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.