Hao Huang1,2, Xin Fan1, Anup Bidesi3, Uma Rao3
1Advanced Imaging Research Center, UT Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, TX, USA; 2Department of Radiology, UT Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, TX, USA; 3Psychiatry, UT Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, TX, USA
More evidence suggests that depression can result in structural changes of human brain. DTI-derived parameter, fractional anisotropy (FA), is sensitive to the white matter structural changes caused by abnormalities. In this ongoing study, we hypothesize that the structural abnormalities can be detected in youths with high-risk major depressive disorder (MDD). Tract-based spatial statistics (TBSS) was used to detect the locations with statistically low FA values in the high-risk MDD group. Superior longitudinal fasciclus (SLF) on both sides of the brain, left uncinate fasciculus (UNC), right hippocampal part of cingulum (CGH) are among the tracts which are most affected.