Automatic assessment of somatic depressive symptoms from physiological signals
| Project/Area Number |
20K16627
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| Research Category |
Grant-in-Aid for Early-Career Scientists
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| Allocation Type | Multi-year Fund |
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| Review Section |
Basic Section 52030:Psychiatry-related
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| Research Institution | Hiroshima University |
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Principal Investigator |
CHAN HUILING 広島大学, 脳・こころ・感性科学研究センター, 特任助教 (80867979)
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| Project Period (FY) |
2020-04-01 – 2024-03-31
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| Project Status |
Granted (Fiscal Year 2020)
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| Budget Amount *help |
¥3,250,000 (Direct Cost: ¥2,500,000、Indirect Cost: ¥750,000)
Fiscal Year 2021: ¥1,170,000 (Direct Cost: ¥900,000、Indirect Cost: ¥270,000)
Fiscal Year 2020: ¥2,080,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,600,000、Indirect Cost: ¥480,000)
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| Keywords | Major depression / Heart rate variability / Functional connectivity / Somatic symptoms / Interoception / Autonomic regulation / Biomarker / Photoplethysmogram (PPG) / major depression / photoplethysmogram (PPG) / fMRI / interoception / biomarker |
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| Outline of Research at the Start |
We will investigate whether brain activity, pulse, and respiratory signals can be used as biomarkers of somatic depressive symptoms, such as fatigue and insomnia, in healthy participants and major depressive patients. It may support early identification of people at risk of developing depression.
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| Outline of Annual Research Achievements |
To develop strategies for early prevention of MDD, it is crucial to identify biomarkers for depressive state and uncover the development model of MDD. Somatic depressive symptoms and the alterations of structure and functions in insula, the key region of brain interoceptive network (BIN), were reported as predictors of later development of MDD. However, it remained unclear whether the abnormalities of autonomic regulation and interoception are linked to the alterations of BIN in MDD. This two-year project aims to develop biomarkers for assessment of somatic symptoms and investigate the underlying neural mechanisms.
In the first year, the neuromarkers for somatic symptoms were identified from magnetic resonance imaging data and linked to the abnormal cardiac autonomic regulation. The volume of 12 BIN regions including the cingulate, orbital frontal cortex, insula, and hippocampus were negatively correlated with somatic depressive symptoms. Among the 66 functional connectivity (FCs), a combination of 28 FCs achieved the highest prediction accuracy (correlation=0.805, p<0.01). Among them, 4 FCs between insula and anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) were significantly lower in MDD patients than in HC. Moreover, the reduced connectivity was correlated with decreased variability in inter-beat interval and decreased cardiac sympathetic and parasympathetic activity. The results suggest that alterations in the structure and function of the insula and ACC may underlie the somatic and autonomic abnormalities that play crucial roles in the development and remission of MDD.
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| Current Status of Research Progress |
Current Status of Research Progress
3: Progress in research has been slightly delayed.
Reason
The goal of this research includes four items: (1) develop PPG-based biomarker for assessment of somatic depressive symptoms; (2) examine whether interoceptive accuracy can improve the assessment accuracy of somatic depressive symptoms; (3) identify abnormality of neural activity associated with somatic depressive symptoms; (4) investigate whether somatic symptoms related PPG parameters are regulated through the interoceptive system.
In the first year, the third and fourth items were accomplished. Moreover, the brain anatomical data were additionally included in the analysis. We identified the link between alterations in brain structure, brain functions, and physiological activity in MDD, which supports the first half of the proposed hypothesis that abnormal autonomic physiological signals result from impaired interoceptive system functioning. However, the lockdown caused by COVID-19 slightly delayed the progress in the data analysis and thus the publications are not as planned. The results were presented in two international conferences, the CINP 2021 Virtual World Congress and the 42nd International Neuroscience Symposium of the University de Montreal. But the journal manuscript is still under preparation. The next year, the main focus will be publishing our findings of the first year in a high impact journal and then moved to (1) develop somatic symptom assessment model based on the PPG data and interoceptive performance and (2) investigate the relationship between interoception performance, autonomic regulation, and neuromarkers of somatic symptoms.
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| Strategy for Future Research Activity |
The plan for the second year is listed below:
(1) Developing PPG-based biomarker for assessment of somatic depressive symptoms using machine learning methods;
(2) Examining whether interoceptive performance can improve the assessment accuracy of somatic depressive symptoms; and then
(3) Identifying the relationship among changes of interoceptive performance, autonomic regulation, and brain functions in MDD.
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Report
(1 results)
Research Products
(2 results)
