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Altered basal ganglia function has been implicated in the pathophysiology of youth Major Depressive Disorder (MDD). Studies have generally focused on characterizing abnormalities in ventral “affective” corticostriatal loops supporting emotional processes. Recent evidence however, has implicated alterations in functional connectivity of dorsal “cognitive” corticostriatal loops in youth MDD. The contribution of dorsal versus ventral corticostriatal alterations to the pathophysiology of youth MDD remains unclear.

Twenty-one medication-free patients with moderate-to-severe MDD between the ages of 15 and 24 years old were matched with 21 healthy control participants. Using resting-state functional connectivity magnetic resonance imaging we systematically investigated connectivity of eight dorsal and ventral subdivisions of the striatum. Voxelwise statistical maps of each subregion's connectivity …