Biological Psychiatry, 2020, 87(9), S173. [Presented at the 75^th Annual Meeting of the Society of Biological Psychiatry (SoBP) in New York, NY, April 30 - May 2, 2020.]

Family risk for depression and prioritization of peligion or spirituality: Early modulations of event-related potentials to unpleasant pictures

Jürgen Kayser¹, Craig E. Tenke¹, Connie Svob¹, Marc J. Gameroff¹, Lisa Miller², Jamie Skipper¹, Virginia Warner¹, Priya Wickramaratne¹, Myrna M. Weissman¹

¹Columbia University & New York State Psychiatric Institute; ²Columbia University, Teachers College, Spirituality Mind Body Institute

Abstract

Background: The personal importance of religion or spirituality (R/S) has been associated with a lower risk for major depression (MDD), suicidal behavior, reduced cortical thinning and increased posterior EEG alpha. Building on prior event-related potential (ERP) findings, this study examined whether abnormal early (preconscious) responsivity to negative arousing stimuli, which is indicative of right parietotemporal dysfunction in both MDD patients and individuals at high risk for depression, is likewise moderated by R/S. Methods: We reanalyzed 72-channel ERPs from 127 individuals at high or low family risk for MDD after R/S stratification (low R/S, low/high risk, n = 38/61; high R/S, n = 15/13). ERPs were transformed to reference-free current source density (CSD) and quantified by temporal principal components analysis (tPCA). We focused on N2 sink (212 ms) reflecting activation of occipitotemporal cortex, the earliest component found to be sensitive to emotional content by marking affective significance as a relative (superimposed) positivity. Results: Participants with low R/S, independent of risk status, showed greater ERP responsivity to negative than neutral stimuli, particularly over the right hemisphere. In contrast, early emotional ERP responsivity and asymmetry was substantially reduced for high risk individuals with high R/S, however, enhanced for low risk individuals with high R/S (p = .01). Conclusions: Results suggest down-regulation of a right-lateralized network for salience detection at an early processing stage in high risk and high R/S importance individuals, presumably to prevent overactivation of ventral brain regions further downstream. These findings may point to a neurophysiological mechanism underlying resilience of families at risk for depression with high R/S prioritization.

Key Words: depression risk; emotional lateralization; event-related potential (ERP); religion/ spirituality; source localization

[Supported by the National Institute of Mental Health (MH36197) and the John Templeton Foundation (#54679)].

doi:10.1016/j.biopsych.2020.02.457