ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Psychiatry
Sec. Mood Disorders
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2025.1586075
Neural Oscillations induced by Gamma Sensory Entrainment in Cognitive Biotype of Depression
Provisionally accepted
- 1Beijing Anding Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing, China
- 2WM Therapeutics Co. Ltd, Beijing, China
- 3School of Basic Medical Sciences, Capital Medical University, Beijing, Beijing Municipality, China
Select one of your emails
You have multiple emails registered with Frontiers:
Notify me on publication
Please enter your email address:
If you already have an account, please login
You don't have a Frontiers account ? You can register here
Aim: Abnormal neural oscillations have long been associated with cognition in depression, especially gamma oscillation that participates in neurocircuit function, emotion, and cognition. However, whether gamma sensory entrainment induces alterations in neural oscillations within the cognitive biotype of depression remains unresolved.The study includes 141 depressed patients in remission. We used Measurement and Treatment Research to Improve Cognition in Schizophrenia (MCCB) to identify the cognitive biotype in depression. Gamma sensory entrainment and spectral power were conducted through Electroencephalogram (EEG). Furthermore, we did correlation analysis to explore the relationship between neural oscillations induced by gamma entrainment with cognitive function in depression.We enrolled 141 depressed patients in remission, 56 were identified as cognitive biotype. We found that alpha power caused by gamma entrainment with 37 and 48 Hz decreased in cognitive biotype. Specifically, alpha power induced by 37 Hz gamma entrainment decreased alpha power in P3 (t =-2.394, FDR = 0.049), P4 (t =-2.713, FDR = 0.038), Fp1 (t =-2.530, FDR = 0.048), T3 (t =-2.689, FDR = 0.038), T5 (t =-2.341, FDR = 0.049), F7 (t =-2.438, FDR = 0.049), T4 (t =-2.764, FDR = 0.038) and Pz (t =-2.691, FDR = 0.038) channels in cognitive biotype. While alpha power caused by 48 Hz gamma entrainment showed decreased alpha power only in T4 channel (t =-3.135, FDR = 0.04) except other channels in cognitive biotype. Moreover, alpha oscillation induced by 37 Hz gamma entrainment was correlated with working memory in P3, P4, Fp1, T3, T5, F7, T4 and Pz channels; problem solving-ability in T5 channel.Alpha oscillation caused by 48 Hz gamma entrainment showed significant correlation with working memory, problem solving-ability and total scores in T4 channel. Furthermore, we observed that the most optimum stimulus frequency of gamma entrainment eliciting peak responses varied among participants.Our results confirmed the influence of gamma entrainment by sensory stimuli on neural activity in cognitive biotype of depression, and abnormal alpha power was associated with cognitive function. Furthermore, gamma sensory entrainment with the most optimum stimulus frequency could serve as a potential method to improve cognition in cognitive biotype of depression.
Keywords: Major Depressive Disorder, Cognitive biotype, Gamma Sensory Entrainment, Electroencephalogram, Neural oscillations, individualization
Received: 02 Mar 2025; Accepted: 24 Apr 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Wang, Shi, Wang, Qi, Gao, Wei and Zhao. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Hongli Wang, Beijing Anding Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing, China
Ying-Ying Zhao, Beijing Anding Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing, China
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.