CES-D depression scores are correlated with frontal EEG alpha asymmetry

In order to evaluate the relationship between frontal EEG asymmetry and dep ressive symptomology, the Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression sca le [CES-D; Radloff 1977] was given to 163 women, and their EEG was recorded from the mid frontal (F3 and F4) and pariental (P3 and P4) regions during a 3 min baseline recording. As expected from previous research on depressio n, CES-D scores were negatively correlated with frontal EEG alpha asymmetry scores and positively correlated with left frontal EEG alpha power Analyse s of variance further revealed that mothers scoring above the cut-off for d epression (CES-D greater than or equal to 16) had significantly lower front al EEG asymmetry scores than mothers with 0-2 and 3-12 CES-D scores brit no t lower scores than mothers with 13-15 CES-D scores. (C) 2001 Wiley-Liss, I nc.