title: Heterogeneity of information-processing alterations according to dimensions of depression: an event-related potentials study.
abstract: To identify alterations in elementary cognitive operations according to dimensions of depression, two stages of information processing, namely the response choice and the motor preparation stages, were explored using an event-related potential paradigm in two subgroups of depressed patients (retarded and blunted affect versus anxious-agitated and impulsive) compared to controls. Two results are common to all depressed patients: a slow encoding of stimuli (P1 wave) and a prolonged processing of stimulus-response compatibility (after P3b). This is compensated by a global velocity increase in stimulus evaluation or decision making (P3b) in anxious-agitated patients or, on the contrary, cumulated with its velocity decrease in retarded-blunted-affect patients. Such results could provide an explanation for the massive retardation observed in blunted-affect patients, contrary to anxious-agitated patients, whose normal reaction times may come from a very high energetical involvement at the P3b level. Results as a whole suggest that impairments in blunted-affect patients concern effort mechanisms, whereas those in anxious-agitated patients concern perceptual processes.
authors.affiliation: CNRS URA 1957, Hôpital de la Salpetrière, Paris, France.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Pierson
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Ragot
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Van Hooff
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Partiot
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Renault
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Jouvent
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001008:Anxiety Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000523:psychology; D001143:Arousal / Q000502:physiology*; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology*; D001931:Brain Mapping; D002540:Cerebral Cortex / Q000503:physiopathology; D003118:Color Perception / Q000502:physiology; D003657:Decision Making / Q000502:physiology; D003866:Depressive Disorder / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000523:psychology; D004569:Electroencephalography; D005074:Evoked Potentials, Visual / Q000502:physiology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009949:Orientation / Q000502:physiology; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual / Q000502:physiology; D010555:Personality Inventory; D011340:Problem Solving / Q000502:physiology; D011597:Psychomotor Performance / Q000502:physiology*; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology*