Observational Study
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2025. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Psychiatry. Jun 19, 2025; 15(6): 105555
Published online Jun 19, 2025. doi: 10.5498/wjp.v15.i6.105555
Neural correlates of rumination in remitted depressive episodes: Brain network connectivity and topology analyses
Kang-Ning Li, Shi-Xiong Tang, You-Fu Tao, Hai-Ruo He, Mo-Han Ma, Qian-Qian Zhang, Mei Huang, Wen-Tao Chen, Hui Liang, Ao-Qian Deng, Si-Rui Gao, Fan-Yu Meng, Yi-Lin Peng, Yu-Meng Ju, Wen-Wen Ou, Su Shu, Yan Zhang
Kang-Ning Li, Hai-Ruo He, Mo-Han Ma, Qian-Qian Zhang, Mei Huang, Wen-Tao Chen, Hui Liang, Ao-Qian Deng, Si-Rui Gao, Fan-Yu Meng, Yi-Lin Peng, Yu-Meng Ju, Wen-Wen Ou, Su Shu, Yan Zhang, Department of Psychiatry, National Clinical Research Center for Mental Disorders, and National Center for Mental Disorders, The Second Xiangya Hospital of Central South University, Changsha 410011, Hunan Province, China
Shi-Xiong Tang, Department of Radiology, The Second Xiangya Hospital, Central South University, Changsha 410011, Hunan Province, China
You-Fu Tao, Xiangya Medical School, The Second Xiangya Hospital, Central South University, Changsha 410011, Hunan Province, China
Co-first authors: Kang-Ning Li and Shi-Xiong Tang.
Co-corresponding authors: Wen-Wen Ou and Su Shu.
Author contributions: Li KN and Tang SX collected the clinical data and fMRI data, performed data analysis, conducted figure plotting, searched comprehensive literature, and prepared each version of the manuscript. They made equally significant contributions to this project and thus qualified as the co-first authors of the paper. He HR and Tao YF contributed to manuscript editing, including textual revisions and reference validation, and prepared submission. Huang M and Ju YM were responsible for patient screening, enrollment, collection of clinical data. Ma MH, Zhang QQ, Chen WT, Liang H, Gao SR, Meng FY, Peng YL screened patients, acquired clinical data and fMRI data. Deng AQ conducted data quality control and preprocessing for fMRI data. Ou WW and Shu S have played important and indispensable roles in the experimental design, data interpretation and manuscript preparation as the co-corresponding authors. Shu S conceptualized, designed, and supervised the whole process of the project. He performed data analysis, revised and submitted each version of the manuscript. Ou WW was responsible for conceptualization, comprehensive literature search, data interpretation, and preparation of the current version of the manuscript. This collaboration between Shu S and Ou WW is crucial for the publication of this manuscript. Zhang Y and Ju YM applied for and obtained the funds for this research project.
Supported by the National Key Research and Development Program of China, No. 2021ZD0202000; the National Natural Science Foundation of China, No. 82101612 and No. 82471570; the Natural Science Foundation of Hunan Province, China, No. 2022JJ40692; and the Science and Technology Innovation Program of Hunan Province, No. 2021RC2040 and No. 2024RC3056.
Institutional review board statement: This study was reviewed and approved by the Ethics Committee of the Second Xiangya Hospital (No. 2021-022) and registered on ClinicalTrials.gov (NCT05585047).
Informed consent statement: All involved persons gave their informed written consent prior to study inclusion.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All the authors report no relevant conflicts of interest for this article.
STROBE statement: The authors have read the STROBE Statement—checklist of items—and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the STROBE Statement—checklist of items.
Data sharing statement: Technical appendix, statistical code, and dataset are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request at shusujy@163.com.
Open Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Su Shu, PhD, Department of Psychiatry, National Clinical Research Center for Mental Disorders, and National Center for Mental Disorders, The Second Xiangya Hospital of Central South University, No. 139 Renmin Middle Road, Furong District, Changsha 410011, Hunan Province, China. shusujy@163.com
Received: February 6, 2025
Revised: March 11, 2025
Accepted: April 21, 2025
Published online: June 19, 2025
Processing time: 113 Days and 2.6 Hours
Core Tip

Core Tip: Rumination is a key risk factor for relapse in major depressive episode (MDE) patients, yet its neural mechanisms in remitted MDEs remain unclear. Using a rumination induction neuroimaging task, we analyzed brain network alterations during rumination. The alterations in functional connectivity between the rumination and distraction states occurred mainly in the frontoparietal, default mode, and cerebellar networks. Topology analysis revealed that the whole-brain network was more functionally integrated and less segregated during rumination. These altered network topological characteristics were associated with individual rumination levels, providing insights into the neural basis of rumination in remitted MDE patients.