Brain Markers of Depression Vulnerability: the Case of Prefrontal Haemodynamic Response

Study Results

Results pending

The study team has not published outcome measurements, participant flow, or safety data for this trial yet. Check back later for updates.

Basic Information

Get a concise snapshot of the trial, including recruitment status, study phase, enrollment targets, and key timeline milestones.

Recruitment Status

COMPLETED

Total Enrollment

90 participants

Study Classification

OBSERVATIONAL

Study Start Date

2021-08-01

Study Completion Date

2024-11-29

Brief Summary

Review the sponsor-provided synopsis that highlights what the study is about and why it is being conducted.

Functional near infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) offers a cheap and reliable tool to investigate prefrontal brain activation in the healthy and diseased human brain. As such, fNIRS bears great potential as a diagnostic tool for clinical practice. Research indicates that fNIRS, together with a relatively simple task to activate the prefrontal cortex, the so-called verbal fluency task (VFT), elucidates prefrontal dysfunction in major depressive disorder (MDD). This finding can potentially serve as an imaging marker for disease pathology, even when depressive symptoms are absent. Indeed, recent research also suggests prefrontal dysfunction in fully remitted MDD (rMDD). Prefrontal haemodynamic responses may therefore serve as a trait marker for MDD vulnerability.

This study aims to investigate the haemodynamic response in rMDD, healthy participants with increased MDD risk (HCr; having a 1st-degree relative with MDD), and low-risk healthy participants (HCnr; having no 1st-degree relatives with MDD) using fNIRS. The investigators hypothesize lower prefrontal reactivity in HCr compared to HCnr, and lowest prefrontal reactivity in rMDD compared to HCnr.

This study has the potential to elucidate the neuronal underpinnings of depression vulnerability in the absence of symptoms that are sometimes considered a confounding factor when it comes to studying the biological encoding of depression.

Related Clinical Trials

Explore similar clinical trials based on study characteristics and research focus.

Identifying Cerebral Hemodynamic Patterns in Mood Disorders and Mild Cognitive Impairment: A Functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy (fNIRS) Study

NCT06897670

Major Depressive Disorder Bipolar Disorder Mild Cognitive Impairment

RECRUITING

fMRI and NIRS Imaging for Traumatic Brain Injury

NCT01668758

Cognition Disorder Functional Brain Imaging

WITHDRAWN

Multicenter Comparative Study of the Activity of the Medial Prefrontal Cortex in Vulnerability to Depression

NCT02171923

Major Depression

COMPLETED

Detection of Hemodynamic Changes in TBI Population With Functional Near Infrared Spectroscopy

NCT01797549

Traumatic Brain Injury

COMPLETED

Neuroimaging Study for Decoding Emotional States and Identifying Neural Circuits to Disengage From Negative Thinking

NCT06254144

Depressive Disorder, Major

ENROLLING_BY_INVITATION

Detailed Description

Dive into the extended narrative that explains the scientific background, objectives, and procedures in greater depth.

Healthy participants with a high risk of MDD (HCr), healthy participants with a low risk of MDD (HCnr) and rMDD participants will be included in this study.

Prefrontal haemodynamic response will be measured in all participants during the verbal fluency test (VFT) using 52 channels fNIRS. The VFT involves two neural conditions, one positive condition, and one negative condition.

Both the neuroimage change and the behavioral outcomes of VFT will be compared within-group and among groups. The correlation between the neuroimage change and the behavioral outcomes will be analyzed as well.

Conditions

See the medical conditions and disease areas that this research is targeting or investigating.

Depression

Study Design

Understand how the trial is structured, including allocation methods, masking strategies, primary purpose, and other design elements.

Observational Model Type

CASE_CONTROL

Study Time Perspective

CROSS_SECTIONAL

* Mini-mental state examination (MMSE) \> 24

Exclusion Criteria

* Current diagnosis of psychiatric disorders, such as depression, anxiety, schizophrenia, or autism
* current or past diagnosis of neurological disorders, such as head injuries, strokes, encephalitis, epilepsy, Parkinson's, or Alzheimer's

Minimum Eligible Age

18 Years

Maximum Eligible Age

35 Years

Eligible Sex

ALL

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Yes