Fig 1.
The habenula of an HC (left panel) and MDD patient (right panel). (a) axial MPRAGE, (b) axial view in ME-MP2RAGE T1 maps, and (c) coronal view in ME-MP2RAGE T1 maps. Compared to the surrounding tissues, the habenula has a brighter signal on the MPRAGE image and darker signal on the ME-MP2RAGE T1 map image. Overall, the contrast on the ME-MP2RAGE T1 map image is greater than that on the MPRAGE image. The yellow arrow points to the habenula, and the boundaries of the habenula are indicated by the yellow dotted line. Abbreviations: HC, healthy control; MDD, major depressive disorder; ME-MP2RAGE, multi-echo magnetization-prepared 2 rapid gradient echoes; MPRAGE, magnetization-prepared rapid gradient echo.
Fig 2.
The right and left overlapping habenula in an (a) HC and (b) MDD patient on an axial ME-MP2RAGE T1 map segmented by Examiner #1 and Examiner #2. Red, blue, and green indicate the voxels segmented by Examiner #1, Examiner #2, and the overlap of voxels identified by both examiners, respectively. Abbreviations: R, right; L, left; HC, healthy control; MDD, major depressive disorder; ME-MP2RAGE, multi-echo magnetization-prepared 2 rapid gradient echoes.
Table 1.
Demographic and clinical characteristics of the MDD and HC groups.
Fig 3.
Scatter plot with the mean and standard deviation of the volume and T1 value of the right and left habenula in each group.
Volumes or T1 value of the hemispheric habenula (Y axis) for the diagnostic groups (X axis). The graph plots the individual data points with a horizontal line superimposed at the mean and error bars showing plus and minus one SD of each group. We drew red lines between the combinations that differed significantly and marked them with an asterisk (*). Please note the smaller right habenula volume in the MDD group than the left habenula volume in the MDD group and those of the right and left habenula in HCs. Also, note that the T1 value in both the HC and MDD groups is lower in the right habenula than in the left. Abbreviations: Rt, right; Lt, left; HC, healthy control; MDD, major depressive disorder; SD, standard deviation.
Table 2.
Comparison of the normalized habenula volume between the MDD and HC groups, controlling for potential confounders.
Table 3.
Comparison of the volume and T1 value between right and left habenula segmented by both examiners between each group.
Table 4.
Factors associated with whole habenula volume in the MDD group.