State or trait? Auditory event-related potentials in adolescents with current and remitted major depression

Abstract

Objective: Event-related potential (ERP) studies have revealed abnormal neurophysiological patterns underlying selective attention in patients with Major Depression (MD). Only few included both patients in acute and remitted state to address the question whether these abnormalities are state- or trait- dependent and none focused on adolescent MD. Thus, the aim of our study was to address this question in an adolescent sample.

Methods: 22 adolescents with acute MD, 20 adolescents with remitted MD (rMD) and 32 healthy controls (HC) performed a standard two-tone auditory oddball task while ERPs (N100, P200, N200, P300) were collected.

Results: Adolescents with rMD showed a reduced N200 amplitude to target tones across frontal, central and parietal recording sites. Adolescents with MD exhibited a reduced N200 amplitude to targets in the frontal region compared to HC. No differences emerged between rMD and the MD group.

Conclusions: The reduced N200 amplitude in adolescents with rMD and MD presumably reflects difficulties in stimulus classification and response selection. Our results indicate that this neurophysiological characteristic is a trait marker of adolescent depression.

Keywords: Adolescence; Depression; Event-related potentials; Oddball; Selective attention; State-trait.