Electrophysiological Evidence for Elimination of the Positive Bias in Elderly Adults with Depressive Symptoms
BackgroundDepressed populations demonstrate a greater tendency to have negative interpretations on ambiguous situations. Cognitive theories concerning depression proposed that such a negative bias plays an important role in developing and maintaining depression. There is now fairly consistent eviden...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Frontiers Media S.A.
2018-03-01
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| Series: | Frontiers in Psychiatry |
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| Online Access: | http://journal.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fpsyt.2018.00062/full |
| _version_ | 1811217480515846144 |
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| author | Huixia Zhou Huixia Zhou Bibing Dai Bibing Dai Sonja Rossi Juan Li Juan Li Juan Li Juan Li |
| author_facet | Huixia Zhou Huixia Zhou Bibing Dai Bibing Dai Sonja Rossi Juan Li Juan Li Juan Li Juan Li |
| author_sort | Huixia Zhou |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | BackgroundDepressed populations demonstrate a greater tendency to have negative interpretations on ambiguous situations. Cognitive theories concerning depression proposed that such a negative bias plays an important role in developing and maintaining depression. There is now fairly consistent evidence arising from different stimuli and assessment methods that depression is featured by such a bias. The current study aimed to explore the neural signatures associated with the interpretation bias in the elderly with depressive symptoms confronted with different facial expressions using event-related brain potentials (ERPs).MethodsParticipants were 14 community-dwelling older adults with depressive symptoms assessed by the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression scale scores. We collected event-related potentials of their brain compared to that of 14 healthy aged-matched adults. The late positive potential (LPP) was used to examine cognitive-affective processes associated with judgment of emotional facial expressions between the two groups.ResultsOld adults with depressive symptoms have much smaller amplitude than healthy older adults irrespective of the prime types. When processing the targets, the two groups showed different patterns regarding the LPP. The healthy control group revealed no differences between ambiguous and happy primes, irrespective of whether the targets were sad or happy facial expressions. However, significant differences were found between happy and sad and between ambiguous and sad primes. Such a pattern indicates a positive bias in healthy elderly adults. Regarding the elderly with depressive symptoms, there were no significant differences between ambiguous versus happy, ambiguous versus sad primes, and happy versus sad primes. Concerning reaction times, there was no group difference. Thus, the findings provide some support for cognitive theories of depression.ConclusionThe current study shows that there is an association between interpretative biases and depressive symptoms in the elderly by using the neuroscientific method of ERPs. The results suggest that ERPs are sensitive to explore the interpretation bias in depressed populations. |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-12T06:55:33Z |
| format | Article |
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| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1664-0640 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-12T06:55:33Z |
| publishDate | 2018-03-01 |
| publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Frontiers in Psychiatry |
| spelling | doaj.art-02075abcc07a4016821e6154bf7cec412022-12-22T03:43:08ZengFrontiers Media S.A.Frontiers in Psychiatry1664-06402018-03-01910.3389/fpsyt.2018.00062333644Electrophysiological Evidence for Elimination of the Positive Bias in Elderly Adults with Depressive SymptomsHuixia Zhou0Huixia Zhou1Bibing Dai2Bibing Dai3Sonja Rossi4Juan Li5Juan Li6Juan Li7Juan Li8Center on Ageing Psychology, CAS Key Laboratory of Mental Health, Institute of Psychology, Beijing, ChinaDepartment of Psychology, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, ChinaCenter on Ageing Psychology, CAS Key Laboratory of Mental Health, Institute of Psychology, Beijing, ChinaInstitute of Psychology, Tianjin Medical University, Tianjin, ChinaClinic for Hearing-, Speech- and Voice Disorders, Medical University of Innsbruck, Innsbruck, AustriaCenter on Ageing Psychology, CAS Key Laboratory of Mental Health, Institute of Psychology, Beijing, ChinaDepartment of Psychology, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, ChinaMagnetic Resonance Imaging Research Center, Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, ChinaState Key Laboratory of Brain and Cognitive Science, Institute of Biophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, ChinaBackgroundDepressed populations demonstrate a greater tendency to have negative interpretations on ambiguous situations. Cognitive theories concerning depression proposed that such a negative bias plays an important role in developing and maintaining depression. There is now fairly consistent evidence arising from different stimuli and assessment methods that depression is featured by such a bias. The current study aimed to explore the neural signatures associated with the interpretation bias in the elderly with depressive symptoms confronted with different facial expressions using event-related brain potentials (ERPs).MethodsParticipants were 14 community-dwelling older adults with depressive symptoms assessed by the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression scale scores. We collected event-related potentials of their brain compared to that of 14 healthy aged-matched adults. The late positive potential (LPP) was used to examine cognitive-affective processes associated with judgment of emotional facial expressions between the two groups.ResultsOld adults with depressive symptoms have much smaller amplitude than healthy older adults irrespective of the prime types. When processing the targets, the two groups showed different patterns regarding the LPP. The healthy control group revealed no differences between ambiguous and happy primes, irrespective of whether the targets were sad or happy facial expressions. However, significant differences were found between happy and sad and between ambiguous and sad primes. Such a pattern indicates a positive bias in healthy elderly adults. Regarding the elderly with depressive symptoms, there were no significant differences between ambiguous versus happy, ambiguous versus sad primes, and happy versus sad primes. Concerning reaction times, there was no group difference. Thus, the findings provide some support for cognitive theories of depression.ConclusionThe current study shows that there is an association between interpretative biases and depressive symptoms in the elderly by using the neuroscientific method of ERPs. The results suggest that ERPs are sensitive to explore the interpretation bias in depressed populations.http://journal.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fpsyt.2018.00062/fullelderly with depressive symptomscognitive theories of depressionpositive biasevent-related brain potentialslate positive potential |
| spellingShingle | Huixia Zhou Huixia Zhou Bibing Dai Bibing Dai Sonja Rossi Juan Li Juan Li Juan Li Juan Li Electrophysiological Evidence for Elimination of the Positive Bias in Elderly Adults with Depressive Symptoms Frontiers in Psychiatry elderly with depressive symptoms cognitive theories of depression positive bias event-related brain potentials late positive potential |
| title | Electrophysiological Evidence for Elimination of the Positive Bias in Elderly Adults with Depressive Symptoms |
| title_full | Electrophysiological Evidence for Elimination of the Positive Bias in Elderly Adults with Depressive Symptoms |
| title_fullStr | Electrophysiological Evidence for Elimination of the Positive Bias in Elderly Adults with Depressive Symptoms |
| title_full_unstemmed | Electrophysiological Evidence for Elimination of the Positive Bias in Elderly Adults with Depressive Symptoms |
| title_short | Electrophysiological Evidence for Elimination of the Positive Bias in Elderly Adults with Depressive Symptoms |
| title_sort | electrophysiological evidence for elimination of the positive bias in elderly adults with depressive symptoms |
| topic | elderly with depressive symptoms cognitive theories of depression positive bias event-related brain potentials late positive potential |
| url | http://journal.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fpsyt.2018.00062/full |
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