Korea University · Medicine
Professor Woo-Suk Tae's research lab specializes in neuropsychiatry and neuroimaging, focusing on the structural and functional brain abnormalities associated with major depressive disorder (MDD), juvenile myoclonic epilepsy (JME), and other psychiatric conditions. The lab employs advanced neuroimaging techniques such as diffusion tensor imaging (DTI), structural MRI, and MRS to investigate neurobiological underpinnings of brain disorders, including white matter integrity, hippocampal atrophy, cortical gyrification, and metabolic changes in key brain regions like the prefrontal cortex and posterior cingulate cortex. Genetic associations, particularly with the TPH2 gene, are also explored to understand the neurodevelopmental and endophenotypic basis of mood disorders.
Figures are computed from collected data and may differ slightly.
Diffusion-tensor imaging (DTI) is a noninvasive medical imaging tool used to investigate the structure of white matter. The signal contrast in DTI is generated by differences in the Brownian motion of the water molecules in brain tissue. Postprocessed DTI scalars can be used to evaluate changes in the brain tissue caused by disease, disease progression, and treatment responses, which has led to an enormous amount of interest in DTI in clinical research. This review article provides insights into
The JME patients showed complex structural abnormalities in the corpus callosum, frontal lobe and hippocampus, and also a decreased gray matter concentration of the prefrontal region, which all suggests there is an abnormal neural network in the JME brain.
We showed atrophy and regional shape contractions in the hippocampi of patients with MDD, which were more dominant on the left side. The causes of hippocampal damage could be the hypersecretion of glucocorticoids contributing to neuronal death or the failing of adult neurogenesis in the dentate gyrus.
The tryptophan hydroxylase-2 (TPH2) gene is considered a promising genetic candidate regarding its association with a predisposition to major depressive disorder (MDD). Local gyrification reflects the early neural development of cortical connectivity, and is regarded as a potential neural endophenotype in psychiatric disorders. They aimed to investigate the alterations in the cortical gyrification of the prefrontal cortex and anterior cingulate cortex and their association with the TPH2 rs457062
A progressive decrease in the NAA/tCr ratio in the pACC of patients with MDD was demonstrated and the decrease in this ratio was at the highest rate in the early period after illness onset. These findings indicate the neuronal degeneration and dysfunction of the pACC, and the importance of early clinical intervention in female patients with MDD.
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