Copyright
©The Author(s) 2026. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Psychiatry. Feb 19, 2026; 16(2): 113513
Published online Feb 19, 2026. doi: 10.5498/wjp.v16.i2.113513
Published online Feb 19, 2026. doi: 10.5498/wjp.v16.i2.113513
Aberrant topology of the default mode network is associated with phosphatidylcholine and triglyceride levels in major depressive disorder
Yu-Hang Ma, Xin-Yu Wang, Wen-Liang Wang, Jing Zhang, Xiao-Hong Liu, Du-Xing Li, Zhen-He Zhou, Li-Min Chen, Department of Psychiatry, The Affiliated Mental Health Center of Jiangnan University, Wuxi 214151, Jiangsu Province, China
Hong-Liang Zhou, Department of Psychology, The Affiliated Hospital of Jiangnan University, Wuxi 214151, Jiangsu Province, China
Co-first authors: Yu-Hang Ma and Xin-Yu Wang.
Co-corresponding authors: Li-Min Chen and Hong-Liang Zhou.
Author contributions: Ma YH analyzed the data and wrote the manuscript; Ma YH and Wang XY contributed equally to this study as co-first authors; Wang XY, Wang WL, and Zhang J collected the relevant data; Liu XH, Li DX, and Zhou ZH provided technological support; Zhou ZH provided financial support; Chen LM and Zhou HL designed the study and edited the manuscript, and they contributed equally to this manuscript as co-corresponding authors. All authors have read and approved the final manuscript.
Supported by Wuxi Taihu Talent Project, No. WXTTP2021.
Institutional review board statement: The study was reviewed and approved by the Ethics Committee of the Affiliated Mental Health Center of Jiangnan University (approval No. WXMHCIRB2025 LLky017).
Informed consent statement: All study participants, or their legal guardian, provided informed written consent prior to study enrollment.
Conflict-of-interest statement: 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: Data used in this study can be available from the corresponding author at hongliangzh@jiangnan.edu.cn.
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: Li-Min Chen, Chief Physician, Department of Psychiatry, The Affiliated Mental Health Center of Jiangnan University, No. 156 Qianhu Road, Binhu District, Wuxi 214151, Jiangsu Province, China. findition@163.com
Received: August 27, 2025
Revised: September 16, 2025
Accepted: November 3, 2025
Published online: February 19, 2026
Processing time: 156 Days and 4.1 Hours
Revised: September 16, 2025
Accepted: November 3, 2025
Published online: February 19, 2026
Processing time: 156 Days and 4.1 Hours
Core Tip
Core Tip: The default mode network (DMN) is associated with lipid metabolism. Patients with major depressive disorder (MDD) exhibit abnormalities in the topological properties of the DMN and dysregulation in lipid metabolism. Our study investigated the association between the abnormal topological properties of the DMN and dysregulated lipid metabolism in MDD, revealing that the betweenness centrality of the right superior medial frontal gyrus is associated with phosphati