Striatal hypoactivation and cognitive slowing in patients with partially remitted and remitted major depression.

The present pilot study investigated neuronal correlates of executive functioning in patients previously diagnosed with recurrent major depressive disorder (MDD). The aim of the study was to examine a partially remitted and remitted MDD patient group with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) using a cognitive activation paradigm in order to probe aspects of response inhibition, attention shift, and working memory. Twenty MDD patients and 19 healthy controls, matched for age and sex, participated in the study.