(Note: Part of the content of this post was adapted from the original REST-meta-MDD PNAS paper (http://www.pnas.org/cgi/doi/10.1073/pnas.1900390116) under CC BY-NC-ND license.)
Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) is the second leading-cause of disability world-wide, with point prevalence exceeding 4% (1). The pathophysiology of MDD remains unknown despite intensive efforts, including neuroimaging studies. However, the small sample size of most MDD neuroimaging studies entails low sensitivity and reliability (2, 3).
Inconsistencies may reflect limited statistical power (2) from small samples, but data analysis flexibility may also contribute, as a large number of preprocessing and analysis operations with many different parameter combinations have been used in fMRI analyses (4). MDD studies have used diverse multiple comparison correction methods, most likely inadequate (5). Data analysis flexibility also impedes large-scale meta-analysis (6, 7). Moreover, clinical characteristics such as number and type of episodes, medication status and illness duration vary across studies, further contributing to heterogeneous results.
To address limited statistical power and analytic heterogeneity, we initiated the REST-meta-MDD Project. We implemented a standardized preprocessing protocol on Data Processing Assistant for Resting-State fMRI (DPARSF) (8) at local sites with only final indices provided to the consortium (please see the SI Appendix, Supplementary Methods of the original PNAS paper for details).
Contributions were requested from users of DPARSF, a MATLAB- and SPM-based R-fMRI preprocessing pipeline (8). Twenty-five research groups from 17 hospitals in China formed the REST-meta-MDD consortium and agreed to share final R-fMRI indices from patients with MDD and matched normal controls (see Supplementary Table; henceforth “site” refers to each cohort for convenience) from studies approved by local Institutional Review Boards. The consortium contributed 2428 previously collected datasets (1300 MDDs and 1128 NCs). On average, each site contributed 52.0±52.4 patients with MDD (range 13-282) and 45.1±46.9 NCs (range 6-251). Most MDD patients were female (826 vs. 474 males), as expected. The 562 patients with first episode MDD included 318 first episode drug-naïve (FEDN) MDD and 160 scanned while receiving antidepressants (medication status unavailable for 84). Of 282 with recurrent MDD, 121 were scanned while receiving antidepressants and 76 were not being treated with medication (medication status unavailable for 85). Episodicity (first or recurrent) and medication status were unavailable for 456 patients.
To improve transparency and reproducibility, our analysis code has been openly shared at https://github.com/Chaogan-Yan/PaperScripts/tree/master/Yan_2019_PNAS. In addition, we would like to share the R-fMRI indices of the 1300 MDD patients and 1128 NCs through the R-fMRI Maps Project (http://rfmri.org/REST-meta-MDD). These data derivatives will allow replication, secondary analyses and discovery efforts while protecting participant privacy and confidentiality.
According to the agreement of the REST-meta-MDD consortium, there would be 2 phases for sharing the brain imaging data and phenotypic data of the 1300 MDD patients and 1128 NCs. 1) Phase 1: coordinated sharing, before January 1, 2020. To reduce conflict of the researchers, the consortium will review and coordinate the proposals submitted by interested researchers. The interested researchers first send a letter of intent to rfmrilab@gmail.com. Then the consortium will send all the approved proposals to the applicant. The applicant should submit a new innovative proposal while avoiding conflict with approved proposals. This proposal would be reviewed and approved by the consortium if no conflict. Once approved, this proposal would enter the pool of approved proposals and prevent future conflict. 2) Phase 2: unrestricted sharing, after January 1, 2020. The researchers can perform any analyses of interest while not violating ethics.
The REST-meta-MDD data entered unrestricted sharing phase since January 1, 2020. The researchers can perform any analyses of interest while not violating ethics. Please sign the Data Use Agreement and email the scanned signed copy to rfmrilab@gmail.com to get access credentials of the REST-meta-MDD data on the FTP server.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This work was supported by the National Key R&D Program of China (2017YFC1309902), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (81671774, 81630031, 81471740 and 81371488), the 13th Five-year Informatization Plan (XXH13505) of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing Municipal Science & Technology Commission (Z161100000216152, Z171100000117016, Z161100002616023 and Z171100000117012), Department of Science and Technology, Zhejiang Province (2015C03037) and the National Basic Research (973) Program (2015CB351702).
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Supplementary Table. Samples of the REST-meta-MDD project, consortium sites, contributors, sample size, data acquisition parameters, and published studies based on the present cohorts.
Serial Number | Sites (cohorts) | Principal investigators | Data organizer | N | Scanner | Receive (coil) | TR (ms) | TE (ms) | Flip Angle (∘) | Thickness/gap | Slice number | Time points | Voxel size | FOV | Published researches | |||||
MDD | NC | |||||||||||||||||||
1 | National Clinical Research Center for Mental Disorders (Peking University Sixth Hospital) & Key Laboratory of Mental Health, Ministry of Health (Peking University) | Tian-Mei Si | Li Wang | 74 | 74 | Siemens Tim Trio 3T | 32 channel | 2000 | 30 | 90 | 4.0mm/0.8mm | 30 | 210 | 3.28 × 3.28 × 4.80 | 210 × 210 | Wang et al 2013 (9)/2015 (10) | ||||
2 | Department of Clinical Psychology, Suzhou Suzhou Psychiatric Hospital, The Affiliated Guangji Hospital of Soochow University | Yan-Song Liu | Yan-Song Liu | 30 | 30 | Philips Achieva 3T | 8-channel | 2000 | 30 | 90 | 4.0mm/0 mm | 37 | 200 | 1.67 × 1.67 × 4.00 | 240 × 240 | Liu et al., 2017 (11) | ||||
3 | The Second Xiangya Hospital of Central South University | Shu-Qiao Yao / Xiang Wang | Chang Cheng | 27 | 37 | Siemens Magnetom Symphony scanner 1.5 T | 16 channel | 2000 | 40 | 90 | 5.0mm/1.25mm | 26 | 150 | 3.75 × 3.75 × 6.25 | 240 × 240 | Zhu et al., 2012 (12) | ||||
4 | The Second Xiangya Hospital of Central South University | Wen-Bin Guo | Wen-Bin Guo | 24 | 24 | Siemens Skyra 3T | 32 channel | 2500 | 25 | 90 | 3.5mm/0mm | 39 | 200 | 3.75 × 3.75 × 3.50 | 240 × 240 | Guo et al., 2014 (13)/2017(14) | ||||
5 | Department of Psychiatry, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine | Yi-Ru Fang / Dai-Hui Peng | Ru-Bai Zhou | 13 | 11 | GE Signa 3T | 32 channel | 3000 | 30 | 90 | 5.0mm/0mm | 22 | 100 | 3.75 × 3.75 × 5.00 | 240 × 240 | Peng et al., 2014 (15)/2015 (16) | ||||
6 | Department of Psychiatry, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine | Yi-Ru Fang / Jun-Juan Zhu | Ru-Bai Zhou | 15 | 15 | Siemens Tim Trio 3T | 32 channel | 2000 | 30 | 70 | 4mm/0mm | 33 | 180 | 3.59 × 3.59 × 4.00 | 230 × 230 | Zhu et al., 2014 (17) | ||||
7 | Sir Run Run Shaw Hospital, Zhejiang University School of Medicine | Wei Chen | Jia-Shu Yao | 38 | 49 | GE discovery MR750 | 8 channel | 2000 | 30 | 90 | 3.2/0 | 37 | 184 | 2.29 × 2.29 × 3.20 | 220 × 220 | Shen et al., 2015 (18) | ||||
8 | Department of Psychiatry, First Affiliated Hospital, China Medical University | Fei Wang | Jia Duan | 75 | 75 | GE Signa 3T | 8 channel | 2000 | 30 | 90 | 3.0mm/0mm | 35 | 200 | 3.75 × 3.75 × 3.00 | 240 × 240 | Tang et al., 2013 (19) | ||||
9 | The First Affiliated Hospital of Jinan University | Ying Wang | Guan-Mao Chen | 50 | 50 | GE Discovery MR750 3.0T | 8-channel | 2000 | 25 | 90 | 3.0/1.0 mm | 35 | 200 | 3.75 × 3.75 × 4.00 | 240 × 240 | N/A | ||||
10 | First Hospital of Shanxi Medical University | Ke-Rang Zhang | Ai-Xia Zhang | 50 | 33 | Siemens Tim Trio 3T | 32 channel | 2000 | 30 | 90 | 3.0mm/1.52mm | 32 | 212 | 3.75 × 3.75 × 4.52 | 240 × 240 | Li et al., 2014 (20) | ||||
11 | Department of Psychiatry, The First Affiliated Hospital of Chongqing Medical University | Qing-Hua Luo / Hua-Qing Meng | Hai-Tang Qiu | 32 | 29 | GE Signa 3T | 8 channel | 2000 | 30 | 90 | 5 mm | 33 | 200 | 3.75 × 3.75 × 5.00 | 240 × 240 | Du et al., 2016 (21) | ||||
12 | Department of Psychiatry, The First Affiliated Hospital of Chongqing Medical University | Hua-Qing Meng / Qing-Hua Luo | Hai-Tang Qiu | 32 | 6 | GE Signa 3T | 8 channel | 2000 | 30 | 90 | 5 mm | 33 | 240 | 3.75 × 3.75 × 4.00 | 240 × 240 | N/A | ||||
13 | The First Affiliated Hospital of Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an Central Hospital | Jian Yang / Xiao-Ping Wu | Hong Zhang | 25 | 17 | GE Excite 1.5T | 16 channel | 2500 | 35 | 90 | 4mm/0 | 36 | 150 | 4.00 × 4.00 × 4.00 | 256 × 256 | Wu et al., 2016 (22) | ||||
14 | The Second Xiangya Hospital of Central South University | Guang-Rong Xie | Xi-Long Cui | 64 | 32 | Siemens Tim Trio 3T | 32 channel | 2500 | 25 | 90 | 3.5/0 | 39 | 200 | 3.75 × 3.75 × 3.50 | 240 × 240 | Yang et al., 2017 (23) | ||||
15 | Department of Psychosomatics and Psychiatry, Zhongda Hospital, School of Medicine, Southeast University | Yong-Gui Yuan | Zheng-Hua Hou / Ying-ying Yin | 50 | 50 | Siemens Verio 3.0T MRI | 12 channel | 2000 | 25 | 90 | 4mm/0mm | 36 | 240 | 3.75 × 3.75 × 4.00 | 240 × 240 | Hou et al., 2018 (24)/2018 (25) | ||||
16 | Huaxi MR Research Center, West China Hospital of Sichuan University | Qi-Yong Gong / Kai-Ming Li | Kai-Ming Li | 31 | 31 | GE Signa 3T | 8 channel | 2000 | 30 | 90 | 5mm/0mm | 30 | 200 | 3.75 × 3.75 × 5.00 | 240 × 240 | Chen et al., 2017 (26) | ||||
17 | Department of Psychiatry, The First Affiliated Hospital of Chongqing Medical University | Li Kuang | Lan Hu | 47 | 44 | GE Signa 3T | 8 channel | 2000 | 40 | 90 | 4.0mm/0mm | 33 | 240 | 3.75 × 3.75 × 4.00 | 240 × 240 | Cao et al., 2016 (27) | ||||
18 | Department of Radiology, The First Affiliated Hospital, College of Medicine, Zhejiang University | Hong Yang | Yu-Shu Shi / Hai-Yan Xie | 21 | 20 | Philips Achieva 3.0 T scanner (Philips Healthcare, Netherlands) | 8-channel SENSE head coil | 2000 | 35 | 90 | 5.0/1.0 mm | 24 | 200 | 1.67 × 1.67 × 6.00 | 240 × 240 | N/A | ||||
19 | Anhui Medical University | Kai Wang | Tong-Jian Bai | 51 | 36 | GE Signa 3T | 8 channel | 2000 | 22.5 | 30 | 4.0/0.6 mm | 33 | 240 | 3.44 × 3.44 × 4.60 | 220 × 220 | Wang et al., 2017 (28) | ||||
20 | Faculty of Psychology, Southwest University | Jiang Qiu | Xin-Ran Wu | 282 | 251 | Siemens Tim Trio 3T | 12 channel | 2000 | 30 | 90 | 3.0mm/1.0mm | 32 | 242 | 3.44 × 3.44 × 4.00 | 220 × 220 | Cheng et al., 2016 (29)/Ye et al., 2015 (30)/Luo et al., 2015 (31)/Xue et al., 2016 (32) | ||||
21 | Beijing Anding Hospital, Capital Medical University | Chuan-Yue Wang | Qi-Jing Bo / Feng Li | 86 | 70 | Siemens Tim Trio 3T | 32 channel | 2000 | 30ms | 90 | 3.5mm/0.7mm | 33 | 240 | 3.12 × 3.12 × 4.20 | 200 × 200 | Zheng et al., 2018 (33)/Jing et al., 2013 (34) | ||||
22 | The Institute of Mental Health, Second Xiangya Hospital of Central South University | Zhe-Ning Liu | Yi-Cheng Long | 30 | 20 | Philips Gyroscan Achieva 3.0T | 32 channel | 2000 | 30 | 90 | 4.0mm/0mm | 36 | 250 | 1.67 × 1.67 × 4.00 | 240 × 240 | N/A | ||||
23 | Mental Health Center, West China Hospital, Sichuan University | Tao Li | Yi-Ting Zhou | 32 | 30 | Philips Achieva 3.0T TX | 8 channal | 2000 | 30 | 90 | 4.0mm/0mm | 38 | 240 | 3.75 × 3.75 × 4.00 | 240 × 240 | Yang et al., 2015 (35) | ||||
24 | First Affiliated Hospital of Kunming Medical University | Xiu-Feng Xu / Yu-Qi Cheng | Chao-Jie Zou | 32 | 31 | GE Signa 1.5T | 8 channel | 2000 | 40 | 90 | 5/1mm | 24 | 160 | 3.75 × 3.75 × 6.00 | 240 × 240 | Cheng., et al. 2017 (36) | ||||
25 | Department of Neurology, Affiliated ZhongDa Hospital of Southeast University | Zhi-Jun Zhang | Zhi-Jun Zhang | 89 | 63 | Siemens Verio 3T | 12 channel head coil | 2000 | 25 | 90 | 4.0mm/0mm | 36 | 240 | 3.75 × 3.75 × 4.00 | 240 × 240 | Yuan et al., 2008 (37) | ||||
Total | 1300 | 1128 |
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Abbreviations: MDD, major depressive disorder; NC, normal control.