Characteristics of the Spatial Organization of Cerebral Cortex Biopotentials in Different Variants of Neurotic Depression

Abstract

Studies were performed on 20 patients with different clinical variants of neurotic depression. The spatial organization of brain bioelectrical activity was studied in terms of cross-correlation and coherence analysis. The clinical pattern of neurotic depression was found to be reflected in the structure of the spatial organization of the EEG. The spatial organization of the EEG was modified dependent on the severity of the neurological depression itself and concomitant anxiety and asthenia syndromes. In the group with depressive syndrome with no concomitant asthenic or anxiety disorders, the greatest changes in long-range EEG connections were seen in the frontal and temporal areas of the right hemisphere and the posterior areas of the left, particularly the left posterotemporal area, along with differently directed changes consisting of decreased EEG connections in the right hemisphere and increases in the left. In the group in which depression was accompanied by anxiety, decreases in EEG cross-correlation and coherence connections were characteristic of the frontotemporal areas of both hemispheres, along with increases in long-range EEG connections in the posterior areas of the hemispheres, especially the left posterotemporal area. In the group in which depression and anxiety syndrome was combined with marked asthenic signs, the most characteristic feature was a decrease in interhemisphere EEG connections of the frontotemporal areas of the two hemispheres.