Association Between EEG Power During Sleep and Attention Levels in Patients with Major Depressive Disorder

Abstract

Weiyu Cai,1– 3,* Le Chen,1– 3,* Yanyuan Dai,1– 3 Baixin Chen,1– 3 Dandan Zheng,1– 3 Yun Li1– 3 1Department of Sleep Medicine, Shantou University Mental Health Center, Shantou University Medical College, Shantou, Guangdong, People’s Republic of China; 2Sleep Medicine Center, Shantou University Medical College, Shantou, Guangdong, People’s Republic of China; 3Joint Laboratory of Biological Psychiatry Shantou University-University of Manitoba, Shantou, Guangdong, People’s Republic of China*These authors contributed equally to this workCorrespondence: Yun Li, Department of Sleep Medicine, Shantou University Mental Health Center, North Taishan Road, Wanji District, Shantou, Guangdong Province, 515041, People’s Republic of China, Email [email protected]: Major depressive disorder (MDD) is associated with cognitive impairment through unclear mechanisms. We examined the relationship between sleep electroencephalogram (EEG) power and attention level in MDD.Patients and Methods: Forty-seven untreated patients with MDD and forty-seven age- and sex-matched controls were included. We examined relative EEG power during non-rapid eye movement (NREM) sleep and rapid eye movement (REM) sleep by fast Fourier transform. The Attention Network Test (ANT) was performed to evaluate attention levels.Results: Compared to controls, patients with MDD had lower theta power during NREM (P = 0.018) and REM (P = 0.002) sleep, while higher beta power (P = 0.050) during NREM sleep and delta power (P = 0.018) during REM sleep. Regarding attention level, patients with MDD had lower levels of accuracy (P = 0.021), longer mean reaction time (P < 0.001), poorer manifestations of the alerting effect (P = 0.038) and worse executive control (P = 0.048). Moreover, decreased theta power during NREM sleep was correlated with worsened accuracy (β = 0.329, P = 0.040), decreased theta power during REM sleep was correlated with worsened alerting effect (β = 0.355, P = 0.020), and increased delta power during REM sleep was correlated with longer mean reaction time (β = 0.325, P = 0.022) in patients with MDD. No association between ANT performance and other frequency bands was observed in patients with MDD.Conclusion: Our findings suggest that patients with MDD manifest impaired selective attention function that is associated with decreased theta power during NREM/REM sleep and increased delta power during REM sleep.Keywords: major depressive disorder, sleep, EEG power, attention

Keywords

• major depressive disorder
• sleep
• eeg power
• attention