Department of Human Sciences, European University of Rome, Via degli Aldobrandeschi 190, 00163 Rome Italy.
Department of Human Sciences, European University of Rome, Via degli Aldobrandeschi 190, 00163 Rome Italy.
J Affect Disord. 2019 Oct 1;257:152-159. doi: 10.1016/j.jad.2019.07.034. Epub 2019 Jul 5.
Frontal alpha asymmetry (FAA) has been widely investigated in depressive disorders (DDs) with contradictory and not conclusive results. The main aim of the current study was to explore the association between a new neurophysiological index, the so-called frontal alpha connectivity asymmetry index (FACA-I), and depressive symptoms.
One hundred and thirteen participants (45 men and 68 women, mean age: 22.83 ± 2.26 years) were enrolled. Electroencephalographic (EEG) recordings were performed during 5 min of resting state (RS). FACA-I was computed by subtracting connectivity at left frontal regions from right frontal regions and dividing by their sum. RS FAA were also computed and compared to the FACA-I in all analyses.
After controlling for the presence of potential confounding variables (i.e., sex, age and anxiety symptoms), only FACA-I scores between medial prefrontal cortex and subgenual anterior cingulate cortex were negatively associated with both somatic and cognitive/affective depressive symptoms and were lower in individuals with significant level of depressive symptoms.
We focused on a sample of university students with no formal diagnosis of depression and we did not assess FAA and FACA-I during cognitive and/or emotional tasks, which make our interpretation specific to the RS condition.
Taken together our data suggest that alpha connectivity asymmetry between medial prefrontal cortex and subgenual anterior cingulate cortex may be a useful neurophysiological index in the assessment of depressive symptoms.
额α不对称（FAA）在抑郁障碍（DD）中得到了广泛的研究，但结果却存在矛盾，尚无定论。本研究的主要目的是探索一种新的神经生理指标，即所谓的额α连通性不对称指数（FACA-I）与抑郁症状之间的关系。
纳入 113 名参与者（45 名男性，68 名女性，平均年龄：22.83±2.26 岁）。在静息状态（RS）下进行 5 分钟的脑电图（EEG）记录。通过从右额区减去额区的连接性，并将其除以它们的总和，计算出 FACA-I。在所有分析中，还计算并比较了 RS FAA 和 FACA-I。
在控制了潜在的混杂变量（即性别、年龄和焦虑症状）后，只有中前额皮质和 subgenual 前扣带皮质之间的 FACA-I 评分与躯体和认知/情感抑郁症状呈负相关，且在抑郁症状显著的个体中得分较低。
我们专注于一个没有正式抑郁诊断的大学生样本，并且我们没有在认知和/或情绪任务期间评估 FAA 和 FACA-I，这使得我们的解释仅限于 RS 状态。
综上所述，我们的数据表明，中前额皮质和 subgenual 前扣带皮质之间的α连接不对称可能是评估抑郁症状的一个有用的神经生理指标。
