TY - JOUR

T1 - Posture-motor and posture-ideomotor dual-tasking

T2 - A putative marker of psychomotor retardation and depressive rumination in patients with major depressive disorder

AU - Aftanas, Lyubomir I.

AU - Bazanova, Olga M.

AU - Novozhilova, Nataliya V.

N1 - Publisher Copyright: © 2018 Aftanas, Bazanova and Novozhilova.

PY - 2018/3/23

Y1 - 2018/3/23

N2 - Background: Recent studies have demonstrated that the assessment of postural performance may be a potentially reliable and objective marker of the psychomotor retardation (PMR) in the major depressive disorder (MDD). One of the important facets of MDD-related PMR is reflected in disrupted central mechanisms of psychomotor control, heavily influenced by compelling maladaptive depressive rumination. In view of this we designed a research paradigm that included sequential execution of simple singleposture task followed by more challenging divided attention posture tasks, involving concurring motor and ideomotor workloads. Another difficulty dimension assumed executing of all the tasks with eyes open (EO) (easy) and closed (EC) (difficult) conditions. We aimed at investigating the interplay between the severity of MDD, depressive rumination, and efficiency of postural performance. Methods: Compared with 24 age- and body mass index-matched healthy controls (HCs), 26 patients with MDD sequentially executed three experimental tasks: (1) singleposture task of maintaining a quiet stance (ST), (2) actual posture-motor dual task (AMT); and (3) mental/imaginary posture-motor dual task (MMT). All the tasks were performed in the EO and the EC conditions. The primary dependent variable was the amount of kinetic energy (E) expended for the center of pressure deviations (CoPDs), whereas the absolute divided attention cost index showed energy cost to the dual-tasking vs. the single-posture task according to the formula: ΔE = (EDual-task - ESingle-task). Results: The signs of PMR in the MDD group were objectively indexed by deficient posture control in the EC condition along with overall slowness of fine motor and ideomotor activity. Another important and probably more challenging feature of the findings was that the posture deficit manifested in the ST condition was substantially and significantly attenuated in the MMT and AMT performance dual-tasking activity. A multiple linear regression analysis evidenced further that the dual-tasking energy cost (i.e., ΔE) significantly predicted clinical scores of severity of MDD and depressive rumination. Conclusion: The findings allow to suggest that execution of concurrent actual or imaginary fine motor task with closed visual input deallocates attentional resources from compelling maladaptive depressive rumination thereby attenuating severity of absolute dual-tasking energy costs for balance maintenance in patients with MDD. Significance: Quantitative assessment of PMR through measures of the postural performance in dual-tasking may be useful to capture the negative impact of past depressive episodes, optimize the personalized treatment selection, and improve the understanding of the pathophysiological mechanisms underlying MDD.

AB - Background: Recent studies have demonstrated that the assessment of postural performance may be a potentially reliable and objective marker of the psychomotor retardation (PMR) in the major depressive disorder (MDD). One of the important facets of MDD-related PMR is reflected in disrupted central mechanisms of psychomotor control, heavily influenced by compelling maladaptive depressive rumination. In view of this we designed a research paradigm that included sequential execution of simple singleposture task followed by more challenging divided attention posture tasks, involving concurring motor and ideomotor workloads. Another difficulty dimension assumed executing of all the tasks with eyes open (EO) (easy) and closed (EC) (difficult) conditions. We aimed at investigating the interplay between the severity of MDD, depressive rumination, and efficiency of postural performance. Methods: Compared with 24 age- and body mass index-matched healthy controls (HCs), 26 patients with MDD sequentially executed three experimental tasks: (1) singleposture task of maintaining a quiet stance (ST), (2) actual posture-motor dual task (AMT); and (3) mental/imaginary posture-motor dual task (MMT). All the tasks were performed in the EO and the EC conditions. The primary dependent variable was the amount of kinetic energy (E) expended for the center of pressure deviations (CoPDs), whereas the absolute divided attention cost index showed energy cost to the dual-tasking vs. the single-posture task according to the formula: ΔE = (EDual-task - ESingle-task). Results: The signs of PMR in the MDD group were objectively indexed by deficient posture control in the EC condition along with overall slowness of fine motor and ideomotor activity. Another important and probably more challenging feature of the findings was that the posture deficit manifested in the ST condition was substantially and significantly attenuated in the MMT and AMT performance dual-tasking activity. A multiple linear regression analysis evidenced further that the dual-tasking energy cost (i.e., ΔE) significantly predicted clinical scores of severity of MDD and depressive rumination. Conclusion: The findings allow to suggest that execution of concurrent actual or imaginary fine motor task with closed visual input deallocates attentional resources from compelling maladaptive depressive rumination thereby attenuating severity of absolute dual-tasking energy costs for balance maintenance in patients with MDD. Significance: Quantitative assessment of PMR through measures of the postural performance in dual-tasking may be useful to capture the negative impact of past depressive episodes, optimize the personalized treatment selection, and improve the understanding of the pathophysiological mechanisms underlying MDD.

KW - Depressive rumination

KW - Energy expended for CoPDs

KW - Major depressive disorder

KW - Posture

KW - Posture-ideomotor dual-tasking

KW - Posture-motor dual-tasking

KW - Psychomotor retardation

KW - ATTENTION

KW - FALLS

KW - WALKING

KW - IMAGERY

KW - posture-ideomotor dual-tasking

KW - ABNORMALITIES

KW - posture

KW - UNIPOLAR

KW - RELEVANT MARKER

KW - SYMPTOMS

KW - posture-motor dual-tasking

KW - energy expended for CoPDs

KW - psychomotor retardation

KW - major depressive disorder

KW - BIPOLAR DEPRESSION

KW - COMPONENT

KW - depressive rumination

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85046892653&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.3389/fnhum.2018.00108

DO - 10.3389/fnhum.2018.00108

M3 - Article

C2 - 29628881

AN - SCOPUS:85046892653

VL - 12

SP - 108

JO - Frontiers in Human Neuroscience

JF - Frontiers in Human Neuroscience

SN - 1662-5161

M1 - 108

ER -