Department of Psychology, Florida State University, USA.
Department of Psychology, Florida State University, USA.
Biol Psychol. 2022 May;171:108339. doi: 10.1016/j.biopsycho.2022.108339. Epub 2022 May 2.
Depression is associated with high levels of cognitive impairment and increased loneliness among older adults. The current study examines associations between a reliable and robust neural marker of cognitive impairment (i.e., the P300 event-related brain potential [ERP]), loneliness, and depression and assesses the role of loneliness in the P300─depression relationship. In a community sample of 70 older adults between 61 and 75 years, we evaluated cross-sectional associations between depressive symptoms (Geriatric Depression Scale), loneliness (NIH Toolbox), and P300 amplitude measured from the electroencephalogram during a go/no-go task. Results indicated that reduced go and no-go P300 amplitudes were associated with increased depressive symptom severity, with the most unique variance accounted for by a reduced no-go P300 amplitude. Notably, loneliness significantly moderated the no-go P300-depressive symptom severity relationship, such that there was no relationship between the no-go P300 and depressive symptom severity among older adults reporting low levels of loneliness. This finding provides insight into the possibility that social support may offer protection against the depressogenic effects of poor inhibitory control in older adults. Taken together, this study provides a novel examination of the relationships between depression, loneliness, and the P300 ERP in older adults, with important implications for understanding the role of neural inhibition and loneliness in relation to depressive symptomatology.
抑郁与老年人认知障碍程度较高和孤独感增加有关。本研究考察了认知障碍的可靠和强大神经标志物（即 P300 事件相关脑电位[ERP]）、孤独感和抑郁之间的关联，并评估了孤独感在 P300 与抑郁关系中的作用。在一个由 70 名年龄在 61 岁至 75 岁之间的社区老年人组成的样本中，我们评估了抑郁症状（老年抑郁量表）、孤独感（NIH 工具包）和在 Go/No-Go 任务中从脑电图测量的 P300 振幅之间的横断面关联。结果表明，减少 Go 和 No-Go P300 振幅与抑郁症状严重程度增加有关，其中减少的 No-Go P300 振幅解释了最大的独特方差。值得注意的是，孤独感显著调节了 No-Go P300 与抑郁症状严重程度之间的关系，因此在孤独感水平较低的老年人中，No-Go P300 与抑郁症状严重程度之间没有关系。这一发现提供了一种可能性，即社会支持可能为老年人提供了对抑制控制不良的抑郁影响的保护。总之，这项研究对老年人中抑郁、孤独感和 P300 ERP 之间的关系进行了新的考察，对理解神经抑制和孤独感与抑郁症状之间的关系具有重要意义。
