Right-posterior face processing anomaly in depression

Evidence of a right-posterior brain anomaly was found in a study of 19 individuals with major depression and 15 controls. Participants performed a recognition-memory task involving positive, neutral, and negative face and word stimuli. Scalp brain wave topography suggested a region-specific anomaly in the depressed group. Individuals with major depression demonstrated a reduction in the N200 component of the event-related brain potential to faces and not words. Furthermore, results indicate that the regional anomaly is specific to positive facial stimuli. Findings are interpreted in light of a model of regional brain specialization in emotion and psychopathology.