Гендерные различия эмоциональной модуляции зрительных ответов мозга у пациентов с рекуррентной депрессией

Abstract

Study Objective: To study gender-related characteristics of brain activity in patients with recurrent depression, while they perform a cognitive task with emotional stimulation. Study Design: This was a controlled non-randomized experimental study. Materials and Methods: Four groups were formed: two groups consisted of patients with recurrent depression (24 men and 24 women) and two groups were made up of healthy volunteers (25 men and 25 women). The patients were not taking any medications and did not differ in their Hamilton Depression Rating Scale or Hamilton Anxiety Rating Scale scores. The subjects were asked to sort 160 photos of people or animals, of which 80 were neutral images and 80 showed angry/aggressive people or animals. Simple patterns (cues) were presented two seconds prior to the pictures, and their relationship with the photographs was not explained. A 128-channel electroencephalogram was recorded and cue-elicited brain responses analyzed. Differences between the neutral and emotional conditions (emotional modulation, EM) were statistically evaluated for each group. Study Results: Gender-related differences in EM were greater in the patients than in the control-group subjects. The male patients had no EM of the P100 component, while EM of the P200 component and slow-wave activity after 400 msec was partially absent. In the female patients EM was consistently observed in the right posterior cortex. There were minimal differences in topographic distribution of EM of the N170 and P380 components between men and women as well as between patients and healthy subjects. Conclusion: Gender-related differences in unconscious EM of certain components of evoked brain activity suggest that mechanisms involved in the processing of emotional information are somewhat different in men and women. This suggests a need for a differentiated approach to examination and treatment of patients. Keywords: emotional modulation, electroencephalogram, recurrent depression, implicit education, visual evoked potentials, facial expression, anger.