Differentiating Anxiety and Depression in Children and Adolescents: Evidence From Event-Related Brain Potentials

Abstract

The current study, which was a reanalysis of previous data, focused on the error-related negativity (ERN)—an event-related potential (ERP) associated with error monitoring—and the feedback negativity (FN)—an ERP associated with reward processing. Two objectives motivated this study: first, to illustrate the relationship between the ERN and anxious symptoms, and the relationship between the FN and depressive symptoms; second, to explore whether the ERN and the FN relate uniquely to anxiety and depression, respectively, in children. EEG was collected from twenty-five 11- to 13-year-old participants (12 female; 23 Caucasian, 1 Asian, 1 of Caucasian and Hispanic ethnicity) during tasks designed to elicit an ERN and an FN. Participants and a parent completed questionnaires assessing the participant's anxious and depressive symptomatology. Increasing anxiety was related to a larger ERN, and increasing depression was related to a smaller FN. Further analysis demonstrated that these relationships remained significant when controlling for the contribution of other variables; that is, the ERN continued to predict anxiety when controlling for the FN and depression, and the FN continued to predict depression when controlling for the ERN and anxiety. Thus, in late childhood and early adolescence, the ERN and the FN appear to relate uniquely to anxious and depressive symptoms, respectively. Although this research is still in early stages, the ERN and the FN have the potential to inform trajectories of risk for anxiety and depression, and could be utilized in clinical settings as cost- and labor-efficient neural biomarkers.

Notes

¹When the analyses were run separately for parent- and child-reported symptoms, the results were similar to the correlations using the aggregate scores, but effect sizes and significance levels varied. SCARED:P was significantly correlated with the ERN (r = −.48, p < .05), but SCARED:SR was not (r = −.27, p = .20). On the other hand, CDI:SR was significantly correlated with FN (r = .51, p < .05), whereas the CDI:P was only marginally significantly correlated (r = .37, p = .07).