Visual event-related potentials to facial expressions in depressed and non-depressed subjects

Abstract

Event Abstract Back to Event Visual event-related potentials to facial expressions in depressed and non-depressed subjects Piia Astikainen1* and Jari K. Hietanen2 1 University of Jyväskylä, Finland 2 University of Tampere, Finland In order to study possible processing abnormalities of facial emotions in depression, event-related potentials (ERPs) to pictures of faces were recorded in depressed (n = 28) and non-depressed subjects (n = 23). We employed an oddball condition where pictures of happy (p = .1) and fearful (p = .1) faces were randomly interspersed with pictures of neutral faces (p = .8). The participants were instructed to attend to a radio play. In both groups of subjects, the peak amplitude of the N170 component (in P7 and P8 electrodes) was enhanced to fearful and happy expressions compared to neutral faces. In addition, emotional expressions elicited larger responses in right than left parietal electrode in both groups. The subject groups differed in elicitation of the fronto-central vertex positive potential (VPP). In the control group, happy faces elicited larger VPP responses than fearful faces. In the depressed group, no such difference was found. The results suggest that processing of emotional information from faces differs between depressed and control participants already at the early stages of face processing, even in conditions when the faces are non-attended. Funding: The study was supported by the Academy of Finland (the project funding for R.L.) Keywords: ERP, Neuropsychiatry Conference: XI International Conference on Cognitive Neuroscience (ICON XI), Palma, Mallorca, Spain, 25 Sep - 29 Sep, 2011. Presentation Type: Poster Presentation Topic: Poster Sessions: Neuropsychiatric Applications Citation: Astikainen P and Hietanen JK (2011). Visual event-related potentials to facial expressions in depressed and non-depressed subjects. Conference Abstract: XI International Conference on Cognitive Neuroscience (ICON XI). doi: 10.3389/conf.fnhum.2011.207.00121 Copyright: The abstracts in this collection have not been subject to any Frontiers peer review or checks, and are not endorsed by Frontiers. They are made available through the Frontiers publishing platform as a service to conference organizers and presenters. The copyright in the individual abstracts is owned by the author of each abstract or his/her employer unless otherwise stated. Each abstract, as well as the collection of abstracts, are published under a Creative Commons CC-BY 4.0 (attribution) licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) and may thus be reproduced, translated, adapted and be the subject of derivative works provided the authors and Frontiers are attributed. For Frontiers’ terms and conditions please see https://www.frontiersin.org/legal/terms-and-conditions. Received: 17 Nov 2011; Published Online: 28 Nov 2011. * Correspondence: Dr. Piia Astikainen, University of Jyväskylä, Jyväskylä, Finland, piia.astikainen@jyu.fi Login Required This action requires you to be registered with Frontiers and logged in. To register or login click here. Abstract Info Abstract The Authors in Frontiers Piia Astikainen Jari K Hietanen Google Piia Astikainen Jari K Hietanen Google Scholar Piia Astikainen Jari K Hietanen PubMed Piia Astikainen Jari K Hietanen Related Article in Frontiers Google Scholar PubMed Abstract Close Back to top Javascript is disabled. Please enable Javascript in your browser settings in order to see all the content on this page.