Retinal electroretinogram features can detect depression state and treatment response in adults: A machine learning approach

Background: Major depressive disorder (MDD) is a major public health problem. The retina is a relevant site to indirectly study brain functioning. Alterations in retinal processing were demonstrated in MDD with the pattern electroretinogram (PERG). Here, the relevance of signal processing and machine learning tools applied on PERG was studied. Methods: PERG - whose stimulation is reversible checkerboards - was performed according to the International Society for Clinical Electrophysiology of Vision (ISCEV) standards in 24 MDD patients and 29 controls at the inclusion. PERG was recorded every 4 weeks for 3 months in patients. Amplitude and implicit time of P50 and N95 were evaluated. Then, time/frequency features were extracted from the PERG time series based on wavelet analysis. A statistical model has been learned in this feature space and a metric aiming at quantifying the state of the MDD patient has been derived, based on minimum covariance determinant (MCD) mahalanobis distance. Results: MDD patients showed significant increase in P50 and N95 implicit time (p = 0,006 and p = 0,0004, respectively, Mann-Whitney U test) at the inclusion. The proposed metric extracted from the raw PERG provided discrimination between patients and controls at the inclusion (p = 0,0001). At the end of the follow-up at week 12, the difference between the metrics extracted on controls and patients was not significant (p = 0,07), reflecting the efficacy of the treatment. Conclusions: Signal processing and machine learning tools applied on PERG could help clinical decision in the diagnosis and the follow-up of MDD in measuring treatment response.

Automated summary

This study investigated the use of signal processing and machine learning tools on PERG in the diagnosis and follow-up of MDD. The results showed that by extracting time/frequency features from PERG time series and analyzing them using a statistical model, it is possible to differentiate MDD patients from controls and measure treatment response.