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Perceptual interference processing in preschool children, with and without prenatal exposure to selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors

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Abstract

Background

Prenatal exposure to maternal depression, with or without maternal medical antidepressant treatment, may pose a risk to the child’s cognitive and behavioral development. Targeting one of the core functions of behavioral regulation, we investigated both behavioral and neural indices of interference suppression in both exposed and control participants at preschool age.

Methods

Children (N = 80, M = 68.60 months, SD = 5.57) with prenatal exposure to maternal depression with (SSRI, N = 21) and without (DEP, N = 33) antidepressant treatment were tested together with unexposed children (CON, N = 26) on a behavioral flanker task while recording event-related potentials (ERPs). ERPs were extracted from trials with congruent/incongruent flankers and speeded/slow response times (RT).

Findings

Effects of flanker congruence were found in both behavioral indices and the late slow wave ERP (LSW, 500–800 ms), across all groups in the expected directions. Further, increased amplitude of the N2 (350–450 ms) and the LSW potential was found in trials with speeded vs slow RT. Interestingly, the parietal N2 in speeded trials showed decreased latency among children in the CON group but not among the other children. No other effects of group on ERP or behavioral measures were found.

Conclusion

While interference effects were evident in behavioral and ERP measures, prenatal exposure to SSRIs and DEP was not directly associated with abilities of interference suppression. However, RT in the flanker task was associated with N2 and LSW potentials. Importantly, the interaction between RT and participant group upon parietal N2 latency may suggest effects of prenatal exposure on neural efficiency.

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Acknowledgments

We are grateful to all the families in Norway who took part in this ongoing cohort study and in the present study in particular. Also, thanks are given to Jukka Leppanen and Jussi Kaitalaa for the useful guidance during early work on ERP preprocessing and analytical choices.

This study was supported by grants from the Norwegian Directorate for Children, Youth and Family Affairs (13/60,525) to the first and last authors. The Norwegian Mother and Child Cohort Study is supported by the Norwegian Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Education and Research, NIH/NIEHS (contract no N01-ES-75558), NIH/NINDS (grant no. 1 UO1 NS 047537-01 and grant no. 2 UO1 NS 047537-06A1).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. The Cognitive Developmental Research Unit, Department of Psychology, University of Oslo, Forskningsveien 3a, 0373, Oslo, Norway

    Tone Kristine Hermansen, Espen Røysamb & Annika Melinder

  2. Tampere Center for Child Health Research, School of Medicine, University of Tampere, Tampere, Finland

    Santeri Yrttiaho

  3. Division of Mental Health, The Norwegian Institute of Public Health, Oslo, Norway

    Espen Røysamb

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  1. Tone Kristine Hermansen
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  2. Santeri Yrttiaho
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  3. Espen Røysamb
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  4. Annika Melinder
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Correspondence to Tone Kristine Hermansen.

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The Regional Committee for Medical Research Ethics has approved both the overall study and the present substudy.

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Hermansen, T.K., Yrttiaho, S., Røysamb, E. et al. Perceptual interference processing in preschool children, with and without prenatal exposure to selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors. Psychopharmacology 234, 339–351 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00213-016-4467-7

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