Frontal Alpha Power Asymmetry in Aggressive Children and Adolescents with Mood and Disruptive Behavior Disorders

• Published in: Clinical EEG and neuroscience 2006-01, Vol.37 (1), p.16-24
• Main Authors: Rybak, Malgorzata, Crayton, John W., Young, Irving J., Herba, Edward, Konopka, Lukasz M.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adolescent; Aggression; Alpha Rhythm - methods; Attention Deficit and Disruptive Behavior Disorders - complications; Attention Deficit and Disruptive Behavior Disorders - diagnosis; Attention Deficit and Disruptive Behavior Disorders - physiopathology; Brain Mapping - methods; Child; Child, Preschool; Diagnosis, Computer-Assisted - methods; Female; Frontal Lobe - physiopathology; Humans; Male; Mood Disorders - complications; Mood Disorders - diagnosis; Mood Disorders - physiopathology; Statistics as Topic
• ISSN: 1550-0594; 2169-5202
• DOI: 10.1177/155005940603700105

Building on prior research, which has suggested a relationship between aggression and left frontal activity, our study tested the hypothesis that proneness to impulsive aggression would be related to relative left frontal overactivation. EEG one-hertz resting alpha power frontal asymmetry was examined in 65 pediatric male psychiatric patients with a history of impulsive aggression and comorbid mood and disruptive behavior disorders. The strongest finding, which emerged from this analysis, was a finding of relative increases in left frontal activity compared with right frontal activity. The results also indicated that greater left frontal activity correlated positively with the severity of psychiatric disturbance. These findings suggest that relative increases in left frontal activity may be related to a locus of neurophysiological disruption associated with psychopathology characterized by behavioral and affective disinhibition. Results are discussed within a model of behavioral inhibition system-behavioral activation system theory.