Medical Psychological Center, The Second Xiangya Hospital, Central South University, Changsha, Hunan, China; Medical Psychology Institution, Central South University, Changsha, Hunan, China.
Center for Studies of Psychological Application, South China Normal University, Guangzhou 510631, China.
J Affect Disord. 2024 Nov 15;365:406-416. doi: 10.1016/j.jad.2024.08.092. Epub 2024 Aug 20.
Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) may exhibit impairments in cognitive flexibility. This study investigated whether the cognitive flexibility deficits in MDD are evident across general stimuli or specific to emotional stimuli, while exploring the underlying neuropsychological mechanism.
A total of 41 MDD patients and 42 healthy controls (HCs) were recruited. Event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded when participants performed a non-emotional and an emotional task switching paradigm (N-ETSP and ETSP), both of which assessed cognitive flexibility. Microstate and source localization analysis were applied to reflect brain activity among different brain areas during task switching.
In the N-ETSP, MDD group showed larger P3 difference wave (Pd3) amplitudes and longer P2 difference wave (Pd2) latencies. In the ETSP, MDD group displayed smaller N2 difference wave (Nd2) amplitudes and larger Pd3 amplitudes. The comparison of sLORETA images of emotional switch task and emotional repeat task showed that MDD group had increased activation in the precentral gyrus in microstate2 of the P2 time window and had reduced activation in the middle occipital gyrus in microstate3 of the N2 time window.
The cross-sectional design failed to capture dynamic changes in cognitive flexibility in MDD.
MDD demonstrated impaired cognitive flexibility respond to both non-emotional and emotional stimuli, with greater impairment for negative emotional stimuli. These deficits are evident in abnormal ERPs component during the early attention stage and the later task preparation stage. Furthermore, abnormal emotional switching cost in MDD appears to be related to early abnormal perceptual control in the parietal-occipital cortex.
重度抑郁症（MDD）可能表现出认知灵活性受损。本研究旨在探讨 MDD 的认知灵活性缺陷是否在一般刺激中表现明显，还是特定于情绪刺激，同时探索潜在的神经心理学机制。
共招募了 41 名 MDD 患者和 42 名健康对照者（HCs）。参与者进行非情绪和情绪任务转换范式（N-ETSP 和 ETSP）时记录事件相关电位（ERPs），两者均评估认知灵活性。微状态和源定位分析用于反映任务转换期间不同脑区的脑活动。
在 N-ETSP 中，MDD 组显示出更大的 P3 差值波（Pd3）振幅和更长的 P2 差值波（Pd2）潜伏期。在 ETSP 中，MDD 组显示出更小的 N2 差值波（Nd2）振幅和更大的 Pd3 振幅。情绪转换任务和情绪重复任务的 sLORETA 图像比较显示，MDD 组在 P2 时间窗口的微状态 2 中前中央回的激活增加，而在 N2 时间窗口的微状态 3 中中枕叶回的激活减少。
横断面设计未能捕捉到 MDD 认知灵活性的动态变化。
MDD 对非情绪和情绪刺激的认知灵活性表现受损，对负性情绪刺激的损伤更大。这些缺陷在早期注意阶段和后期任务准备阶段的异常 ERP 成分中表现明显。此外，MDD 中的异常情绪转换成本似乎与顶枕叶皮层的早期异常知觉控制有关。
