Frontiers in Psychology (Sep 2015)

Frontal EEG alpha activity and obsessive-compulsive behaviors in nonclinical young adults: A pilot study

  • Michael eWong,
  • Erik Z Woody,
  • Louis A. Schmidt,
  • Michael eVan Ameringen,
  • Noam eSoreni,
  • Henry eSzechtman

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2015.01480
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 6

Abstract

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Previous studies have shown that the resting electroencephalogram (EEG) alpha patterns of nonclinical 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 nonclinical sample of individuals with high levels of obsessive-compulsive behaviors indicative of OCD. Here we measured resting EEG alpha activity in frontal and parietal regions of nonclinical 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.

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