Abstract #1225

White Matter Structural Changes in High-Risk Major Depressive Disorder Youths Detected by Diffusion Tensor Images

Hao Huang^1,2, 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.