title: Brain laterality, depression and anxiety disorders: New findings for emotional and verbal dichotic listening in individuals at risk for depression.
abstract: Studies using dichotic listening tests and electroencephalographic (EEG) measures of hemispheric asymmetry have reported evidence of abnormal brain laterality in patients having depressive disorders. We present new findings from a multigenerational study of risk for depression, in which perceptual asymmetry was measured in dichotic listening tests of emotional and verbal processing. Biological offspring and grandchildren of probands with a major depressive disorder (MDD) who were at high risk and those of nondepressed controls who were at low risk were tested on dichotic emotional recognition and consonant-vowel syllable tests. In the emotion test, individuals with a lifetime diagnosis of MDD had a smaller right hemisphere advantage than those without a MDD, but there was no difference between high- and low-risk groups or between those with or without an anxiety disorder. In the syllable test, a smaller left hemisphere advantage was found in individuals with an anxiety disorder compared to those without an anxiety disorder, but there was no difference between high- and low-risk groups or between those with or without a MDD. This double dissociation indicates that lifetime diagnosis of MDD and anxiety disorders have a differential impact on lateralized hemispheric processing of emotional and verbal information.
authors.affiliation: a College of Physicians and Surgeons, Columbia University , New York , NY , USA.|b New York State Psychiatric Institute , New York , NY , USA.
authors.forename: Gerard E
authors.initials: GE
authors.lastname: Bruder
authors.affiliation: b New York State Psychiatric Institute , New York , NY , USA.
authors.forename: Jorge
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Alvarenga
authors.affiliation: b New York State Psychiatric Institute , New York , NY , USA.
authors.forename: Karen
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Abraham
authors.affiliation: a College of Physicians and Surgeons, Columbia University , New York , NY , USA.
authors.forename: Jamie
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Skipper
authors.affiliation: a College of Physicians and Surgeons, Columbia University , New York , NY , USA.|b New York State Psychiatric Institute , New York , NY , USA.
authors.forename: Virginia
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Warner
authors.affiliation: c Department of Psychology, University of New Brunswick , Fredericton , Canada.
authors.forename: Daniel
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Voyer
authors.affiliation: d Institute for the Developing Mind at Children's Hospital Los Angeles , Los Angeles , CA , USA.|e Department of Psychiatry, University of Southern California , Los Angeles , CA , USA.
authors.forename: Bradley S
authors.initials: BS
authors.lastname: Peterson
authors.affiliation: a College of Physicians and Surgeons, Columbia University , New York , NY , USA.|b New York State Psychiatric Institute , New York , NY , USA.
authors.forename: Myrna M
authors.initials: MM
authors.lastname: Weissman
keywords: Depression; anxiety disorders; dichotic listening; laterality; risk for depression