Action monitoring and depressive symptom reduction in major depressive disorder

Electrical brain imaging reveals the expression and timing of altered error monitoring functions in major depression.

“…This decreased Pe component during error monitoring in MDD patients might be explained either by symptom severity, which is stronger in MDD patients (the present study ;Olvet, Klein, & Hajcak, 2010;Schrijvers, de Bruijn et al, 2008;Schrijvers et al, 2009) than in moderately depressed individuals (Chiu & Deldin, 2007;Compton et al, 2008;Holmes & Pizzagalli, 2008).…”

“…component as a function of depression (Chiu & Deldin, 2007;Compton et al, 2008;Holmes & Pizzagalli, 2008;Holmes & Pizzagalli, 2010;Schrijvers et al, 2009), we did not formulate a clear directional prediction regarding a possible change of the amplitude of the ERN/Ne in MDD. However, given that MDD is typically conceived as an internalizing disorder (Mineka, Watson, & Clark, 1998) and because the ERN/Ne is thought to be reliably enhanced or overactive in this type of disorders, we surmised that MDD patients might show a larger ERN/Ne than the HCs (Olvet & Hajcak, 2008).…”

“…Error-monitoring in major depression 18 already reported similar or even diminished ERN/Ne amplitudes in severely depressed individuals who are characterized by apathy, anhedonia and psychomotor retardation (Schrijvers, de Bruijn, et al, 2008;Schrijvers et al, 2009;). …”

Intact error monitoring in combat Veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder

“…Major depression is another condition that can affect the size of the ERN (Ruchsow et al, 2006;Chiu and Deldin, 2007;Holmes and Pizzagalli, 2008), although not always (Schrijvers et al, 2009;Bailey et al, 2015). We saw no relationship between ERN amplitude and the severity of depression symptoms reported on the BDI.…”

“…Individuals with schizophrenia show reductions in the ERN (Alain et al, 2002;Mathalon et al, 2002), whereas those with generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) and OCD show increases (Gehring et al, 2000;Endrass and Ullsperger, 2014;Xiao et al, 2011). The findings in major depressive disorder are mixed, with some studies showing increases in ERN amplitude (Chiu and Deldin, 2007;Holmes and Pizzagalli, 2008;Aarts et al, 2013) and others decreases (Ruchsow et al, 2006) or no difference (Compton et al, 2008;Schrijvers et al, 2009). Co-morbid conditions that occur with depression may account for some of the mixed results.…”