Abstract
Depressive severity has been associated with attenuated neocortical frontal midline theta (Fm-θ) power/evoked activity. Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) has shown to be a successful novel intervention for Major Depressive Disorder (MDD), albeit precise working mechanisms remain elusive. We examined the hypothesis that MBCT would have modulating effects upon evoked Fm-θ power, in addition to investigating possible mediation of induced event-related de/synchronisation (ERD/ERS) dynamics. Fifty one patients with a primary diagnosis of MDD (26 exposed to MBCT vs. 25 wait-list/WL controls) undertook a Go/NoGo task consisting of positive, negative and neutral words, further stratified into abstract versus trait adjective matrices. Depressive symptom severity and rumination were also examined. A pattern of enhanced induced Fm-θ synchronisation during the latter 400–800 ms temporal-window pre-to-post MBCT was observed; the contrary in the WL. Modulated ERD/ERS dynamics correlated to amelioration in depressive and rumination symptoms in the MBCT group. We propose the primary action pathway alluded to a neural disengagement mechanism enacting upon tonic neuronal assemblies implicated in emotional and self-related processing. Due to the complexity and presently undiscovered complete unified scientific understanding of neuro-oscillatory-dynamics, and associated clinical interplays; we hypothesise that the electro-cortical and connected clinical working pathways of MBCT in depression are multi-levelled constituting nonlinear and interdependent mechanisms, represented by mediated EEG synchronisation dynamics.
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Abbreviations
- ACC:
-
Anterior cingulate cortex
- Ag/AgCl:
-
Silver/silver-chloride
- CBT:
-
Cognitive Behavioural Therapy
- CD:
-
Currently depressed
- CDS:
-
Cambridge Depersonalization Scale
- CMO:
-
Commissie Mensgebonden Onderzoek
- DMN:
-
Default-mode network
- DSM-IV-TR:
-
Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Health Disorders (version IV-TR)
- ECT:
-
Electroconvulsive therapy
- EEG:
-
Electroencephalography/electroencephalographic
- EN:
-
Emotional numbing
- ERD/ERS:
-
Event-related (de-)synchronization
- ERD:
-
Event-related desynchronization
- ERP:
-
Event-related potential
- ERS:
-
Event-related synchronization
- FA:
-
False alarm (i.e. response to NoGo stimuli)
- FFMQ:
-
Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire
- Fm-θ:
-
Front midline theta
- ICA:
-
Independent Component Analysis
- IDS:
-
Inventory of Depressive Symptomatology
- ISI:
-
Inter-stimulus-interval
- MBCT:
-
Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy
- MDD:
-
Major Depressive Disorder
- MEG:
-
Magnetoencephalography
- mOFC:
-
Medial orbitofrontal cortex
- rACC:
-
Rostral ACC
- PFC:
-
Prefrontal cortex
- RCT:
-
Randomized controlled trial
- RD:
-
Remitted depressed
- Rm-ANOVA:
-
Repeated measures-Analysis of variance
- RRS:
-
Ruminative Response Scale
- SCS:
-
Self-Compassion Scale
- STAI—S/T:
-
State-trait anxiety inventory (state/trait)
- TPN:
-
Task-positive network
- TW:
-
Time window: E/L = Early [0–400 ms]/Late [400–800 ms]
- WL:
-
Wait-list
- dB:
-
Decibel
- Hz:
-
Hertz
- KΩ:
-
Kilo-ohm
- ms:
-
Millisecond
- µV:
-
Microvolt
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Acknowledgments
This work was supported by the BrainGain SmartMix Programme for the Netherlands Ministry of Economic Affairs and Netherlands Ministry of Education, Culture and Science, funded by the Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO); and the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study in the Humanities and Social Sciences. Much appreciation and gratitude to all those who participated in the experiments. We thank Addy de Graaf for assistance with research co-ordination; Magdalena Kowalczuk and Katrin Scheibe for help with data collection; Sietske Heusinveld, Joyce Besselink, Danique Smeijers, Irma Veliscek-van Maren, and the Radboud University Medical Centre for Mindfulness team for their generous assistance with patient recruitment.
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Schoenberg, P.L.A., Speckens, A.E.M. Modulation of induced frontocentral theta (Fm-θ) event-related (de-)synchronisation dynamics following mindfulness-based cognitive therapy in Major Depressive Disorder. Cogn Neurodyn 8, 373–388 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11571-014-9294-0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11571-014-9294-0