title: EEG microstate analysis in drug-naive patients with panic disorder.
abstract: Patients with panic disorder (PD) have a bias to respond to normal stimuli in a fearful way. This may be due to the preactivation of fear-associated networks prior to stimulus perception. Based on EEG, we investigated the difference between patients with PD and normal controls in resting state activity using features of transiently stable brain states (microstates). EEGs from 18 drug-naive patients and 18 healthy controls were analyzed. Microstate analysis showed that one class of microstates (with a right-anterior to left-posterior orientation of the mapped field) displayed longer durations and covered more of the total time in the patients than controls. Another microstate class (with a symmetric, anterior-posterior orientation) was observed less frequently in the patients compared to controls. The observation that selected microstate classes differ between patients with PD and controls suggests that specific brain functions are altered already during resting condition. The altered resting state may be the starting point of the observed dysfunctional processing of phobic stimuli.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry and Neurobiology, Graduate School of Medical Science, Kanazawa University, Kanazawa, Japan. mitsuru@zc4.so-net.ne.jp
authors.forename: Mitsuru
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kikuchi
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Koenig
authors.forename: Toshio
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Munesue
authors.forename: Akira
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Hanaoka
authors.forename: Werner
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Strik
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Dierks
authors.forename: Yoshifumi
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Koshino
authors.forename: Yoshio
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Minabe
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001921:Brain / Q000503:physiopathology*; D001931:Brain Mapping; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D004569:Electroencephalography; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008606:Mental Processes / Q000502:physiology*; D008875:Middle Aged; D016584:Panic Disorder / Q000503:physiopathology*; D012146:Rest; D055815:Young Adult