Regular Research ArticlesCognitive Control in Late-Life Depression: Response Inhibition Deficits and Dysfunction of the Anterior Cingulate Cortex
Section snippets
Participants
Eleven nondemented, depressed patients (six males) with nonpsychotic major depression (by Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-III-R, Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition; and a 24-item baseline Hamilton Depression Rating Scale [score of 17 or higher]) participated in this study. Of the 11 patients diagnosed with major depressive disorder, 4 were taking selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors. Mean age of the patient group was 73.4 years. Eleven nondepressed
RESULTS
Table 1 shows reaction time (RT) and accuracy (hits and false alarms) data for both groups. Mean RT for depressed (766 milliseconds) and nondepressed participants (789 milliseconds) in Go trials did not differ from each other (t20 = 0.82, p = 0.96). However, the depressed participants showed a significantly reduced hit rate (t20 = 9.7, p <0.0001) and increased false alarm rate (t20 = −3.1, p <0.01) when compared with the nondepressed subjects.
Figure 1 displays the ERP in Go and NoGo trials for
DISCUSSION
The principal finding of this study is that patients suffering from geriatric depression displayed a much-attenuated N2 effect when compared with nondepressed elders. Source analysis and topographic mapping pointed to a predominantly midline frontal generator of this N2 effect, which was localized to the ACC in the nondepressed group. In contrast, there was an apparent displacement of N2 generators toward more posterior areas of the middle frontal gyrus in the depressed group. There is
CONCLUSIONS
Although structural neuroimaging studies have consistently pointed to dysfunction in the ACC as an important neural substrate in geriatric depression, electrophysiologic studies of ACC function have been considerably less consistent in their findings. In this study, using a well-characterized and highly challenging task-switching design, we assessed response inhibition mechanisms in the ACC as reflected by the N2 ERP component and the N2 effect. Our data suggest clear differences between
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Cited by (0)
This work was supported by training grant T32 MH019132 from the National Institute of Mental Health (to RK, GSA), the National Institute on Aging AG22696 (to JJF), and the National Institute of Mental Health MH65350 (to JJF). Additional support was derived from the following sources: R01 MH097414 (GSA), K23 MH067702 (CFM), and P30 MH68638 (GSA).
Richard Katz and Pierfilippo De Sanctis contributed equally to this work.
All of the authors attest that there are no conflicts of interest, financial, or otherwise, pertaining to the work presented in this manuscript. Prof. Foxe takes full responsibility for the integrity of the data and attests that all authors had full access to the data in this study. Dr. Alexopoulos has received research grants from Forest Pharmaceuticals, Inc. and participated in scientific advisory board meetings of Forest Pharmaceuticals. He has given lectures supported from Forest, Cephalon, Bristol Meyers, Janssen, Pfizer, and Lilly and has received support by Comprehensive Neuroscience, Inc. for the development of treatment guidelines in late-life psychiatric disorders.