Periard, Isabelle Anne-Claire and Dierolf, Angelika Margarete and Lutz, Annika and Vögele, Claus and Voderholzer, Ulrich and Koch, Stefan and Bach, Michael and Asenstorfer, Carina and Michaux, Gilles and Mertens, Vera-Christina and Schulz, Andre (2024) Frontal alpha asymmetry is associated with chronic stress and depression, but not with somatoform disorders. INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF PSYCHOPHYSIOLOGY, 200: 112342. ISSN 0167-8760, 1872-7697
Full text not available from this repository. (Request a copy)Abstract
Cardinal characteristics of somatoform disorders (SFDs) are worry of illness, and impaired affective processing. We used relative frontal alpha asymmetry (FAA), a method to measure functional lateralization of affective processing, to investigate psychobiological correlates of SFDs. With alpha activity being inversely related to cortical network activity, relative FAA refers to alpha activity on the right frontal lobe minus alpha activity on the left frontal lobe. Less relative left frontal activity, reflected by negative FAA scores, is associated with lower positive and greater negative affectivity, such as observed in depression. Due to its negative affective component (illness anxiety), we expected to find less relative left frontal activity pattern in SFDs, and positive associations with self-reported chronic stress and depression symptoms. We recorded resting-state EEG activity with 64 electrodes, placed in a 10-10 system in 26 patients with a primary SFD, 23 patients with a major depressive disorder and 25 healthy control participants. The groups did not differ in FAA. Nevertheless, across all participants, less relative left frontal activity was associated with chronic stress and depression symptoms. We concluded that FAA may not serve as an indicator of SFDs. As the relationship of FAA and depressive symptoms was fully mediated by chronic stress, future studies have to clarify whether the association between FAA and chronic stress may represent a shared underlying factor for the manifestation of mental health complaints, such as depression.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | MEDICALLY UNEXPLAINED SYMPTOMS; EEG ASYMMETRY; INDIVIDUAL-DIFFERENCES; ELECTROENCEPHALOGRAPHIC ASYMMETRY; ACTIVATION ASYMMETRY; PREFRONTAL CORTEX; BRAIN ASYMMETRY; HEALTH ANXIETY; LIFE STRESS; SOMATIZATION; Chronic stress; Depression; Frontal alpha asymmetry; Illness anxiety; Somatoform disorders |
| Subjects: | 100 Philosophy & psychology > 150 Psychology |
| Divisions: | Human Sciences > Institut für Psychologie > Lehrstuhl für Psychologie IV (Entwicklungs- und Kognitionspsychologie) - Prof. Dr. Karl-Heinz Bäuml |
| Depositing User: | Dr. Gernot Deinzer |
| Date Deposited: | 04 Dec 2025 05:52 |
| Last Modified: | 04 Dec 2025 05:52 |
| URI: | https://pred.uni-regensburg.de/id/eprint/65166 |
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