A research group at the University of Tokyo has revealed that the more psychological difficulties people experience during adolescence, the lower their ``mismatch negative potential.''
Mismatch negative potential is a negative potential change observed in the frontal region 100 to 200 milliseconds after hearing a different sound when a different sound is occasionally heard during a task of repeatedly listening to the same sound.It has been reported that the amplitude of mismatch negative potential increases from childhood to adulthood, but shows different changes when the risk of mental illness is high, and mismatch negative potential has long been considered to be an indicator associated with mental illness. There is.
In this study, 67 adolescents who agreed to participate in the study were interviewed twice at the age of 13 and 16 from the Tokyo Teen Cohort Study, a large-scale epidemiological study involving adolescents residing in Tokyo. At the same time, we conducted a psychological difficulty questionnaire and electroencephalogram measurements.Changes in psychological difficulty between the ages of 2 and 13, as assessed by the "Children's Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire" answered by the participants' parents, and changes in mismatch negative potential between the ages of 16 and 13, measured from electroencephalograms. We investigated whether there is a relationship between the two.
その結果、13歳から16歳にかけてミスマッチ陰性電位に平均値の違いはなかったが、13歳から16歳にかけて心理的困難さが高まる人ほど、ミスマッチ陰性電位が経時的に低下することが示された。また、16歳の時に心理的困難さが低いグループでは、13歳から16歳のミスマッチ陰性電位に変化がみられないのに対し、16歳の時に心理的困難さが高いグループのミスマッチ陰性電位は、13歳から16歳にかけて年齢とともに低下することも明らかとなった。
This study is significant in that it reveals for the first time that developmental changes in mismatch negativity are associated with changes in mental health in the general adolescent population.The results of this research may help elucidate the mechanism by which mental disorders occur during adolescence, which is important for mental development, and are expected to contribute to the promotion of mental health.
