The salience network in the apathy of late‐life depression
Open accessAbstract
Objective: Apathy is prevalent in late‐life depression and predicts poor response to antidepressants, chronicity of depression, disability, and greater burden to caregivers. However, little is known about its neurobiology. Salience processing provides motivational context to stimuli. The aim of this study was to examine the salience network (SN) resting‐state functional connectivity (rsFC) pattern in elderly depressed subjects with and without apathy. Methods: Resting‐state functional MRI data were collected from 16 non‐demented, non‐MCI, elderly depressed subjects and 10 normal elderly subjects who were psychotropic‐free for at least 2 weeks. The depressed group included 7 elderly, depressed subjects with high comorbid apathy and 9 with low apathy. We analyzed the rsFC patterns of the right anterior insular cortex (rAI), a primary node of the SN. Results: Relative to non‐apathetic depressed elderly, depressed elderly subjects with high apathy had decreased rsFC of the rAI to dorsal anterior cingulate and to subcortical/limbic components of the SN. Depressed elderly subjects with high apathy also exhibited increased rsFC of the rAI to right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and right posterior cingulate cortex when compared to non‐apathetic depressed elderly. Conclusions: Elderly depressed subjects with high apathy display decreased intrinsic rsFC of the SN and an altered pattern of SN rsFC to the right DLPFC node of the central executive network when compared to elderly non‐apathetic depressed and normal, elderly subjects. These results suggest a unique biological signature of the apathy of late‐life depression and may implicate a role for the rAI and SN in motivated behavior. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
Compared to healthy individuals, depressed patients show reduced connectivity between anterior insula and other nodes of the SN.
“For instance, compared to healthy individuals, depressed patients show reduced connectivity between anterior insula and other nodes of the SN (Yuen et al., 2014).”
From Distinct functional connectivities predict clinical response with emotion regulation therapy (2017) · cites this paper as Yuen et al., 2014
The Results (Functional connectivity with Right Anterior Insula seed) report decreased intrinsic salience-network connectivity in apathetic depressed elders compared with normal elderly subjects. They also report that non-apathetic depressed subjects were indistinguishable from normal subjects on this measure. The claim omits the apathy and late-life qualifications and overgeneralizes the finding to depressed patients as a whole. (LLM, conf=0.91)
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredNeuroimaging studies support the contention that disorders such as GAD and MDD are associated with SN abnormalities.
“Neuroimaging studies support the contention that disorders such as GAD and MDD are associated with SN abnormalities.”
From Distinct functional connectivities predict clinical response with emotion regulation therapy (2017) · cites this paper as Yuen et al., 2014
The Discussion reports altered salience-network connectivity in depressed elderly participants, supporting the MDD portion of the claim in that population. The paper does not report a finding about generalized anxiety disorder (GAD); its imaging comparisons concern depressed and psychiatrically normal elderly participants. (LLM, conf=0.88)
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredTask-based studies with MDD and GAD patients consistently show hyperactivity of the anterior insula often accompanied by increased connectivity with nodes of DN including the PCC.
“Consistent with the predictions of Paulus and Stein (2010), task-based studies with MDD and GAD patients consistently show hyperactivity of the anterior insula often accompanied by increased connectivity with nodes of DN including the PCC (e.g., Paulus and Stein, 2010; Hamilton et al., 2013; Yuen et al., 2014).”
From Distinct functional connectivities predict clinical response with emotion regulation therapy (2017) · cites this paper as Yuen et al., 2014
The Results (Functional connectivity with Right Anterior Insula seed; page not available) report increased resting-state connectivity between the right anterior insula and posterior cingulate cortex/precuneus in depressed elderly patients. The study examined resting-state connectivity, not task-based anterior-insula hyperactivity, and its participants did not include a GAD group. (LLM, conf=0.87)
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredResearch has identified three main functional networks-cognitive control, default mode, and salience-in older depressed patients and in other psychiatric conditions.
“Converging evidence has identified three prominent functional networks in geriatric depression and other psychiatric illnesses11, 20, 21.”
From State of the Science of Neural Systems in Late‐Life Depression: Impact on Clinical Presentation and Treatment Outcome (2018) · cites this paper as [21]
Key symptoms of late-life depression track with lower cognitive control network activity and overactivity in salience and default mode networks.
“prominent symptoms of LLD are associated with decreased activity in the CCN (executive dysfunction) and hyperactivity in the SN and DMN (emotional arousal, rumination, apathy, negativity bias)11, 21.”
From State of the Science of Neural Systems in Late‐Life Depression: Impact on Clinical Presentation and Treatment Outcome (2018) · cites this paper as [21]
Self-check
Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.
The self-check needs the paper’s full text.
The citation lists haven’t been fetched yet
References 52 · Cited by 129
- Authors
- Yuen, G. S., Gunning‐Dixon, F. M., Hoptman, M. J., AbdelMalak, B., McGovern, A. R., Seirup, J. K., & Alexopoulos, G. S.
- Affiliations
- Cornell University (US)
- Nathan Kline Institute for Psychiatric Research (US)
- Corresponding author
- Yuen, Genevieve S.
- Venue
- International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry
- Publisher
- Wiley
- Published
- 2014-07-03
- Volume
- 29
- Issue
- 11
- Pages
- 1116-1124
- ISSN
- 0885-6230 (ISSN-L)
- 1099-1166
- PMC
- PMC4197060
- OpenAlex
- W1906624879
- Cited by
- 129
- References
- 52
- Citations by year
- 2026: 4 · 2025: 10 · 2024: 9 · 2023: 16 · 2022: 10 · 2021: 35 · 2020: 7 · 2019: 10 · 2018: 4 · 2017: 8 · 2016: 7 · 2015: 9
- FWCI
- 4.46
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Locations
- International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (acceptedVersion)
- PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
- Funders
- National Institute of Mental Health (R01 MH079414, P030 MH085943, T32 MH019132, K23 MH74818, R01 MH065653)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Functional Brain Connectivity Studies
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Pharmacology › Treatment of Major Depression
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Neural and Behavioral Psychology Studies
- Keywords
- geriatric depression, apathy, salience network, resting-state functional connectivity, anterior insula, dorsal anterior cingulate cortex, dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, posterior cingulate cortex, frontoparietal network, motivated behavior
- MeSH terms
- Aged, Brain Mapping, Cerebral Cortex, Depressive Disorder, Female, Humans, Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Male, Middle Aged, Neural Pathways, Case-Control Studies, Age of Onset, Apathy
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
