ABSTRACT
Objective To investigate the characteristics of the event related potential(ERP) P300 and analyze brain network connections in patients with first-episode depressions.Methods P300 auditory oddball task were administrated on twenty-nine patients and twenty-five healthy controls.The P300 amplitude and latency of two groups were compared,and the brain network connectivity of the two groups were analyzed using Granger's Causality analysis.Results The P300 amplitude in depression group were significantly different from those in control group (C3 of the central regions(15.77±7.35) μV vs (20.90±7.82)μV;C4 of the central regions(16.98±7.21) μV vs (22.11±7.50) μV;P3 of the parietal regions(15.65±6.92) μV vs (19.49±5.73) μV;P4 of the parietal(16.35± 6.46) μV vs P4(19.72±5.18) μV;P=0.009,P=0.007,P=0.017,P=0.024 respectively).However,the P300 latency had no significant difference comparing to the controls(P＞0.05).The results also showed that patients had more connections in the brain network.Conclusion As an effective evaluation index,ERP P300 can play an important role in clinical diagnosis of depression.Patients suffering from depression have significant cognition function deficit.