Frontal EEG alpha activity and obsessive-compulsive behaviors in non-clinical young adults: a pilot study.
Previous studies have shown that the resting electroencephalogram (EEG) alpha patterns of non-clinical participants who score high on measures of negative affect, such as depression and shyness, are different from those who score low. However, we know relatively little about patterns of resting EEG alpha patterns in a non-clinical sample of individuals with high levels of obsessive-compulsive behaviors indicative of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). Here we measured resting EEG alpha activity in frontal and parietal regions of non-clinical participants who scored high and low on the Padua-R, a measure of the severity of OCD-related behaviors. We found that participants who scored high on the Padua-R exhibited decreased overall activity in frontal regions relative to individuals who scored low on the measure. We speculate that frontal hypoactivity may be a possible marker and/or index of risk for OCD.
Department of Psychiatry and Behavioural Neurosciences, McMaster University , Hamilton, ON, Canada.
Michael
M
Wong
Department of Psychology, University of Waterloo , Waterloo, ON, Canada.
Erik Z
EZ
Woody
Department of Psychology, Neuroscience, and Behaviour, McMaster University , Hamilton, ON, Canada.
Louis A
LA
Schmidt
Department of Psychiatry and Behavioural Neurosciences, McMaster University , Hamilton, ON, Canada.
Michael Van
MV
Ameringen
Department of Psychiatry and Behavioural Neurosciences, McMaster University , Hamilton, ON, Canada.
Noam
N
Soreni
Department of Psychiatry and Behavioural Neurosciences, McMaster University , Hamilton, ON, Canada.
Henry
H
Szechtman
anxiety; electroencephalography; frontal hypoactivity; obsessive-compulsive disorder; security motivation