The novel frontal alpha asymmetry factor and its association with depression, anxiety, and personality traits. (26th May 2022)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Monni, Alessandra; Collison, Katherine L.; Hill, Kaylin E.; Oumeziane, Belel Ait; Foti, Dan
• Is Part Of: Psychophysiology. Volume 59:Number 11(2022)
• Page Start: n/a
• Page End: n/a
• Publication Date: 2022-05-26
• Subjects: alpha frequency bands -- EEG frontal alpha asymmetry factor -- internalizing symptoms -- personality traits -- reference montages; Psychophysiology -- Periodicals; 612.8
• DOI: 10.1111/psyp.14109
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0048-5772

Abstract

Abstract: Frontal alpha asymmetry (FAA) is widely examined in EEG research, yet a procedural consensus on its assessment is lacking. In this study, we tested a latent factorial approach to measure FAA. We assessed resting‐state FAA at broad, low, and high alpha bands (8–13; 8–10.5; and 11–13 Hz) using mastoids as reference electrodes and Current Source Density (CSD) transformation ( N = 139 non‐clinical participants). From mastoid‐referenced data, we extracted a frontal alpha asymmetry factor (FAAf) and a parietal factor (PAAf) subjecting all asymmetry indices to a varimax‐rotated, principal component analysis. We explored split‐half reliability and discriminant validity of the mastoid factors and the mastoid and CSD raw asymmetry indices (F3/4, F7/8, P3/4, and P7/8). Both factor and raw scores reached an excellent split‐half reliability (>.99), but only the FAAf reached the maximum discriminant validity from parietal scores. Next, we explored the correlations of latent factor and raw FAA scores with symptoms of depression, anxiety, and personality traits to determine which associations were driven by FAA after variance from parietal activity was removed. After correcting for false discovery rate, only FAAf at the low alpha band was negatively associated with depression symptoms (a latent CES‐D factor) and significantly diverged from PAAf's association with depression symptoms. With respect to personality traits, only CSD‐transformed F7/8 was positively correlated with Conscientiousness and significantly diverged from the correlations between Conscientiousness and P3/4 and P7/8. Overall, the latent factor approach shows promise for isolating functionally distinct resting‐state EEG signatures, although further research is needed to examine construct validity. Abstract : Although frontal alpha asymmetry (FAA) is widely studied, a procedural consensus on its assessment is lacking. Our research proposes a novel FAA index through principal component analysis. We extracted a latent frontal alpha asymmetry factor and we demonstrated that it is a promising method to measure alpha asymmetry given findings supporting its split‐half reliability, discriminant validity from a PCA‐derived parietal factor, and construct validity in terms of its relations with internalizing symptoms and personality traits.