Diurnal mood variation symptoms in major depressive disorder associated with evening chronotype: Evidence from a neuroimaging study

Oct 29, 2021Journal of affective disorders

Mood changes during the day in major depression linked to evening sleep patterns: Evidence from brain imaging

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Abstract

Patients with diurnal mood variation (DMV) scored lower on the Morningness-Eveningness Questionnaire (MEQ) compared to those without it.

Increased spontaneous neural activity was observed in the right orbital superior frontal gyrus among patients with DMV.
Functional connectivity was enhanced between the left suprachiasmatic nucleus and supramarginal gyrus in the DMV group.
Higher levels of activity in the right orbital superior frontal gyrus and increased connectivity between the SCN and SMG were negatively correlated with MEQ scores.
The findings suggest abnormal brain functions in frontal lobes for patients with DMV symptoms.

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BACKGROUND: Major depressive disorder (MDD) is often accompanied with classic diurnal mood variation (DMV) symptoms. Patients with DMV symptoms feel a mood improvement and prefer activities at dusk or in the evening, which is consistent with the evening chronotype. Their neural alterations are unclear. In this study, we aimed to explore the neuropathological mechanisms underlying the circadian rhythm of mood and the association with chronotype in MDD.

METHODS: A total of 126 depressed patients, including 48 with DMV, 78 without, and 67 age/gender-matched healthy controls (HC) were recruited and underwent a resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging. Spontaneous neural activity was investigated using amplitude of low-frequency fluctuation (ALFF) and region of interest (ROI)-based functional connectivity (FC) analyses were conducted. The Morningness-Eveningness Questionnaire (MEQ) was utilized to evaluate participant chronotypes and Pearson correlations were calculated between altered ALFF/FC values and MEQ scores in patients with MDD.

RESULTS: Compared with NMV, DMV group exhibited lower MEQ scores, and increased ALFF values in the right orbital superior frontal gyrus (oSFG). We observed that increased FC between the left suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN) and supramarginal gyrus (SMG). ALFF in the oSFG and FC of rSCN-SMG were negatively correlated with MEQ scores.

LIMITATION: Some people's chronotypes information is missing.

CONCLUSION: Patients with DMV tended to be evening type and exhibited abnormal brain functions in frontal lobes. The synergistic changes between frontotemporal lobe, SCN-SMG maybe the characteristic of patients with DMV symptoms.

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Diurnal mood variation symptoms in major depressive disorder associated with evening chronotype: Evidence from a neuroimaging study

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