ERP Study of Facial Processing in Young Females with Subclinical Panic Disorder

A high frequency of depression, anxiety and panic disorder (PD), especially among youth, argues the search of neurophysiological correlates of these states. PD may be accompanied by repeated panic attacks (PA), which are not limited to a specific situation or circumstances and therefore unpredictable. PAs are unexplained, severe bouts of fear and anxiety combined with various vegetative symptoms, leading to pronounced social maladjustment, reduced quality of life. In this study, we investigated facial emotion processing in young female students with subclinical panic disorder (PD). We recruited 13 girls with subclinical PD and 14 matched healthy controls and investigated behavioral characteristics (accuracy and reaction time) and visual event-related potentials (ERP) in the model of emotional facial expressions recognition. The amplitudes of P100, N150 and P300 components in occipital and temporal areas, and N200, P300 and late negativity in frontal areas were evaluated while participants recognized angry, fearful, happy, and neutral facial stimuli. The girls with PD demonstrated a higher reaction time compared to healthy subjects. PD participants showed an increased amplitude of ERP components to facial expressions compared to healthy controls, particularly, to angry and fearful ones. A higher response was found at early facial processing corresponding to the occipital and temporal P100 and P300 components. In the frontal areas, PD subjects showed increased N200 and late negativity in 350-450 ms time window, and also a negative shift/elevation of P300. Subclinical PD demonstrated an attention bias to threatening facial expressions, the higher early- and middle-latency reactions in the occipital and temporal cortex and an altered late response in the prefrontal regions as compared with healthy controls. Supposedly, the observed data may be due to reduced prefrontal top-down modulating effects on lower limbic and sensory cortex levels.