Dorsolateral prefrontal activation in depressed young adults with and without suicidal ideation during an emotional autobiographical memory task: A fNIRS study

Previous studies have proved that there is a strong association between dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and mood symptoms. This study aimed at using functional near-infrared spectroscopy technology to invest brain activity in dlPFC of depressed individuals with and without suicidal ideation during emotional autobiographical memory test, and to understand their differences in brain cognitive mechanisms. It is helpful to improve our ability to predict and subsequently to prevent suicide. 85 young adults participated in the study by a simple random sampling method, with health control (34participants), depression with suicidal ideation (17participants), and depression without suicidal ideation (34participants). The average oxyhemoglobin in dlPFC of subjects during EAMT was collected by a 53-channel fNIRS imaging device. A marginal significant difference was found between three groups in left dlPFC and right dlPFC. Post hoc analysis revealed that: (1) under negative emotion, depression without suicidal ideation group had higher activation than healthy control group in left dlPFC. (2) under positive emotion, depression with suicidal ideation group had lower activation than healthy control in right dlPFC. Results indicated that the depressed individuals with suicidal ideation had some deficits in executive function in right dlPFC, while the depressed adults without suicidal ideation may have mechanism of resource compensatory recruitment in left dlPFC and the dlPFC abnormality involved in the pathophysiology, may localize within left hemisphere. The depressed individuals with and without suicidal ideation had the different mechanisms in dlPFC and fNIRS can be a neuroimaging biomarker characterizing or predicting suicidality in depressed individuals. • The depressed individuals with suicidal ideation had some deficits in executive function in right dlPFC. • The depressed adults without suicidal ideation may have mechanism of resource compensatory recruitment in left dlPFC and the dlPFC abnormality involved in the pathophysiologym may localize within left hemisphere. • The depressed individuals with and without suicidal ideation had the different mechanisms in dlPFC and fNIRS can be a neuroimaging biomarker characterizing or predicting suicidality in depressed individuals.