Differences in optimal community structure in brain connectivity organization in major depressive disorder

We analyzed fMRI data from healthy control subjects (94 subjects) and patients with major depressive episode (70 patients). The preprocessed activity signals extracted with statistical parametric mapping from fMRI were divided into parcellations according to the anatomical labeling atlas. Our findings indicate that patients with major depressive disorder exhibit network organization that is both less locally specialized and less globally integrated. Specifically, our research reveals differences in network segregation rather than integration in patients. The discrepancies between our results and previous studies may be attributed to differences in methodology, depression diversity, sample sizes, and co-occurring factors such as stress and anxiety.