Heterogeneity of information-processing alterations according to dimensions of depression: An event-related potentials study

To identify alterations in elementary cognitive operations according to dimensions of depression, two stages of information processing, namely the response choice and the motor preparation stages, were explored using an event-related potential paradigm in two subgroups of depressed patients (retarded and blunted affect versus anxious-agitated and impulsive) compared to controls. Two results are common to all depressed patients: a slow encoding of stimuli (P1 wave) and a prolonged processing of stimulus-response compatibility (after P3b). This is compensated by a global velocity increase in stimulus evaluation or decision making (P3b) in anxious—agitated patients or, on the contrary, cumulated with its velocity decrease in retarded—blunted-affect patients. Such results could provide an explanation for the massive retardation observed in blunted-affect patients, contrary to anxious—agitated patients, whose normal reaction times may come from a very high energetical involvement at the P3b level. Results as a whole suggest that impairments in blunted-affect patients concern effort mechanisms, whereas those in anxious—agitated patients concern perceptual processes.