Neural correlates of conditional reasoning dysfunction in major depression: An event-related potential study with the Wason selection task

doi:10.5498/wjp.v15.i12.111972

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World Journal of Psychiatry

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World J Psychiatry. Dec 19, 2025; 15(12): 111972
Published online Dec 19, 2025. doi: 10.5498/wjp.v15.i12.111972

Neural correlates of conditional reasoning dysfunction in major depression: An event-related potential study with the Wason selection task

Jia-Xv Li, Mei-Chen Lu, Luo-An Wu, Wei Li, Yu Li, Xin-Ping Li, Xiao-Hong Liu, Xue-Zheng Gao, Zhen-He Zhou, Hong-Liang Zhou

Jia-Xv Li, Xin-Ping Li, Zhen-He Zhou, Department of Psychiatry, The Affiliated Mental Health Center of Jiangnan University, Training Base of Hubei University of Medicine, Shiyan 442000, Hubei Province, China

Mei-Chen Lu, Xiao-Hong Liu, Xue-Zheng Gao, Zhen-He Zhou, Department of Psychiatry, The Affiliated Mental Health Center of Jiangnan University, Wuxi 214151, Jiangsu Province, China

Luo-An Wu, Wei Li, Yu Li, Department of Psychiatry, The Yixing Fifth People’s Hospital, Yixing 214200, Jiangsu Province, China

Hong-Liang Zhou, Department of Psychology, The Affiliated Hospital of Jiangnan University, Wuxi 214151, Jiangsu Province, China

Co-first authors: Jia-Xv Li and Mei-Chen Lu.

Co-corresponding authors: Zhen-He Zhou and Hong-Liang Zhou.

Author contributions: Zhou ZH and Zhou HL designed the study and contributed equally as co-corresponding authors; Li JX, Lu MC, Wu LA, Li W, Li Y, Gao XZ, Li XP, and Liu XH recruited participants and collected the data; Li JX and Lu MC contributed equally as co-first authors; Li JX, Lu MC, Zhou ZH and Zhou HL analyzed data and drafted the manuscript; all the authors contributed to the interpretation of the results, manuscript revision, and approved the final version of the manuscript.

Supported by Wuxi Taihu Talent Project, No. WXTTP 2021; and the General Scientific Research Program of Wuxi Municipal Health Commission, No. M202447.

Institutional review board statement: This study was approved by the Medical Ethics Committee of the Wuxi Mental Health Center (Approval No. WXMHCIRB2025 LLky013).

Informed consent statement: All participants enrolled into this study provided informed written consent prior to study enrollment.

Conflict-of-interest statement: All the authors report no relevant conflicts of interest for this article.

STROBE statement: The authors have read the STROBE Statement—checklist of items, and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the STROBE Statement—checklist of items.

Data sharing statement: Data used in this study can be available from the corresponding author upon request.

Open Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/

Corresponding author: Zhen-He Zhou, MD, PhD, Department of Psychiatry, The Affiliated Mental Health Center of Jiangnan University, No. 156 Qianrong Road, Wuxi 214151, Jiangsu Province, China. zhouzh@jiangnan.edu.cn

Received: July 15, 2025
Revised: August 11, 2025
Accepted: September 10, 2025
Published online: December 19, 2025
Processing time: 136 Days and 0.4 Hours

Abstract

BACKGROUND

Patients with major depression (MD) exhibit conditional reasoning dysfunction; however, no studies on the event-related potential (ERP) characteristics of conditional reasoning in MD have been reported.

AIM

To investigate the ERP characteristics of conditional reasoning in MD patients and explore the neural mechanism of cognitive processing.

METHODS

Thirty-four patients with MD and 34 healthy controls (HCs) completed ERP measurements while performing the Wason selection task (WST). The cluster-based permutation test in FieldTrip was used to compare the differences in the mean amplitudes between the patients with MD and HCs on the ERP components under different experimental conditions. Behavioral data [accuracy (ACC) and reaction times (RTs)], the ERP P100 and late positive potentials (LPPs) were analyzed.

RESULTS

Although the mean ACC was greater and the mean of RTs was shorter in HCs than in MD patients, the differences were not statistically significant. However, across both groups, the ACC in the precautionary WST was greater than that in the other tasks, and the RTs in the abstract task were greater than those in the other tasks. Importantly, compared with that of HCs, the P100 of the left centroparietal sites was significantly increased, and the early LPP was attenuated at parietal sites and increased at left frontocentral sites; the medium LPP and late LPP were increased at the left frontocentral sites.

CONCLUSION

Patients with MD have conditional reasoning dysfunction and exhibit abnormal ERP characteristics evoked by the WST, which suggests neural correlates of abnormalities in conditional reasoning function in MD patients.

Keywords: Major depression; Event-related potential; Wason selection task; Conditional reasoning; Neural mechanism

Core Tip: To our knowledge, this investigation represents the initial application of the Wason selection task to assess the neurocognitive mechanisms associated with conditional reasoning in patients with major depression (MD). The observed event-related potential differences between healthy controls and MD patients provide critical neurophysiological evidence for understanding the neural substrates of conditional reasoning and may guide targeted interventions for MD.