Santopetro Nicholas J, Nelson Brady D, Hajcak Greg, Klein Daniel N
Department of Psychology, Florida State University, 1107 West Call Street, Tallahassee, FL, 32303, USA.
Department of Psychology, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY, USA.
Cogn Affect Behav Neurosci. 2025 Jul 1. doi: 10.3758/s13415-025-01327-8.
The prevalence of depressive and anxiety disorders dramatically increases as children enter adolescence. It is critical to identify etiological factors that can assist in the identification of children most at risk. Event-related potentials are one measure that has demonstrated promise and feasible application in children and adolescents. In particular, the P300 has been extensively employed to examine cognitive system deviations associated with depressive and anxiety disorders. However, this work has primarily focused on adults, and there have been limited prospective investigations, making it unclear whether the P300 can prospectively predict the development of later depressive and anxiety disorders during critical developmental periods, such as adolescence.
The present sample included 272 9-year-old children with no history of psychopathology who completed the doors task while continuous electroencephalography was recorded to measure the choice- and feedback-locked P300s. Participants completed follow-up diagnostic interviews through age 15 to determine onset of later depressive and anxiety disorders.
A smaller choice-locked, but not feedback-locked, P300 in childhood predicted an increased likelihood of developing first-onset depression by mid-adolescence. Neither P300 predicted the development of anxiety disorders.
The present study indicates a blunted choice-locked P300 indexes risk for depressive disorders in adolescence. The choice-locked P300 might be a valuable neural measure for further understanding pathways unique to increasing depression in adolescence.
随着儿童进入青春期，抑郁和焦虑障碍的患病率急剧上升。识别有助于确定风险最高儿童的病因因素至关重要。事件相关电位是一种已在儿童和青少年中显示出前景和可行应用的测量方法。特别是，P300已被广泛用于检查与抑郁和焦虑障碍相关的认知系统偏差。然而，这项工作主要集中在成年人身上，前瞻性研究有限，尚不清楚P300是否能在关键发育阶段（如青春期）前瞻性地预测后期抑郁和焦虑障碍的发展。
本样本包括272名无精神病理学病史的9岁儿童，他们在完成门任务时记录连续脑电图，以测量选择锁定和反馈锁定的P300。参与者在15岁之前完成随访诊断访谈，以确定后期抑郁和焦虑障碍的发病情况。
儿童期较小的选择锁定P300（而非反馈锁定P300）预示着到青春期中期首次发生抑郁症的可能性增加。两种P300均未预测焦虑障碍的发展。
本研究表明，选择锁定P300减弱是青春期抑郁症风险的指标。选择锁定P300可能是一种有价值的神经测量方法，有助于进一步了解青春期抑郁症增加所特有的途径。
