)/PCL to the contralateral supplementary motor area (SMA) than had PDND (p< 0.05). The decreased homotopic RSFC from the right MFG/PCL to the left SMA was negatively correlated with Hamilton Depression Rating Scale scores (p< 0.05), but not with illness duration, Beck's Depression Inventory, and Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale in PD patients. Conclusions Our findings indicated that the occurrence of depression in Parkinson's disease is associated with the dysfunctional connectivity from the MFG/PCL to the contralateral SMA, which could be used as potential neuroimaging markers for the diagnosis of depression in PD patients.