Brain Microstructural Alterations of Depression in Parkinson's Disease: A Systematic Review of Diffusion Tensor Imaging Studies Publisher Pubmed



Salehi MA¹ ; Mohammadi S¹ ; Gouravani M¹ ; Javidi A¹ ; Dager SR² Show Affiliations
Source: Human Brain Mapping Published:2022

Abstract

Depression, a leading cause of disability worldwide, is also the most prevalent psychiatric problem among Parkinson disease patients. Both depression and Parkinson disease are associated with microstructural anomalies in the brain. Diffusion tensor imaging techniques have been developed to characterize the abnormalities in cerebral tissue. We included 11 studies investigating brain microstructural abnormalities in depressed Parkinson's disease patients. The included studies found alterations to essential brain structural networks, including impaired network integrity for specific cortical regions, such as the temporal and frontal cortices. Additionally, findings indicate that microstructural changes in specific limbic structures, such as the prefronto-temporal regions and connecting white matter pathways, are altered in depressed Parkinson's disease compared to non-depressed Parkinson's disease and healthy controls. There remain inconsistencies between studies reporting DTI measures and depression severity in Parkinson disease participants. Additional research evaluating underlying neurobiological relationships between major depression, depressed Parkinson's disease, and non-depressed Parkinson's disease is required to disentangle further mechanisms that underlie depression and related somatic symptoms, in Parkinson disease. © 2022 The Authors. Human Brain Mapping published by Wiley Periodicals LLC.