Accortt, E. E., & J., J. (2006). Frontal EEG asymmetry and premenstrual dysphoric symptomatology. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 115(1), 179-184.
PMID: 16492109;Abstract:
Resting frontal electroencephalographic (EEG) asymmetry has been hypothesized to tap a diathesis toward depression or other emotion-related psychopathology. Frontal EEG asymmetry was assessed in college women who reported high (n = 12) or low (n = 11) levels of premenstrual negative affect. Participants were assessed during both the follicular and the late luteal phases of the menstrual cycle. Women reporting low premenstrual dysphoric symptomatology exhibited greater relative left frontal activity at rest than did women high in premenstrual dysphoric symptomatology, an effect that was not qualified by phase of cycle. Although women with extreme levels of symptomatology were assessed, the question of whether such symptoms qualified for premenstrual dysphoric disorder criteria was not assessed. These results are consistent with a diathesis-stress model for premenstrual dysphoric symptomatology. Copyright 2006 by the American Psychological Association.
Garriock, H. A., Allen, J. J., Delgado, P., Nahaz, Z., Kling, M. A., Carpenter, L., Burke, M., Burke, W., Schwartz, T., Marangell, L. B., Husain, M., Erickson, R. P., & Moreno, F. A. (2005). Lack of association of TPH2 exon XI polymorphisms with major depression and treatment resistance [3]. Molecular Psychiatry, 10(11), 976-977.
J., J., & Cohen, M. X. (2010). Deconstructing the "resting" state: Exploring the temporal dynamics of frontal alpha asymmetry as an endophenotype for depression. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 4.
PMID: 21228910;PMCID: PMC3017362;Abstract:
Asymmetry in frontal electrocortical alpha-band (8-13 Hz) activity recorded during resting situations (i.e., in absence of a specific task) has been investigated in relation to emotion and depression for over 30 years. This asymmetry reflects an aspect of endogenous cortical dynamics that is stable over repeated measurements and that may serve as an endophenotype for mood or other psychiatric disorders. In nearly all of this research, EEG activity is averaged across several minutes, obscuring transient dynamics that unfold on the scale of milliseconds to seconds. Such dynamic states may ultimately have greater value in linking brain activity to surface EEG asymmetry, thus improving its status as an endophenotype for depression. Here we introduce novel metrics for characterizing frontal alpha asymmetry that provide a more in-depth neurodynamical understanding of recurrent endogenous cortical processes during the resting-state. The metrics are based on transient ''bursts'' of asymmetry that occur frequently during the resting-state. In a sample of 306 young adults, 143 with a lifetime diagnosis of major depressive disorder (62 currently symptomatic), three questions were addressed: (1) How do novel peri-burst metrics of dynamic asymmetry compare to conventional fast-Fourier transform-based metrics? (2) Do peri-burst metrics adequately differentiate depressed from non-depressed participants? and, (3) what EEG dynamics surround the asymmetry bursts? Peri-burst metrics correlated with traditional measures of asymmetry, and were sensitive to both current and past episodes of major depression. Moreover, asymmetry bursts were characterized by a transient lateralized alpha suppression that is highly consistent in phase across bursts, and a concurrent contralateral transient alpha enhancement that is less tightly phase-locked across bursts. This approach opens new possibilities for investigating rapid cortical dynamics during resting-state EEG. © 2010 Allen and Cohen.
Allen, J. J., Chapman, L. J., & Chapman, J. P. (1987). Cognitive slippage and depression in hypothetically psychosis-prone college students. Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 175(6), 347-353.
PMID: 3585311;Abstract:
Subjects who scored deviantly high on the combined Perceptual Aberration-Magical Ideation (Per-Mag) Scale and subjects who scored low on the scale were compared on two putative measures of cognitive slippage - a continued word association task and a task of referential communication. The Per-Mag subjects performed more deviantly than did the control subjects on both tasks, but those Per-Mag subjects who also scored above the mean on the General Behavior Inventory (GBI) depression subscale were most deviant. The Per-Mag Scale and the GBI are recommended for concurrent use in mass screening to identify a group of individuals who exhibit signs of cognitive slippage and who may, therefore, be at risk for the development of severe psychopathology.
Allen, J. J., & Reznik, S. J. (2015). Frontal EEG asymmetry as a promising marker of depression vulnerability: summary and methodological considerations. Current opinion in psychology, 4, 93--97.
