New Paper: “Sex matters: acute functional connectivity changes as markers of remission in late-life depression differ by sex”

In our group’s latest paper in Molecular Psychiatry entitled “Sex matters: acute functional connectivity changes as markers of remission in late-life depression differ by sex,” we investigated how early changes in intrinsic neural activity after initiating antidepressant treatment could be used to predict remission from late-life depression and the role of biological sex in this dynamic.

Surprisingly, we were able to better predict remission by training separate random forest models on males and females than using a combined model that included sex as a variable. Deeper investigation revealed sex-specific patterns of change that keyed on a few specific regions for males and a much broader network for females. The caudate nucleus—an important region in the reward network—stood out as a prominent exception to this observation, providing the most predictive value for both males and females.

To read the full paper, click here