Major depressive disorder (MDD) is associated with biased perception of human movement. Gesture is important for communication and in this study we investigated neural correlates of gesture perception in MDD. We hypothesised different neural activity between individuals with MDD and typical individuals when viewing instrumental and expressive gestures that were negatively or positively valenced. Differences were expected in brain areas associated with gesture perception, including superior temporal, frontal, and emotion processing regions. We recruited 12 individuals with MDD and 12 typical controls matched on age, gender, and handedness. They viewed gestures displayed by stick figures while functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was performed. Results of a random effects three-way mixed ANOVA indicated that individuals with MDD had greater activity in the right claustrum compared to controls, regardless of gesture type or valence. Additionally, we observed main effects of gesture type and valence, regardless of group. Perceiving instrumental compared to expressive gestures was associated with greater activity in the left cuneus and left superior temporal gyrus, while perceiving negative compared to positive gestures was associated with greater activity in the right precuneus and right lingual gyrus. We also observed a two-way interaction between gesture type and valence in various brain regions.

重度抑郁症（MDD）与对人类运动的偏见感知有关。手势对于沟通很重要，在这项研究中，我们研究了 MDD 中手势感知的神经相关性。我们假设重度抑郁症患者和典型个体在观看负价或正价的工具性和表达性手势时，神经活动不同。预计与手势感知相关的大脑区域存在差异，包括上颞叶、额叶和情绪处理区域。我们招募了 12 名重度抑郁症患者和 12 名年龄、性别和利手习惯相匹配的典型对照者。他们在进行功能性磁共振成像（fMRI）时观察了简笔画显示的手势。随机效应三向混合方差分析的结果表明，无论手势类型或效价如何，与对照组相比，重度抑郁症患者的右屏状体活动更大。此外，我们观察到手势类型和效价的主要影响，无论群体如何。与表达性手势相比，感知工具性手势与左侧楔叶和左侧颞上回的更大活动相关，而与积极手势相比，感知消极手势与右侧楔前叶和右侧舌回的更大活动相关。我们还观察到不同大脑区域的手势类型和效价之间存在双向相互作用。