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©The Author(s) 2026. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Psychiatry. Jan 19, 2026; 16(1): 113064
Published online Jan 19, 2026. doi: 10.5498/wjp.v16.i1.113064
Published online Jan 19, 2026. doi: 10.5498/wjp.v16.i1.113064
Abnormal regional spontaneous brain activity in major depressive disorder with obesity comorbidity: A resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging study
Xiao-Fang Hou, Qian-Yu Chen, Chen Zang, Yu-Feng Tang, Xiao-Xin Li, Hui-Fang Zhang, Department of Magnetic Resonance Imaging, The Affiliated Brain Hospital of Zhengzhou University, The Second People’s Hospital of Zhumadian, Zhumadian 463000, Henan Province, China
Bo-Hui Mei, Department of Magnetic Resonance Imaging, The First Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou 450052, Henan Province, China
Xia Wang, Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Traditional Chinese Medicine Hospital of Zhumadian, Zhumadian 463000, Henan Province, China
Fu-Tao Zhao, Department of Psychiatry, The Affiliated Brain Hospital of Zhengzhou University, The Second People’s Hospital of Zhumadian, Zhumadian 463000, Henan Province, China
Lei He, Department of Psychology III, The Affiliated Brain Hospital of Zhengzhou University, The Second People’s Hospital of Zhumadian, Zhumadian 463000, Henan Province, China
Chong Wang, Department of Addiction Medicine, The Affiliated Brain Hospital of Zhengzhou University, The Second People’s Hospital of Zhumadian, Zhumadian 463000, Henan Province, China
Na Wang, Bing Cao, Faculty of Psychology, Southwest University, Chongqing 400715, China
Co-first authors: Xiao-Fang Hou and Bo-Hui Mei.
Co-corresponding authors: Xiao-Fang Hou and Bing Cao.
Author contributions: Hou XF and Mei BH conceived and designed the study, made equal contributions as co-first authors; Hou XF, Zhao FT, Zang C, Wang C, Tang YF, Zhang HF, Wang N, and He L collected the data and performed the statistical analysis; Cao B, Wang X, Wang N, and Mei BH contributed to the discussion; Cao B and Hou XF made equal contributions as co-corresponding authors; all authors have read and approved the final version of this article.
Supported by Provincial Key Research Project of Henan Province, No. 232102310081.
Institutional review board statement: This study was approved by the Institutional Review Board of Zhumadian Second People’s Hospital, No. IRB-2023-002-01.
Informed consent statement: All participants were informed of the study requirements, provided written informed consent voluntarily, and received financial compensation based on task completion.
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:
The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.
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: Xiao-Fang Hou, Department of Magnetic Resonance Imaging, The Affiliated Brain Hospital of Zhengzhou University, The Second People’s Hospital of Zhumadian, No. 51 East Section of Xuesong Road, Yicheng District, Zhumadian 463000, Henan Province, China. hxf758@126.com
Received: August 14, 2025
Revised: September 2, 2025
Accepted: October 28, 2025
Published online: January 19, 2026
Processing time: 139 Days and 10.8 Hours
Revised: September 2, 2025
Accepted: October 28, 2025
Published online: January 19, 2026
Processing time: 139 Days and 10.8 Hours
Core Tip
Core Tip: This study used resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging and regional homogeneity analysis to investigate spontaneous brain activity in patients with comorbid major depressive disorder and obesity. Significant regional homogeneity alterations were found in the left middle temporal gyrus, right cuneus, left precuneus, and left thalamus. These findings suggest shared and synergistic neurobiological mechanisms underlying major depressive disorder-obesity comorbidity and highlight potential targets, such as left middle temporal gyrus hyperactivity, for personalized interventions aimed at improving emotional regulation and food-related cue processing in affected individuals.