Electrophysiological changes elicited by auditory stimuli given a positive or negative value: a study comparing anhedonic with hedonic subjects.

The present experiment investigates in 'normal' subjects the relationship between personality characteristics (anhedonia versus hedonia) and the influence of the affective value of acoustic stimuli (positive, negative, neutral) on various electrophysiological indices reflecting either tonic activation or phasic arousal (EEG power spectra, contingent negative variation: CNV, heart rate, skin potential responses: SPR) as well as on behavioural indices (reaction time: RT). Eighteen subjects were divided into two groups according to their scores at two self-rating questionnaires, the Chapman's Physical Anhedonia Scale (PAS) and the Beck-Weissman's Dysfunctional Attitude Scale (DAS) that quantifies cognitive distortions presumed to constitute high risk for depression: 9 with high scores at both scales formed the A group (Anhedonic-dysfunctional), 9 with low scores at both scales, the H group (Hedonic-adapted) The electrophysiological indices were recorded during 3 situations: the first one was a classical CNV paradigm with a motor reaction time task in which one of 3 tones of different pitch represented the warning stimulus S1; during the second, conditioning phase, two of these tones were associated with either a success (and reward) or a failure (and punishment) during a memory task in order to make them acquire either a positive or a negative affective value; the third situation consisted in the repeating of the first CNV paradigm in order to test the effect of the positive and the negative stimuli versus the neutral one on RTs and electrophysiological data. Significant between-group differences were found regarding tonic activation as well as phasic arousal indices from the very beginning of the experiment when all stimuli were neutral ones, the anhedonics exhibiting higher activation and arousal than the hedonics at the cortical (increased CNV amplitude, increased power in the beta frequency band), cardiovascular (higher heart rate habituating more slowly) and behavioural (faster RTs) levels. Significant between-group differences were also found concerning reactivity to affective stimuli during the third situation: both the orienting response (but only at the cortical level: early CNV) and the motor preparation processes (late CNV) were in the A group significantly less reactive to affective stimuli (especially to the positive one) than in the H group, in particular concerning the frontal (Fz) data.

[1]  L. J. Chapman,et al.  Scales for physical and social anhedonia. , 1976, Journal of abnormal psychology.

[2]  R. Simons,et al.  Anticipatory pleasure deficit in subjects reporting physical anhedonia: slow cortical evidence , 1982, Biological Psychology.

[3]  T. Picton,et al.  The Effects of Anxiety and Expectancy on the CNV a , 1984, Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences.

[4]  P. Lang,et al.  Anticipation and response set: cortical, cardiac, and electrodermal correlates. , 1979, Psychophysiology.

[5]  A. Öhman.  Electrodermal activity and vulnerability to schizophrenia: A review , 1981, Biological Psychology.

[6]  K. Pribram,et al.  Arousal, activation, and effort in the control of attention. , 1975, Psychological review.

[7]  P. Meehl.  Schizotaxia, Schizotypy, Schizophrenia , 1962 .

[8]  A. Beck,et al.  The development of depression: A cognitive model. , 1974 .

[9]  B. Rockstroh,et al.  EEG and slow brain potentials during anticipation and control of painful stimulation , 1982 .

[10]  M. Timsit-Berthier,et al.  A correlation study of contingent negative variation, reaction time, and EEG power spectrum in control and psychopathological populations , 1981, Biological Psychology.

[11]  Marczynski Tj,et al.  Neural anatomy, chemistry and event-related brain potentials: an approach to understanding the substrates of mind. , 1986 .

[12]  P. A. Williamson,et al.  Asymmetric neural control systems in human self-regulation. , 1984, Psychological review.

[13]  Controllability of an aversive stimulus in depressed patients and health controls: a study using slow brain potentials. , 1981, Biological psychiatry.

[14]  P. Gauthier.  Etude de la variation contingente negative et de l'onde post-imperative en presence d'interferencesA study of CNV and post-imperative negativity with external interference , 1976 .

[15]  M. Timsit-Berthier,et al.  Slow potential changes in psychiatry. I. Contingent negative variation. , 1973, Electroencephalography and clinical neurophysiology.

[16]  W. Walter.  Brain responses to semantic stimuli. , 1965, Journal of psychosomatic research.

[17]  A W Gaillard,et al.  The late CNV wave: preparation versus expectancy. , 1977, Psychophysiology.

[18]  R. Näätänen.  Processing negativity: an evoked-potential reflection of selective attention. , 1982, Psychological bulletin.

[19]  E. Donchin,et al.  COGNITIVE PSYCHOPHYSIOLOGY: THE ENDOGENOUS COMPONENTS OF THE ERP , 1978 .

[20]  T. Robbins,et al.  Psychopharmacological and Neurobiological Aspects of the Energetics of Information Processing , 1986 .

[21]  Rick Howard,et al.  Event-related brain potentials in personality and psychopathology : a Pavlovian approach , 1982 .

[22]  L. Wing,et al.  Physiological measures in agitated and retarded depressed patients. , 1969, Journal of psychiatric research.

[23]  E. Donchin.  Event-related Brain Potentials: A Tool in the Study of Human Information Processing , 1979 .

[24]  W. Walter,et al.  Contingent Negative Variation : An Electric Sign of Sensori-Motor Association and Expectancy in the Human Brain , 1964, Nature.

[25]  R. Roth,et al.  Pharmacology of mesocortical dopamine neurons. , 1983, Pharmacological reviews.

[26]  G. A. Miller,et al.  Information processing deficits in anhedonia and perceptual aberration: A psychophysiological analysis , 1986, Biological Psychiatry.

[27]  Karl H. Pribram,et al.  Psychophysiology of the frontal lobes , 1973 .

[28]  R. Simons.  Electrodermal and cardiac orienting in psychometrically defined high-risk subjects , 1981, Psychiatry Research.

[29]  W G Walter,et al.  The effects of attention and distraction on the contingent negative variation in normal and neurotic subjects. , 1968, Electroencephalography and clinical neurophysiology.

[30]  van den Bosch Rj.  Contingent negative variation and psychopathology: frontal-central distribution, and association with performance measures. , 1983 .

[31]  A. Sanford,et al.  Slow potential correlates of preparatory set. , 1974, Biological psychology.

[32]  O. Fontaine,et al.  Variations contingentes négatives en psychiatrie , 1970 .

[33]  R. Simons.  Physical anhedonia and future psychopathology: an electrocortical continuity? , 1982, Psychophysiology.

[34]  M. Timsit-Berthier,et al.  Contingent negative variation in major depressive patients. , 1987, Electroencephalography and clinical neurophysiology. Supplement.

[35]  G. A. Miller,et al.  Electrocortical Measures of Information Processing Deficit in Anhedonia a , 1984, Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences.

[36]  J. Rousseau,et al.  Psychopathological correlations of the non-specific portion of visual and auditory evoked potentials and the associated contingent negative variation. , 1967, Electroencephalography and Clinical Neurophysiology.

[37]  D. Klein.  Endogenomorphic depression. A conceptual and terminological revision. , 1974, Archives of general psychiatry.

[38]  E. Donchin.  Multivariate analysis of event-related potential data: A tutorial review , 1978 .

[39]  P. Abraham,et al.  The CNV and its Relation to Specific Psychiatric Syndromes , 1976 .

[40]  J. Gruzelier,et al.  The effect of chlorpromazine upon psychophysiological, endocrine and information processing measures in schizophrenia. , 1978, Journal of psychiatric research.

[41]  D B Lindsley,et al.  Brain wave components of the contingent negative variation in humans. , 1976, Science.

[42]  P. Thier,et al.  Slow brain potentials and psychomotor retardation in depression. , 1986, Electroencephalography and clinical neurophysiology.

[43]  A. Luria.  Higher Cortical Functions in Man , 1980, Springer US.

[44]  John W. Rohrbaugh,et al.  13 Sensory and Motor Aspects of the Contingent Negative Variation , 1983 .

[45]  A. S. Bernstein.  Phasic electrodermal orienting response in chronic schizophrenics. II. Response to auditory signals of varying intensity. , 1970, Journal of abnormal psychology.

[46]  L Stein,et al.  Possible Etiology of Schizophrenia: Progressive Damage to the Noradrenergic Reward System by 6-Hydroxydopamine , 1971, Science.

[47]  P. Venables,et al.  Skin conductance responses to tones with and without attentional significance in schizophrenic and nonschizophrenic psychiatric patients. , 1973, Neuropsychologia.

[48]  A. Weissman.  The Dysfunctional Attitude Scale: A Validation Study , 1979 .

[49]  T. McGlashan,et al.  Autonomic nervous system activity in acute schizophrenia: II. relationships to short-term prognosis and clinical state. , 1981, Archives of general psychiatry.

[50]  T. McGlashan,et al.  Autonomic nervous system activity in acute schizophrenia: I. method and comparison with normal controls. , 1981, Archives of general psychiatry.

[51]  Patricia S. Goldman-Rakic,et al.  The frontal lobes: Uncharted provinces of the brain , 1984, Trends in Neurosciences.

[52]  G. Albani,et al.  Brain slow potentials (CNV), prolactin, and schizophrenia. , 1983, Biological psychiatry.

[53]  Slow cortical potentials under conditions of uncontrollability. , 1979, Psychophysiology.

[54]  J. Tecce.  Contingent negative variation (CNV) and psychological processes in man. , 1972, Psychological bulletin.

[55]  B. Rockstroh,et al.  Slow cortical potentials in subjects with high or low scores on questionnaire measuring physical anhedonia and body image distortion. , 1981, Psychophysiology.

[56]  H. Giedke,et al.  Psychophysiology of anxiety, fear and phobia. , 1981, Progress in neuro-psychopharmacology.

[57]  J. Fuster.  The prefrontal cortex, mediator of cross-temporal contingencies. , 1985, Human neurobiology.