CES-D Depression Scores Are Correlated with Frontal EEG Alpha Asymmetry

In order to evaluate the relationship between frontal EEG asymmetry and depressive symptomology, the Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression scale [CES-D; Radloff, 1977] was given to 163 women, and their EEG was recorded from the mid frontal (F3 and F4) and parietal (P3 and P4) regions during a 3 min baseline recording. As expected from previous research on depression, CES-D scores were negatively correlated with frontal EEG alpha asymmetry scores and positively correlated with left frontal EEG alpha power. Analyses of variance further revealed that mothers scoring above the cut-off for depression (CES-D > or = 16) had significantly lower frontal EEG asymmetry scores than mothers with 0-2 and 3-12 CES-D scores but not lower scores than mothers with 13-15 CES-D scores.