Hostname: page-component-77f85d65b8-grvzd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2026-03-26T17:32:41.559Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Modulation of the functional connectome in major depressive disorder by ketamine therapy

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 December 2020

Ashish K. Sahib*
Affiliation:
Department of Neurology, Ahmanson-Lovelace Brain Mapping Center, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, USA
Joana R. Loureiro
Affiliation:
Department of Neurology, Ahmanson-Lovelace Brain Mapping Center, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, USA
Megha Vasavada
Affiliation:
Department of Neurology, Ahmanson-Lovelace Brain Mapping Center, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, USA
Cole Anderson
Affiliation:
Department of Neurology, Ahmanson-Lovelace Brain Mapping Center, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, USA
Antoni Kubicki
Affiliation:
Department of Neurology, Ahmanson-Lovelace Brain Mapping Center, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, USA
Benjamin Wade
Affiliation:
Department of Neurology, Ahmanson-Lovelace Brain Mapping Center, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, USA
Shantanu H. Joshi
Affiliation:
Department of Neurology, Ahmanson-Lovelace Brain Mapping Center, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, USA
Roger P. Woods
Affiliation:
Department of Neurology, Ahmanson-Lovelace Brain Mapping Center, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, USA Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, USA
Eliza Congdon
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, USA
Randall Espinoza
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, USA
Katherine L. Narr
Affiliation:
Department of Neurology, Ahmanson-Lovelace Brain Mapping Center, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, USA Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, USA
*
Author for correspondence: Ashish K. Sahib, E-mail: asahib@g.ucla.edu
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Background

Subanesthetic ketamine infusion therapy can produce fast-acting antidepressant effects in patients with major depression. How single and repeated ketamine treatment modulates the whole-brain functional connectome to affect clinical outcomes remains uncharacterized.

Methods

Data-driven whole brain functional connectivity (FC) analysis was used to identify the functional connections modified by ketamine treatment in patients with major depressive disorder (MDD). MDD patients (N = 61, mean age = 38, 19 women) completed baseline resting-state (RS) functional magnetic resonance imaging and depression symptom scales. Of these patients, n = 48 and n = 51, completed the same assessments 24 h after receiving one and four 0.5 mg/kg intravenous ketamine infusions. Healthy controls (HC) (n = 40, 24 women) completed baseline assessments with no intervention. Analysis of RS FC addressed effects of diagnosis, time, and remitter status.

Results

Significant differences (p < 0.05, corrected) in RS FC were observed between HC and MDD at baseline in the somatomotor network and between association and default mode networks. These disruptions in FC in MDD patients trended toward control patterns with ketamine treatment. Furthermore, following serial ketamine infusions, significant decreases in FC were observed between the cerebellum and salience network (SN) (p < 0.05, corrected). Patient remitters showed increased FC between the cerebellum and the striatum prior to treatment that decreased following treatment, whereas non-remitters showed the opposite pattern.

Conclusion

Results support that ketamine treatment leads to neurofunctional plasticity between distinct neural networks that are shown as disrupted in MDD patients. Cortico-striatal-cerebellar loops that encompass the SN could be a potential biomarker for ketamine treatment.

Information

Type
Original Article
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BY
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2020. Published by Cambridge University Press
Figure 0

Fig. 1. (a) Study design illustrating the timing of MRI sessions and clinical assessments relative to ketamine infusions. (b) Processing pipeline to generate the RS functional connectome. High-dimensional group-ICA and network modeling were performed using FSL-MELODIC and FSLNETS tools. z statistics for the full correlation (below the diagonal) and partial correlation (above the diagonal) were computed for the 172 identified nodes. The nodes were reordered according to a hierarchical clustering of the full correlation matrix. The transformed partial correlations were then arranged in the form of a network matrix (netmat), which was used to perform three main analysis: cross-sectional comparisons of HC and MDD at baseline (TP1), longitudinal comparisons of change between baseline and end of serial treatment in patients (TP1 v. TP3), and comparison of changes between treatment remitters v. non-remitters.

Figure 1

Table 1. Patient demographic and clinical information

Figure 2

Fig. 2. Cross-sectional effects: controls v. MDD. (a) FC between nodes in the SMN is significantly lower in MDD as compared to controls; node 45: premotor cortex, Brodmann area (BA) 6; node 44: primary motor cortex, BA 4a. (b) FC between association and visual network is significantly higher in MDD as compared to controls; node 25: temporal lobe; node 14: visual cortex V1 BA 17. (c) FC between the visual and DMN is significantly higher in MDD as compared to controls; node 5: visual cortex (V1, V2, V3); node 1: right DMN. The color of the diamond connecting the two nodes represents the sign of the group average (patients + HC at TP1) partial correlation (orange: positive, blue: negative). All images are thresholded at z > 8 for visualization. Bar plots show the mean FC for each of the significant (p < 0.05, FWE-corrected across the netmat) networks for HC and MDD patients at TP1, TP2 and TP3 (*p < 0.05).

Figure 3

Fig. 3. Effect of ketamine treatment after fourth infusion (TP1 v. TP3). The FC between the cerebellum and the SN was positively correlated and significantly reduced with ketamine treatment; node 49: cerebellar lobule VI; node 32: secondary somatosensory cortex and insula. The color of the diamond connecting the two nodes represents the sign of the group average (patients + HC at TP1) partial correlation (orange: positive, blue: negative). All images are thresholded at z > 8 for visualization. Bar plots show the mean FC between these nodes for HC and MDD at TP1, TP2 and TP3 (*p < 0.05).

Figure 4

Fig. 4. Distinct RS connections representing the difference between change in FC (TP1–TP3) for remitters and non-remitters. (a) The FC between the cerebellum node and the node in the striatum along with insula showed the largest change in FC between remitters and non-remitters: node 69: cerebellar left crus 1; node 126: left putamen and insula. The color of the diamond connecting the two nodes represents the sign of the group average (patients + HC at TP1) partial correlation (orange: positive, blue: negative). All images are thresholded at z > 8 for visualization. (b) Bar plots show the mean FC between these nodes for HC, remitters and non-remitters at TP1, TP2 and TP3 (*p < 0.05). (c) ΔFC (TP1–TP3) between the cerebellum and striatum showed a significant positive relationship with %HDRS change (TP1–TP3). (d) Baseline (TP1) FC between the cerebellum and the striatum showed a significant positive relationship with %HDRS change (TP1–TP3).

Supplementary material: File

Sahib et al. supplementary material

Sahib et al. supplementary material

Download Sahib et al. supplementary material(File)
File 8.6 MB