Neural correlates of impairments in music emotion processing in major depressive disorder: Evidenced from an event-related potential study

Abstract

BACKGROUND

Patients with major depressive disorder (MDD) commonly exhibit widespread cognitive impairments. Music, as a complex auditory stimulus with relatively high ecological validity, can be utilized to investigate brain information processing mechanisms. Event-related potentials (ERPs) are well-suited for capturing the temporal dynamics of neural processing across successive cognitive stages. However, the number of systematic ERPs studies examining multi-stage musical information processing in MDD patients remains relatively limited.

AIM

To elucidate the neural mechanisms underlying musical emotion processing deficits in MDD using a multi-stage ERPs framework, and to explore potential neurobiological markers associated with cognitive impairment.

METHODS

Thirty MDD patients (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition diagnosis, 24-item Hamilton Depression Rating Scale ≥ 20) and twenty-nine demographically matched healthy controls (HCs) completed a category judgment task with neutral, negative, and positive musical stimuli (4-7 seconds each). Electroencephalogram was recorded using a 64-channel system, and core ERPs components (N100, P200, P300) from the left prefrontal, right prefrontal, and central regions were analyzed. Behavioral (accuracy, reaction time) and ERPs data were examined via repeated-measures ANOVA.

RESULTS

Behaviorally, MDD patients showed significantly lower overall accuracy (P = 0.008) and longer reaction times (P = 0.014) than HC. Both groups responded faster to positive music than neutral and negative music (P < 0.001). Neurophysiologically, significant “group × emotional condition” or “group × region” interactions emerged for N100 (button response: P = 0.007), P200 (onset: P = 0.012), and P300 (onset: P = 0.008). Key neural features of MDD included enhanced central N100 amplitude, failure to differentiate neutral from negative music at the P200 stage, and absent stimulus type-related modulation of P300, contrasting with HCs’ differentiated neural responses. Behaviorally, MDD patients showed significantly lower overall accuracy (P = 0.008) and longer reaction times (P = 0.014) than HC. Both groups responded faster to positive music than neutral and negative music (P < 0.001). Neurophysiologically, significant “group × emotional condition” or “group × region” interactions emerged for N100 (button response: P = 0.007), P200 (onset: P = 0.012), and P300 (onset: P = 0.008). Key neural features of MDD included enhanced central N100 amplitude, failure to differentiate neutral from negative music at the P200 stage, and absent stimulus type-related modulation of P300, contrasting with HCs’ differentiated neural responses.

CONCLUSION

MDD patients exhibit multi-stage neural functional abnormalities in musical emotional processing. ERPs abnormalities reflect deficits in early sensory-attentional allocation (N100), stimulus feature discrimination (P200), and late cognitive evaluation (P300). These stage-specific ERPs profiles can serve as potential neurobiological markers for cognitive impairments in MDD, highlighting the utility of musical paradigms in unraveling the brain functional mechanisms of depression.

Keywords: Major depressive disorder; Emotional processing; Musical emotional information; Event-related potentials; N100; P200; P300

Core Tip: Using ecologically valid traditional Chinese instrumental music as stimuli and multi-stage event-related potentials analysis, this study found that patients with major depressive disorder exhibit multi-stage abnormalities in musical emotion processing: Enhanced central N100 amplitude (early sensory hypervigilance), failure of P200 to distinguish neutral from negative music (feature discrimination deficit), and absence of P300 emotional modulation (impaired late cognitive evaluation), accompanied by lower behavioral accuracy and longer reaction times. These event-related potentials profiles may serve as potential neurobiological markers for cognitive impairments in major depressive disorder.