Neural Markers of Cognitive Reappraisal Difficulties in the Detection of Adolescent Depression

Abstract

Depressed individuals tend to use maladaptive emotion regulation strategies more frequently than non-depressed individuals while using adaptive strategies like reappraisal less frequently. Objective neural markers of cognitive reappraisal could aid in detecting depression and future depression risk. Critically, findings from emotion regulation tasks demonstrate the late positive potential (LPP) component and relative alpha power are both modifiable by cognitive reappraisal efforts. The current study applied principal component analysis (PCA) to EEG data from 201 adolescents (aged 14-17) along with advanced machine learning techniques to clarify the neurophysiological substrates of reappraisal and whether these substrates can discriminate depressed from non-depressed youth concurrently and prospectively. Results revealed a significant group X condition interaction for a late frontal LPP component, such that never-depressed youth showed reappraisal-related LPP reductions while currently depressed youth did not. A pattern for event-related increases in alpha synchronization during reappraisal was observed, but no group differences emerged. Finally, machine learning analyses found the inclusion of both time and time-frequency components optimally discriminated between adolescents with a without a future depressive episode. The findings from this study advance our understanding of complex neurophysiological alterations during cognitive reappraisal and alterations in depressed adolescents’ ability to engage in effective reappraisal.