Perceptual interference processing in preschool children, with and without prenatal exposure to selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors.

BACKGROUND: Prenatal exposure to maternal depression, with or without maternal medical antidepressant treatment, may pose a risk to the child's cognitive and behavioral development. Targeting one of the core functions of behavioral regulation, we investigated both behavioral and neural indices of interference suppression in both exposed and control participants at preschool age.

METHODS: Children (N = 80, M = 68.60 months, SD = 5.57) with prenatal exposure to maternal depression with (SSRI, N = 21) and without (DEP, N = 33) antidepressant treatment were tested together with unexposed children (CON, N = 26) on a behavioral flanker task while recording event-related potentials (ERPs). ERPs were extracted from trials with congruent/incongruent flankers and speeded/slow response times (RT).

FINDINGS: Effects of flanker congruence were found in both behavioral indices and the late slow wave ERP (LSW, 500-800 ms), across all groups in the expected directions. Further, increased amplitude of the N2 (350-450 ms) and the LSW potential was found in trials with speeded vs slow RT. Interestingly, the parietal N2 in speeded trials showed decreased latency among children in the CON group but not among the other children. No other effects of group on ERP or behavioral measures were found.

CONCLUSION: While interference effects were evident in behavioral and ERP measures, prenatal exposure to SSRIs and DEP was not directly associated with abilities of interference suppression. However, RT in the flanker task was associated with N2 and LSW potentials. Importantly, the interaction between RT and participant group upon parietal N2 latency may suggest effects of prenatal exposure on neural efficiency.