In order to obtain a panorama of structural and functional brain abnormalities as well as the association between the anatomic and functional alterations and clinical symptoms in patients with major depressive disorder (MDD), integrated magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) measures were implemented on 21 MDD patients and 21 healthy controls, to facilitate the multimo-dality of voxel-based morphometry (VBM) analysis, resting-state functional connectivity analysis, and symptom rating. MDD patients showed significantly decreased gray matter volume (GMV) in the rostral part of anterior cingulate cortex (rACC), precuneus, and superior parietal lobule in the right hemisphere. By using the above morphologic deficits areas as seed regions, functional connectivity analysis revealed reduced coupling in the limbic-cortical and fronto-parietal networks, respectively. Subsequent correlation analyses revealed that GMV in the rACC negatively correlated with the depressive symptom severity and anxiety level. Our findings provide evidence supporting both morphologic and functional deficits in the limbic-cortical and frontal-parietal areas in MDD patients which could account for their dysfunctions on emotional regulation and cognition. Moreover, the neural changes found in rACC could be possible state markers for evaluating effects of anti-depressive treatment and anxiety level.
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