Mismatch negativity generation deficits and selective monoaminergic treatments in patients with major depression

Background: Mismatch negativity (MMN) has consistently detected neural pre-attentive information processing deficits mainly in schizophrenia and further attention-related disorders. Neurochemically a dysfunction of the glutamatergic neurotransmitter system has been identified as crucial for the origin of MMN in primates and in humans but there is also some recent evidence for monoaminergic modulation of MMN. In affective disorders that are also characterized by cognitive symptoms the MMN has only rarely been studied showing inconsistent findings. Methods: Auditory MMN was recorded using multi-channel EEG in 17 u…