Neural Basis of the Emotional Conflict Processing in Major Depression: ERPs and Source Localization Analysis on the N450 and P300 Components

Abstract

Objects: Effective psychological function requires that cognition is not affected by task-irrelevant emotional stimuli in emotional conflict. Depression is mainly characterized as an emotional disorder. The object of this study is to reveal the behavioral and electrophysiological signature of emotional conflict processing in major depressive disorder (MDD) using event-related potentials (ERPs) and standardized low-resolution brain electromagnetic tomography (sLORETA) analysis.Method: We used a face–word Stroop task involving emotional faces while recording EEG (electroencephalography) in 20 patients with MDD and 20 healthy controls (HCs). And then ERPs were extracted and the corresponding brain sources were reconstructed using sLORETA.Results: Behaviorally, subjects with MDDs manifested significantly increased Stroop effect when examining the RT difference between happy incongruent trials and happy congruent trials, compared with HC subjects. ERP results exhibited that MDDs were characterized by the attenuated difference between P300 amplitude to sad congruent stimuli and sad incongruent stimuli, as electrophysiological evidence of impaired conflict processing in subjects with MDD. The sLORETA results showed that MDD patients had a higher current density in rostral anterior cingulate cortex (rostral ACC) within N450 time window in response to happy incongruent trials than happy congruent stimuli. Moreover, HC subjects had stronger activity in right inferior frontal gyrus (rIFG) region in response to incongruent stimuli than congruent stimuli, revealing successful inhibition of emotional distraction in HCs, which was absent in MDDs.Conclusion: Our results indicated that rostral ACC was implicated in the processing of negative emotional distraction in MDDs, as well as impaired inhibition of task-irrelevant emotional stimuli, relative to HCs. This work furnishes novel behavioral and neurophysiological evidence that are closely related to emotional conflict among MDD patients.

Early institutionalized care disrupts the development of emotion processing in prosody

“…The midfrontal location of the congruency effect in this study comports with extensive adult literature showing frontal midline ERPs and activation in the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) and prefrontal cortex (PFC) in response to stimulus congruency in a variety of emotional and non-emotional contexts (Kerns, 2006; Töllner et al, 2017; West, Bailey, Tiernan, Boonsuk, & Gilbert, 2012; Zhu et al, 2018). Although results have been mixed, some research has shown thickness differences in the ACC of children who have experienced maltreatment (Kelly et al, 2013) and researchers have also found differences in prefrontal areas in children who have experienced institutionalization (McLaughlin et al, 2014).…”

Discriminative Power of EEG-Based Biomarkers in Major Depressive Disorder: A Systematic Review

“…These results suggest that perceptual processes involved in the early stages of face processing are impaired in MDD. Zhu et al [84] assessed the amplitudes and latencies of N450 and P300 components in MDD and control groups, using a face-word Stroop task. Participants were presented with sad and happy face stimuli with the words happy or sad superimposed on them in incongruent and congruent ways and had to indicate the emotion expressed by the face, ignoring the word.…”

Effect of subclinical depression on moral judgment dilemmas: a process dissociation approach

“…When confronted with cognitive conflicts, individual dependent on a system of cognitive control to help them resolve the current conflict they are experiencing 37 . Major depression presented abnormal conflict processing in cognitive conflict tasks 38 , which can arise from this emotional interference and can compromise the ability to complete tasks requiring cognitive control 39 . Particularly, cognitive control resources can regulate and control other cognitive processes during moral decision-making that may be crucial for making moral judgments 5 .…”