Lina Huang: Department of Radiology, The Third Affiliated Hospital of Soochow University, Changzhou, Jiangsu, China; Department of Radiology, Changshu Hospital Affiliated to Xuzhou Medical University, Jiangsu, China.
Guofeng Huang: School of Information and Electronics Technology, Jiamusi University, Jiamusi, Heilongjian, China.
Qingguo Ding: Department of Radiology, Changshu Hospital Affiliated to Xuzhou Medical University, Jiangsu, China.
Pei Liang: Department of Radiology, Changshu Hospital Affiliated to Xuzhou Medical University, Jiangsu, China; Department of Psychology, Faculty of Education, Hubei University, Wuhan, Hubei, China.
Chunhong Hu: Department of Radiology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Soochow University, Soochow, Jiangsu, Chna.
Hongqiang Zhang: Department of Radiology, Changshu Hospital Affiliated to Xuzhou Medical University, Jiangsu, China.
Linlin Zhan: School of Western Language, Heilongjiang University, Heilongjiang, China.
Qianqian Wang: School of Teacher Education, Zhejiang Normal University, Jinhua, Zhejiang, China.
Yikang Cao: School of Computer Science and Technology, Jiamusi University, Jiamusi, Heilongjiang, China.
Jun Zhang: Department of Psychiatry, Changshu Third People's Hospital, Changshu, Jiangsu, China.
Wenbin Shen: Department of Radiology, Changshu Hospital Affiliated to Xuzhou Medical University, Jiangsu, China.
Xize Jia: Center for Cognition and Brain Disorders, Institutes of Psychological Sciences, Hangzhou Normal University, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China.
Wei Xing: Department of Radiology, The Third Affiliated Hospital of Soochow University, Changzhou, Jiangsu, China. Electronic address: suzhxingwei@suda.edu.cn.
BACKGROUND: Physical exercise has been proved to reduce the risk of major depression in Subthreshold depression (StD) individuals effectively, yet little is known about the spontaneous brain activity changes associated with physical exercise. METHODS: A total of 70 adult subjects, including 38 StD and 32 healthy control (HC) subjects, underwent a resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rs-fMRI) before and after eight-week aerobic exercise respectively. Then, the amplitude of low-frequency fluctuation (ALFF) alterations between the two groups were quantitatively analyzed. RESULTS: Before exercise intervention, the rs-fMRI data showed increased ALFF of the right putamen in the StD group compared with HC group. After exercise intervention, there was no significant ALFF change observed between the StD and HC groups. The longitudinal ALFF differences from pre- to post- exercise intervention showed significantly decreased ALFF in the right middle and inferior occipital gyrus, right middle and inferior temporal gyrus, right fusiform gyrus (FG), while increased ALFF in the right middle cingulate, right superior parietal louble, right inferior parietal lobule (IPL) (inferior parietal gyrus and supramarginal gyrus), and bilateral precuneus in the StD group. As for HC group, the results showed that decreased ALFF in the right FG and right parahippocampus, while increased ALFF in the right precuneus, right middle cingulate, right supplementary motor area, right superior parietal lobule and right paracentral lobule in the HC group. No significant correlation between changes of ALFF and clinical scale scores in the StD group. LIMITATIONS: The definitions of StD are varied in terms of different studies, the final sample size was relatively small, and the age range of the subjects in this study was narrow. Meanwhile, the exercise intervention trial was short-term. CONCLUSIONS: These results further support the standpoint that physical exercise has the potential to reshape the abnormal patterns of spontaneous brain activity in adults with StD.
