Abnormal caudate nucleus activity in patients with depressive disorder: Meta-analysis of task-based functional magnetic resonance imaging studies with behavioral domain.

• The hypoactivation within the caudate nucleus in patients with depression was largely located in the body and head of the bilateral caudate nuclei. • The hyperactivation within the caudate nucleus was concentrated in the left body of the caudate nucleus. • There is a positive relationship between decreased activation of the caudate body and head and depressed emotional behaviors in patients with depressive disorder. • In the cognition domain, abnormal activation was centered in the right body of the caudate nucleus. During task-based functional magnetic resonance imaging (t-fMRI) patients with depressive disorder (DD) have shown abnormal caudate nucleus activation. There have been no meta-analyses that are conducted on the caudate nucleus using Activation Likelihood Estimation (ALE) in patients with DD, and the relationships between abnormal caudate activity and different behavior domains in patients with DD remain unclear. There were 24 previously published t-fMRI studies included in the study with the caudate nucleus as the region of interest. Meta-analyses were performed using the method of ALE. Included five ALE meta-analyses: (1) the hypoactivated caudate nucleus relative to healthy controls (HCs); (2) the hyper-activated caudate nucleus; (3) the abnormal activation in the caudate nucleus in the emotion domain; (4) the abnormal activation in cognition domain; (5) the abnormal activation in the affective cognition domain. Results revealed that the hypo-/hyper-activity in the caudate subregions is mainly located in the caudate body and head, while the relationships between abnormal caudate subregions and different behavior domains are complex. The hypoactivation of the caudate body and head plays a key role in the emotions which indicates there is a positive relationship between the decreased caudate activity and depressed emotional behaviors in patients with DD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]