Developmental changes in electroencephalographic frontal asymmetry in young children at risk for depression.

ABSTRACT:

Background

A number of studies have reported that depression is associated with lower relative left frontal activity in the alpha band (i.e. frontal asymmetry, or FA), as measured by electroencephalogram. FA has also been hypothesized to be a vulnerability marker for depression. If this is the case, FA should be evident in offspring of depressed mothers, a group at elevated risk for depression. However, the results of previous offspring studies have been inconsistent and none of these studies has considered whether the relationship between FA and risk changes over development in children.

Method

We assessed FA twice, at ages 3 and 6, in 253 never depressed children from a community sample. Maternal history of depressive disorders was determined by a diagnostic interview comp

SUBMITTER: Goldstein BL 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4990483 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature