Association of acute depressive symptoms and functional connectivity of emotional processing regions following sport-related concussion. Neuroimage Clin 2018;19:434-442
Date
07/10/2018Pubmed ID
29984152Pubmed Central ID
PMC6029562DOI
10.1016/j.nicl.2018.05.011Scopus ID
2-s2.0-85046994091 (requires institutional sign-in at Scopus site) 19 CitationsAbstract
Acute mood disturbance following sport-related concussion is common and is known to adversely affect post-concussion symptoms and recovery. The physiological underpinnings of depressive symptoms following concussion, however, are relatively understudied. We hypothesized that functional connectivity of the emotional processing network would be altered in concussed athletes and associated with the severity of depressive symptoms following concussion. Forty-three concussed collegiate athletes were assessed at approximately one day (N = 34), one week (N = 34), and one month post-concussion (N = 30). Fifty-one healthy contact-sport athletes served as controls and completed a single visit. The Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression (HAM-D) was used to measure depressive symptoms. Resting state fMRI data was collected on a 3 T scanner (TR = 2 s) and functional connectivity was calculated in a meta-analytically derived network of regions associated with emotional processing. Concussed athletes had elevated depressive symptoms across the first month post-concussion relative to control athletes, but showed partial recovery by one month relative to more acute visits (ps < 0.05). Concussed athletes had significantly different connectivity in regions associated with emotional processing at one month post-concussion relative to one day post-concussion (p = 0.002) and relative to controls (p = 0.003), with higher connectivity between default mode and attention regions being common across analyses. Additionally, depressive symptoms in concussed athletes at one day (p = 0.003) and one week post-concussion (p = 7 × 10-8) were inversely correlated with connectivity between attention (e.g., right anterior insula) and default mode regions (e.g., medial prefrontal cortex). Finally, the relationships with HAM-D scores were not driven by a general increase in somatic complaints captured by the HAM-D, but were strongly associated with mood-specific HAM-D items. These results suggest that connectivity of emotional processing regions is associated with acute mood disturbance following sport-related concussion. Increased connectivity between attention and default mode regions may reflect compensatory mechanisms.
Author List
McCuddy WT, España LY, Nelson LD, Birn RM, Mayer AR, Meier TBAuthors
Timothy B. Meier PhD Associate Professor in the Neurosurgery department at Medical College of WisconsinLindsay D. Nelson PhD Associate Professor in the Neurosurgery department at Medical College of Wisconsin
MESH terms used to index this publication - Major topics in bold
AdolescentAdult
Athletic Injuries
Brain
Brain Concussion
Depression
Emotions
Female
Humans
Magnetic Resonance Imaging
Male
Post-Concussion Syndrome
Sports
Students
Young Adult
