Depression circuit adaptation in post-stroke depression

Lesion locations of post-stroke depression (PSD) mapped to a depression circuit which centered by the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC). However, it remains unknown whether the compensatory adaptations that may occur in this depression circuit due to the lesions in PSD. Rs-fMRI data were collected from 82 non-depressed stroke patients (Stroke), 39 PSD patients and 74 healthy controls (HC). We tested the existence of depression circuit, examined PSD-related alterations of DLPFC-seeded connectivity and their associations with depression severity, and analyzed the connectivity between each repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) target and DLPFC to find the best treatment target for PSD. We found that: 1) the left DLPFC showed significantly stronger connectivity to lesions of PSD than Stroke group; 2) in comparison to both Stroke and HC groups, PSD exhibited increased connectivity with DLPFC in bilateral lingual gyrus, contralesional superior frontal gyrus, precuneus, and middle frontal gyrus (MFG); 3) the connectivity between DLPFC and the contralesional lingual gyrus positively correlated with depression severity; 4) the rTMS target in center of MFG showed largest between-group difference in connectivity with DLPFC, and also reported the highest predicted clinical efficacy. Longitudinal studies are required to explore the alterations of depression circuit in PSD as the disease progress. PSD underwent specific alterations in depression circuit, which may help to establish objective imaging markers for early diagnosis and interventions of the disease. •Lesion locations of PSD mapped to the depression circuit centered by left DLPFC.•PSD has specific alterations of connectivity with DLPFC in depression circuit.•These alterations of connectivity were associated with the depression severity in PSD.•Center of the left MFG may be the optimal rTMS treatment target for PSD.