Copyright: ©Author(s) 2026. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license. No commercial re-use. See permissions. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc.
World J Psychiatry. Oct 19, 2026; 16(10): 119855
Published online Oct 19, 2026. doi: 10.5498/wjp.119855
Published online Oct 19, 2026. doi: 10.5498/wjp.119855
Letter to the Editor: From prototype to paradigm - a paradigm shift in multimodal detection of adolescent depression
Meng-Yang He, Xin-Yue Li, Department of Psychology, Wuhan Sports University, Wuhan 430079, Hubei Province, China
Co-first authors: Meng-Yang He and Xin-Yue Li.
Author contributions: He MY and Li XY critically revised the manuscript for important intellectual content, conceived the research idea and designed the commentary framework, drafted the initial manuscript as co-first authors; all authors have read and approved the final version for submission.
AI contribution statement: All the substantial contents of critical analysis, arguments and conclusions were written by the authors. AI was only used to improve the language after we had written the content ourselves. Only language refinement (grammar, expression, sentence structure). No Translation, data analysis, or content creation took place. An AI-assisted language tool was used during preparation and revision of the answering-reviewers document. Its use was limited to English expression: Grammar, word choice, sentence flow, and readability. The tool was not used as a reviewer, co-author, or source of scientific judgment. Decisions about how to respond to each comment were made by the authors.
Supported by Joint Project of Hubei Provincial Natural Science Foundation, No. 2025AFD654.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All authors declare no conflict of interest in publishing the manuscript.
Corresponding author: Meng-Yang He, Assistant Professor, Department of Psychology, Wuhan Sports University, No. 461 Luoyu Road, Zhuodaoquan Street, Hongshan District, Wuhan 430079, Hubei Province, China. 2021008@whsu.edu.cn
Received: February 9, 2026
Revised: February 21, 2026
Accepted: May 20, 2026
Published online: October 19, 2026
Processing time: 237 Days and 17.4 Hours
Revised: February 21, 2026
Accepted: May 20, 2026
Published online: October 19, 2026
Processing time: 237 Days and 17.4 Hours
Core Tip
Core Tip: This commentary highlights Zeng et al’s multimodal adolescent depression detection approach (facial/vocal signals + Chinese Secondary School Students Depression Scale), which outperforms traditional methods via extreme gradient boosting. It notes the prototype’s regional/experimental limitations, advocates integrating neurophysiological signals and wearable data, and calls for interdisciplinary, multi-center collaboration to advance it to a clinical paradigm.