Association of spatiotemporal interaction of gamma oscillations with heart rate variability during response inhibition processing in patients with major depressive disorder: An MEG study.

BACKGROUND

Impairment in response inhibition function is highly prevalent in patients with major depressive disorder (MDD), yet the spatiotemporal neural activity underlying response inhibition and its relationship with the autonomic nervous system (ANS) remains unclear.

METHODS

35 MDD participants and 35 healthy controls (HC) were included with magnetoencephalography (MEG) and electrocardiogram (ECG) data collecting during a go/no-go task. Heart rate variability (HRV) indices were calculated from the ECG data. Differences in functional connectivity (FC) of gamma oscillations (60-90 Hz) between 0-200 ms, 200-400 ms, and 400-600 ms in the two groups after no-go stimuli were analyzed, and the correlation between FC and HRV indices was examined.

RESULTS

The MDD group exhibited poorer task performance and lower HRV indices than the HC group. During the 200-400 ms period, compared to the HC group, the MDD group exhibited decreased FC between the left inferior frontal gyrus (opercular part) and right temporal pole (middle temporal gyrus) (t = 3.62, p < 0.05), and increased FC between the right superior frontal gyrus (orbital part) and right superior occipital gyrus (t = 3.68, p < 0.05). Additionally, a significant positive correlation was found between FC of the left inferior frontal gyrus (opercular part) and right middle temporal gyrus (temporal pole) and the HRV index RMSSD in the MDD group (r = 0.491, p < 0.05).

CONCLUSION

Abnormal spatiotemporal interactions in gamma oscillations related to response inhibition are observed in MDD patients and abnormal gamma oscillations showed task-dependent covariation with ANS indices, suggesting their potential interplay in MDD pathophysiology.