title: The association between the disruption of motor imagery and the number of depressive episodes of major depression.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Mental rotation performance may be used as an index of mental slowing or bradyphrenia, and may reflect, in particular, speed of motor preparation. Previous studies suggest depressive patients present the correlates of impaired behavioural performance for mental rotation and psychomotor disturbance. The aim of this study is to compare the mental rotation abilities of patients with a first episode of depression, recurrent depression and healthy control subjects with regard to hand tasks.
  
  
  METHODS
  We tested 32 first episode of depression, 38 recurrent depression and 36 healthy control subjects by evaluating the performance of depressed patients with regard to the hand mental rotation tasks.
  
  
  RESULTS
  First, the first episode and recurrent depression subjects were significantly slower and made more errors than controls in mentally rotating hands. Second, the first depressive episode but not the recurrent depression displayed the same pattern of response times to stimuli at various orientations relative to control subjects in the hand task. Third, in particular, recurrent depression subjects were significantly slower and made more errors during the mental transformation of hands than first depressive episode relative to control subjects and the differences were significantly larger in female than male subjects in the mental rotation hand task.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Patients were on antidepressant medication.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  These results suggest that the impaired behavioural performance for mental representation processing are related to the number of previous episodes. Moreover, the recurrent major depressive episodes may contribute to the reinforcement of cognitive impairments and further the development or maintenance of mental representation dysfunctions, especially in female patients. A deficit on mental rotation in the depressive patients may be potential biomarkers for recurrence chronically.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, Zhongda Hospital, Southeast University, Nanjing 210009, Jiangsu Province, China. ericcst@yahoo.cn
authors.forename: Jiu
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Lai-qi
authors.initials: LQ
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.forename: Zhi-jun
authors.initials: ZJ
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Wen-tao
authors.initials: WT
authors.lastname: Ma
authors.forename: Xing-qu
authors.initials: XQ
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.forename: Xiang-rong
authors.initials: XR
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Dun-hong
authors.initials: DH
authors.lastname: Wei
authors.forename: Qing-hai
authors.initials: QH
authors.lastname: Fu
authors.forename: Guang-xiong
authors.initials: GX
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Zi-he
authors.initials: ZH
authors.lastname: Deng
authors.forename: Zhen
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Hua
authors.forename: Yan
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Ting
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Jia
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000928:Antidepressive Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use; D015415:Biomarkers; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D003865:Major Depressive Disorder / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D006225:Hand; D006801:Humans; D007092:Imagination; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009068:Movement; D012008:Recurrence; D055815:Young Adult
chemical_list: D000928:Antidepressive Agents; D015415:Biomarkers
keywords: First depressive episode; Gender effects; Hand; Mental rotation; Recurrent depression