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Early processing of emotional faces in a Go/NoGo task: lack of N170 right-hemispheric specialisation in children with major depression

  • Psychiatry and Preclinical Psychiatric Studies - Original Article
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Abstract

Emotionally biased information processing towards sad and away from happy information characterises individuals with major depression. To learn more about the nature of these dysfunctional modulations, developmental and neural aspects of emotional face processing have to be considered. By combining measures of performance (attention control, inhibition) in an emotional Go/NoGo task with an event-related potential (ERP) of early face processing (N170), we obtained a multifaceted picture of emotional face processing in a sample of children and adolescents (11–14 years) with major depression (MDD, n = 26) and healthy controls (CTRL, n = 26). Subjects had to respond to emotional faces (fearful, happy or sad) and withhold their response to calm faces or vice versa. Children of the MDD group displayed shorter N170 latencies than children of the CTRL group. Typical right lateralisation of the N170 was observed for all faces in the CTRL but not for happy and calm faces in the MDD group. However, the MDD group did not differ in their behavioural reaction to emotional faces, and effects of interference by emotional information on the reaction to calm faces in this group were notably mild. Although we could not find a typical pattern of emotional bias, the results suggest that alterations in face processing of children with major depression can be seen at early stages of face perception indexed by the N170. The findings call for longitudinal examinations considering effects of development in children with major depression as well as associations to later stages of processing.

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Abbreviations

MDD:

Major depression

CTRL:

Healthy controls

EEG:

Electroencephalography

ERP:

Event-related potential

RT:

Reaction time

CE:

Commission errors

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Acknowledgments

This study was supported by LIFE—Leipzig Research Center for Civilization Diseases, Universität Leipzig. LIFE is funded by means of the European Union, by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and by means of the Free State of Saxony within the framework of the excellence initiative.

Conflict of interest

The authors state that they have no conflicts of interest.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. LIFE-Leipzig Research Center for Civilization Diseases, Universität Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany

    Madlen Grunewald, Stephanie Stadelmann, Sonia Jaeger, Tina Matuschek, Steffi Weis, Virgenie Kalex, Andreas Hiemisch, Kai von Klitzing & Mirko Döhnert

  2. Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics, Universität Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany

    Madlen Grunewald, Stephanie Stadelmann, Sonia Jaeger, Tina Matuschek, Steffi Weis, Virgenie Kalex, Kai von Klitzing & Mirko Döhnert

  3. Department of Women and Child Health, Hospital for Children and Adolescents, University Hospitals, Universität Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany

    Andreas Hiemisch

  4. Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Central Institute of Mental Health, Medical Faculty Mannheim/Heidelberg University, Mannheim, Germany

    Daniel Brandeis

  5. Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland

    Daniel Brandeis

  6. Center for Integrative Human Physiology, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland

    Daniel Brandeis

  7. Neuroscience Center Zurich, University of Zurich and ETH Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland

    Daniel Brandeis

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  1. Madlen Grunewald
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  2. Stephanie Stadelmann
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Correspondence to Madlen Grunewald or Mirko Döhnert.

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Grunewald, M., Stadelmann, S., Brandeis, D. et al. Early processing of emotional faces in a Go/NoGo task: lack of N170 right-hemispheric specialisation in children with major depression. J Neural Transm 122, 1339–1352 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00702-015-1411-7

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