ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Psychiatry
Sec. Mood Disorders
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2025.1528316
Event-related potential evidence of impaired proactive control in individuals with subthreshold depression
Provisionally accepted
- College of Psychology, Liaoning Normal University, Dalian, China
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Objective and rationale: Cognitive control deficits are considered as central features of cognitive impairments in depression. The dual mechanisms of control (DMC)-proactive and reactive control-can further elucidate the nature of these deficits. However, evidence regarding proactive control in mild depression remains uncertain. This study investigated alterations of DMC and their related neural correlates in subthreshold depression (SD).Method: Participants with subthreshold depression were identified through a mental health screening and assigned to the SD group (n = 27), while healthy controls (HC) without depressive symptoms were recruited as the control group (n = 28). All participants completed the AX-Continuous Performance Task while measuring behavioral (reaction time, accuracy) and electrophysiological responses (cue-P3, probe-N2/P3). The primary outcome focused on alteration of proactive control in individuals with SD, assessed through group differences in BX performance and cue-P3 component. Secondary outcomes encompassed AY trial performance and probe-N2/P3 components, indexing reactive control alteration in SD individuals.Results: Slower responses in BX and BY trials were observed for the SD relative to the HC group, indicating the impairment of context processing in individuals with SD. ERP results showed that cue-P3 components were less positive for the SD group relative to the HC group, indicating reduced cue utilization and attentional allocation to the cue in in individuals with SD. Moreover, the positive correlation between the probe-N2 component and BDI scores implies that individuals with SD may rely more on reactive control. Conclusion: These findings suggest proactive control deficits in individuals with SD, as evidenced by diminished attentional allocation to the cue and inefficient cue utilization.
Keywords: Subthreshold depression, cognitive control, proactive control, reactive control, attentional allocation, Context updating
Received: 14 Nov 2024; Accepted: 11 Jun 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Wang, Hu, Qiang, Liu and Yang. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Jinsheng Hu, College of Psychology, Liaoning Normal University, Dalian, China
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