Similar or disparate brain patterns? The intra-personal EEG variability of three women with multiple personality disorder.
Quantitative EEG was used to assess the intra-personal variability of brain electrical activity for 3 women diagnosed with Multiple Personality Disorder (MPD). Two separate control groups (within-subject and between-subject) were used to test the hypothesis that the intra-personal EEG variability between 2 alters would be less than the interpersonal EEG variability between 2 controls, and similar to the intra-personal EEG variability of a single personality. This hypothesis was partially supported. In general, the 2 EEG records of a MPD subject (alter 1 vs. alter 2) were more different from one another than the 2 EEG records of a single control, but less different from one another than the EEG records of 2 separate controls. Most of the EEG variability between alters involved beta activity in the frontal and temporal lobes.
Lapointe
A R
AR
Edward Hines Jr. VA Hospital, Biological Psychiatry Department, Hines, Illinois 60141, USA.
Crayton
J W
JW
DeVito
R
R
Fichtner
C G
CG
Konopka
L M
LM
D000328:Adult; D001921:Brain / Q000503:physiopathology*; D003936:Diagnosis, Computer-Assisted / Q000379:methods*; D009105:Dissociative Identity Disorder / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000503:physiopathology*; D004569:Electroencephalography / Q000379:methods* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D012016:Reference Values; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity