Neural mechanisms of cognitive dysfunction in depression: dual-task event-related potentials and task-phase-dependent EEG functional connectivity
4 affiliations
- 1Department of Neurology, The First Hospital of Jilin University, 71-Xinmin Street, Changchun, China
- 2Headache Center, Department of Neurology, Beijing Tiantan Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing, China
- 3College of Instrumentation and Electrical Engineering, Jilin University, Changchun, China
- 4Computer Science College, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian, China
Abstract
Objective: To investigate the neurophysiological features underlying depression-related cognitive dysfunction via dual-task event-related potential (ERP) and task-phase-dependent electroencephalography (EEG) functional connectivity analysis.
Methods: Thirty patients with depression (DP group) and 30 matched healthy controls (HC group) underwent EEG recordings across pre-task resting state, face perception task (indexed by N170), face mismatch conflict monitoring task (indexed by N270), and post-task resting state. Functional connectivity was quantified using imaginary coherence (iCoh), with between-group comparisons corrected by Benjamini–Hochberg false discovery rate (FDR). Correlation analyses between electrophysiological metrics and clinical variables were performed in the DP group.
Results: The DP group exhibited prolonged latency and decreased amplitude of N170, prolonged latency and increased amplitude of N270, as well as task-phase-dependent multi-frequency brain network imbalances. In the DP group, longer N170 and N270 latencies were associated with more severe depressive symptoms, whereas task-phase-dependent functional connectivity abnormalities showed no significant associations with clinical variables.
Conclusion: Depression was associated with electrophysiological abnormalities in emotional processing and conflict monitoring, as well as task-phase-dependent brain network imbalances, providing exploratory neurophysiological evidence related to depression-associated cognitive dysfunction.
Clinical trial number: Not applicable.
Supplementary Information: The online version contains supplementary material available at https://doi.org/10.1186/s12888-026-08436-9.
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BibTeX
@article{zhang2026neural,
title = {{Neural mechanisms of cognitive dysfunction in depression: dual-task event-related potentials and task-phase-dependent EEG functional connectivity}},
author = {Yongxiang Zhang and Jing Li and Huifei Zhang and Guangda Liu and Xin Yang and Yudan Lv},
journal = {BMC Psychiatry},
year = {2026},
month = jul,
doi = {10.1186/s12888-026-08436-9},
url = {https://doi.org/10.1186/s12888-026-08436-9},
note = {CC BY-NC-ND 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Neural mechanisms of cognitive dysfunction in depression: dual-task event-related potentials and task-phase-dependent EEG functional connectivity
AU - Yongxiang Zhang
AU - Jing Li
AU - Huifei Zhang
AU - Guangda Liu
AU - Xin Yang
AU - Yudan Lv
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/07/29
JO - BMC Psychiatry
DO - 10.1186/s12888-026-08436-9
UR - https://doi.org/10.1186/s12888-026-08436-9
AB - Objective: To investigate the neurophysiological features underlying depression-related cognitive dysfunction via dual-task event-related potential (ERP) and task-phase-dependent electroencephalography (EEG) functional connectivity analysis. Methods: Thirty patients with depression (DP group) and 30 matched healthy controls (HC group) underwent EEG recordings across pre-task resting state, face perception task (indexed by N170), face mismatch conflict monitoring task (indexed by N270), and post-task resting state. Functional connectivity was quantified using imaginary coherence (iCoh), with between-group comparisons corrected by Benjamini–Hochberg false discovery rate (FDR). Correlation analyses between electrophysiological metrics and clinical variables were performed in the DP group. Results: The DP group exhibited prolonged latency and decreased amplitude of N170, prolonged latency and increased amplitude of N270, as well as task-phase-dependent multi-frequency brain network imbalances. In the DP group, longer N170 and N270 latencies were associated with more severe depressive symptoms, whereas task-phase-dependent functional connectivity abnormalities showed no significant associations with clinical variables. Conclusion: Depression was associated with electrophysiological abnormalities in emotional processing and conflict monitoring, as well as task-phase-dependent brain network imbalances, providing exploratory neurophysiological evidence related to depression-associated cognitive dysfunction. Clinical trial number: Not applicable. Supplementary Information: The online version contains supplementary material available at https://doi.org/10.1186/s12888-026-08436-9.
SN - 1471-244X
ER -