Wu Li1, Jiangtao Liu2, Jie Tian1, Yijun Liu3, Kuncheng Li2
1Institute of Automation, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China; 2Xuanwu Hospital, Capital Medical University; 3McKnight Brain Institute, University of Florida
The neural basis of depression in Parkinsons disease (PD) remains unclear. We aim to investigate diffusion changes in thalamus and subthalamus nucleus (STN) in PD patients with depression using DT-MRI. Voxel-based analysis was conducted in the regions of thalamus and STN among depressed PD (DPD) patients, non-depressed PD (NDPD) patients and healthy controls. Decreased fractional anisotropy was found in mediodorsal thalamus as well in the STN in DPD patients; while in NDPD patients, the decrease was found only in STN. Our results suggest the thalamic role and provide an explanation for the high percentage of depression in PD patients.