Depression symptoms in chronic left hemisphere stroke are related to dorsolateral prefrontal cortex damage

Abstract

Damage to the brain’s mood regulation systems may contribute to poststroke depression. This study examines relationships between depression symptoms and psychosocial factors and then uses multivariate lesion-symptom mapping to localize depression symptoms in people with chronic left hemisphere stroke. Depression symptoms relate inversely to education and directly to physical disability. Damage in the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex is associated with greater depression symptoms. These results demonstrate a neurological contribution to depression symptoms in chronic left hemisphere stroke and provide evidence of convergent biological mechanisms for poststroke depression symptoms and major depression with regard to left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex dysfunction.