Emotion Regulation Deficit In Late-onset Depressed Patients Revealed By An ERP Study

Late-onset depression (LOD) is a heterogeneous disorder that has become a major public health concern. In contrast to subjects with early-onset depression (EOD), LOD is characterized by the coexistence of mood disorder and cognitive impairment. Genetic factors are generally thought to be of less significance in late-onset depressed patients. Subjects with LOD show a stronger relationship with vascular disease and white matter lesions. Excetutive dysfunction, a clinical expression of frontastriatal abnormalities, is common in late-onset depression.Event-related potentials (ERPs) techniques yield precise information concerning the time course of brain activation and have played important roles in the basic and applied reseach of cognition and emotion. The N2Nogo and P3Nogo are two major ERPs components in Go/Nogo task related to cognitive control of emotion. The N2Nogo and P3Nogo has been located exactly within the ACC and PFC with its maximum and considered as the monitoring of conflict between competing responses, and thought to be electrophysiological correlates of response inhibition and to reflect activity in the frontal cortical network.Depression is a disorder of the regulation and representiation of mood and emotion. However, the neural basis of emotion regulation deficit in late-onset depressed patient is still unknown.The aim of our study was to investigate whether...