Depression is the most common psychiatric disorder, and also the most important precursor of suicide.  It is increasingly posing serious public health problem in China and, according to the World Health Organization, it will be the major cause of global disease burden by the year 2020. However, to date it is not possible to make objective assessment due to the lack of biomarkers, and the etiology and the neuropathophysiology of depression are not fully understood.  The development of high-field MR imaging techniques enables the readily acquisition of structural，metabolic and functional information of the regional brain, and it offers a unique opportunity for studying depression.  Future radiologists may be empowered to obtain the diagnostic information of the mental abnormalities by analyzing the regional brain activity and connectivity in patient with depression. Although we don’t know yet if neuronal changes precede or cause brain changes or vice versa, it is becoming clear that the altered cerebral structure, function or/and blood perfusion exists in these patients.  The present lecture will thus focus on the most recent MR imaging results from a cohort of patients with depressive disorders. These imaging evidences allow us to gain further insight into how brain is ‘depressed’, and may potentially serve as objective ‘radiological signs’so to assist its imaging diagnosis as well as differential diagnosis. Of specific interest to clinician, the related imaging features may be utilized not only to aid the screening and early diagnosis but also to monitor the therapeutic effect for the depression in near future.