儿童大脑认知功能的神经影像技术应用——以抑郁症功能磁共振研究为例

Application of neuroimaging in pediatric brain cognitive function:Using functional magnetic resonance imaging to explore the cognitive neural mechanism of children with depression

功能磁共振成像是小儿脑认知功能研究最重要的技术手段之一,也是精神影像学领域的重要研究方法。儿童抑郁障碍是当今儿童最普遍的心理疾病之一。越来越多的研究者认为,儿童抑郁症有其特定的神经生理基础。采用基于认知任务的功能磁共振研究发现,儿童抑郁症患者在认知、情绪和奖赏等加工过程出现异常,涉及杏仁核、前扣带回、前额叶和眶额叶等认知相关的核心脑区。将来的研究将根据儿童心理发育特点,选择合适的脑功能测评方法,针对抑郁症高风险儿童,开展儿童抑郁症系统性预防研究,为寻找早期预警的影像学和心理学标记,以制定干预方法提供实验证据。

Functional magnetic resonance imaging （fMRI） is one of the most important technologies in pediatric brain cognitive function research; it is also an important method in the field of psycho-radiology which aims to study the abnormalities of neural basis in the patients with mental disorders. Pediatric depression is one of the most common mental disorders in children. It is thought frequently that the children with major depressive disorder （MDD） have their specific neural and physiological basis. Based on the findings from the task state fMRI studies, children with MDD demonstrated impairment in the cognitive, emotional and social cognitive functions. And the pediatric MDD shows alteration in the key brain areas in- volved in the cognitive, affective and rewared processing, including the amygdala, anterior cingulate, prefrontal and orbito- frontal cortex. The future research should consider the psychological development of children in the selection of the appropriate cognitive and affective task or paradigm to explore the brain function of the pediatric MDD. For children at high risk of depression, we should carry out systematic preventive research to provide experimental evidence for neuroimaging and psychological markers of early warning and for the development of early intervention methods.