Neural Timescale of Adolescents Major Depressive Disorder

Adolescent major depressive disorder (MDD) is characterized by heterogeneous symptomatology and complex neurodevelopmental underpinnings. Here, we investigated whether cortical intrinsic neural timescales (INT)—a measure of temporal stability in neural activity—are altered in adolescents with MDD and whether these alterations relate to clinical symptoms, suicidality, early-life adversity, and underlying neurobiological mechanisms. Using resting-state fMRI in adolescents with MDD and healthy controls (HCs), we found widespread reductions in INT in frontal, parietal, and sensorimotor regions, with a notable prolongation in the left temporoparietal junction. Disrupted timescales significantly impaired network modularity and clustering, and SVR-based machine learning revealed that altered INT patterns predicted individual depression and anxiety severity. INT abnormalities were further associated with suicidal ideation and childhood trauma, particularly emotional and physical neglect. Biophysical modeling linked INT variations to local recurrent excitation and external input strength, differing between HCs and MDD. Spatial correlations with PET-derived neurotransmitter receptor maps demonstrated that INT alterations colocalize with serotonergic, dopaminergic, and cholinergic systems. Transcriptomic enrichment analysis revealed associations with genes involved in mitochondrial function, synaptic signaling, and metabolic regulation. Together, these findings identify neural timescale disruption as a core pathophysiological feature of adolescent MDD, bridging macroscale dynamics with microcircuit and molecular architecture. INT may serve as a promising biomarker and mechanistic target for precision psychiatry in youth depression.