Right Hemisphere Sensitivity to Arousal and Depression

Several lines of evidence show impaired right hemisphere function in depression. Lateralized simple reaction time tasks show impaired left visual field responses both in normals experiencing a depressed mood and in patients with mild unipolar depression. One interpretation for these findings is that depression impairs right hemisphere function by interfering with right hemisphere arousal and vigilance mechanisms. In order to test this hypothesis, subjects receiving either depression or relaxation mood suggestions performed an uncued reaction time task that has been shown to be sensitive to right posterior brain damage. Level of alertness was varied by contrasting uncued blocks with blocks in which targets were preceded by a warning tone. The results showed the predicted slowing of left visual field responses in the depressed mood, but only in women. The effect was significant only for the uncued blocks. The left visual field impairment was significantly larger during depression than in the relaxation state, but a smaller left visual field slowing was present in women in the relaxed state as well. These results may be consistent with the notion that depression interferes with right hemisphere function in part by influencing right hemisphere arousal mechanisms.