The P1 visual-evoked potential, red light, and transdiagnostic psychiatric symptoms

Abstract

A reduced P1 visual-evoked potential amplitude has been reported across several psychiatric disorders, including schizophrenia-spectrum, bipolar, and depressive disorders. In addition, a difference in P1 amplitude change to a red background compared to its opponent color, green, has been found in schizophrenia-spectrum samples. The current study examined whether specific psychiatric symptoms that related to these P1 abnormalities in earlier studies would be replicated when using a broad transdiagnostic sample. The final sample consisted of 135 participants: 26 with bipolar disorders, 25 with schizophrenia-spectrum disorders, 19 with unipolar depression, 62 with no current psychiatric disorder, and 3 with disorders in other categories. Low (8%) and high (64%) contrast check arrays were presented on gray, green, and red background conditions during electroencephalogram, while an eye tracker monitored visual fixation on the stimuli. Linear regressions across the entire sample (N = 135) found that greater severity of both clinician-rated and self-reported delusions/magical thinking correlated with a reduced P1 amplitude on the low contrast gray (neutral) background condition. In addition, across the entire sample, higher self-reported constricted affect was associated with a larger decrease in P1 amplitude (averaged across contrast conditions) to the red, compared to green, background. All relationships remained statistically significant after covarying for diagnostic class, suggesting that they are relatively transdiagnostic in nature. These findings indicate that early visual processing abnormalities may be more directly related to specific transdiagnostic symptoms such as delusions and constricted affect rather than specific psychiatric diagnoses or broad symptom factor scales.

Resting state functional connectivity predictors of treatment response to electroconvulsive therapy in depression

“…Patients with MDD show increased FFC activity to sad faces and decreased activation to happy faces 82 , and slowed face emotion recognition 83 . Moreover, alterations in color processing are known both scientifically 53 , 84 – 87 and colloquially (“seeing the world through grey tinted glasses”) 88 in depression. More basic deficits in VIS function, such as alterations in sensory event-related potentials or center-surround inhibition of motion processing 89 are also reported, consistent with our VIS findings.…”

Comparison of automatic visual attention in schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and major depression: Evidence from P1 event‐related component

“…In the literature on P1 in schizophrenics often the wave is computed by measuring individual peak amplitudes rather than using the mean amplitude within a time‐window around the peak. However, this methodological difference does not explain our results and their discrepancy from past studies.…”

“…Adopting a transdiagnostic approach focused on psychiatric symptoms, Bedwell and colleagues have carried out several studies on the visual P1 component. In their 2015 study, these authors found no differences in P1 amplitude among SCZ‐spectrum, chronic mood disorder, and non‐psychiatric control groups, whereas in their most recent work, they found a reduced bilateral P1 amplitude, with respect to HC, in SCZ but not in BD‐I patients . Impairments of early attentional mechanisms have also been observed in post‐traumatic stress disorder .…”

Childhood Cat Bites Relate to Increased Adulthood Severity of Schizotypy, Psychotic-Like Experiences, and Social Anhedonia in a Transdiagnostic Psychiatric Sample

“…Participants were provided a monetary stipend at the end of each session. The second session included EEG analysis of visual processing which has been published previously [14]; however, that publication did not include any data regarding cat interaction history.…”