Regional brain asymmetries during verbal and spatial tasks in depression with high or low trait anxiety
Item
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Title
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Regional brain asymmetries during verbal and spatial tasks in depression with high or low trait anxiety
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Identifier
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d_2009_2013:1a8a29d8101a:10197
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identifier
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10429
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Creator
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Manna, Carlye Griggs,
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Contributor
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Joan C. Borod | Gerard E. Bruder
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Date
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2009
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Language
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English
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Publisher
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City University of New York.
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Subject
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Physiological psychology | Clinical psychology | Cognitive psychology
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Abstract
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Depression is a common disorder with various clinical presentations and is frequently comorbid with anxiety disorders. The relationship of regional brain asymmetry to mood disorders has been informed by neuropsychological models in which emotion is lateralized along positive/negative and approach/withdrawal dimensions and by clinical reports of affective disturbances following localized brain damage. Studies of regional hemispheric asymmetries point to relatively less activity in left frontal and right posterior regions in depression. Anxiety has also been associated with less left frontal, but increased right posterior activity, which has been related to arousal and may, in anxious-depressed individuals, offset the posterior asymmetry normally seen in depression. These asymmetries have been indexed by EEG or inferred through the use of lateralized auditory and visual tasks (e.g., dichotic listening and chimeric face tasks). However, associations between regional EEG activity and neurocognitive function in depression or anxiety remain unclear. A number of neurocognitive deficits have been associated with depression, including poorer spatial than verbal skills, supporting right posterior deficits.with high anxiety (n=14) or low anxiety (n=14) and 21 age- and education-matched healthy adults during the two tasks, and alpha power was averaged within each task. Task performance was also recorded.;As predicted, the two patient groups exhibited opposite patterns of regional hemispheric alpha asymmetry. Greater right than left central-parietal activation was seen in the high-anxiety depressed group during the spatial task, whereas the verbal task elicited greater left than right frontal-central activation in the low-anxiety depressed group. Additionally, low-anxiety depressed patients and controls performed better on the verbal than the spatial task, whereas there was no asymmetry of performance within the high-anxiety depressed group. These results are consistent with Heller's two-dimensional model of depression and anxiety and highlight the sensitivity of task-related alpha in discriminating among subgroups of depressed patients differing in trait anxietyThe present study used matched verbal (Word Finding) and spatial (Dot Localization) tasks to compare task-related alpha asymmetries in depressed patients grouped according to level of trait anxiety. EEG was recorded from depressed patients with high anxiety (n=14) or low anxiety (n=14) and 21 age- and education-matched healthy adults during the two tasks, and alpha power was averaged within each task. Task performance was also recorded.;As predicted, the two patient groups exhibited opposite patterns of regional hemispheric alpha asymmetry. Greater right than left central-parietal activation was seen in the high-anxiety depressed group during the spatial task, whereas the verbal task elicited greater left than right frontal-central activation in the low-anxiety depressed group. Additionally, low-anxiety depressed patients and controls performed better on the verbal than the spatial task, whereas there was no asymmetry of performance within the high-anxiety depressed group. These results are consistent with Heller's two-dimensional model of depression and anxiety and highlight the sensitivity of task-related alpha in discriminating among subgroups of depressed patients differing in trait anxiety.
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Type
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dissertation
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Source
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2009_2013.csv
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degree
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Ph.D.
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Program
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Psychology
