Frontal alpha asymmetry as a pathway to behavioural withdrawal in depression: Research findings and issues

Title
Frontal alpha asymmetry as a pathway to behavioural withdrawal in depression: Research findings and issues
Publication Date
2015
Author(s)
Jesulola, Emmanuel
Sharpley, Christopher
( author )
OrcID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7922-4848
Email: csharpl3@une.edu.au
UNE Id une-id:csharpl3
Bitsika, Vicki
Agnew, Linda
( author )
OrcID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2803-0995
Email: lagnew2@une.edu.au
UNE Id une-id:lagnew2
Wilson, Peter
Type of document
Journal Article
Language
en
Entity Type
Publication
Publisher
Elsevier BV
Place of publication
Netherlands
DOI
10.1016/j.bbr.2015.05.058
UNE publication id
une:18331
Abstract
Depression has been described as a process of behavioural withdrawal from overwhelming aversive stressors, and which manifests itself in the diagnostic symptomatology for Major Depressive Disorder (MDD). The underlying neurobiological pathways to that behavioural withdrawal are suggested to include greater activation in the right vs the left frontal lobes, described as frontal EEG asymmetry. However, despite a previous meta-analysis that provided overall support for this EEG asymmetry hypothesis, inconsistencies and several methodological confounds exist. The current review examines the literature on this issue, identifies inconsistencies in findings and discusses several key research issues that require addressing for this field to move towards a defensible theoretical model of depression and EEG asymmetry. In particular, the position of EEG asymmetry in the brain, measurement of severity and symptoms profiles of depression, and the effects of gender are considered as potential avenues to more accurately define the specific nature of the depression-EEG asymmetry association.
Link
Citation
Behavioural Brain Research, v.292, p. 56-67
ISSN
1872-7549
0166-4328
Start page
56
End page
67

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