Reduced visual context effects in global motion processing in depression

by Grace E. Murray, Daniel J. Norton

Research supports abnormal inhibitory visual motion processing in adults with remitted and current depression, but all studies to date have used paradigms with simple grating stimuli. Global motion processing, where multiple motion signals must be integrated, has not been explored in depression, nor have inhibitory processes within that domain. Depressed participants (n = 46) and healthy controls (n = 28) completed a direction discrimination task featuring a random dot pattern stimulus. Various signal (rightward or leftward dots) to noise (dots with randomly assigned directions) ratios modulated task difficulty. Metrics of global center surround suppression and facilitation were calculated. Accuracy in the baseline condition (i.e., no surrounding annulus) was not significantly different between depressed and healthy participants. Global center surround suppression and facilitation were not significantly different between healthy and depressed participants overall. When limiting the sample to unmedicated individuals, depressed participants (n = 27) showed a reduced global center surround suppression effect compared to controls, and there was no difference in global center surround facilitation. While global motion processing is intact in depression, abnormal center surround suppression effects in depression do extend to global motion stimuli. These alterations may be mitigated by the psychotropic medications taken by some subjects in our depressed sample. Future studies should explore the mechanisms underlying these effects.