No relationship between frontal alpha asymmetry and depressive disorders in a multiverse analysis of five studies

Elife. 2021 May 26:10:e60595. doi: 10.7554/eLife.60595.

Abstract

For decades, the frontal alpha asymmetry (FAA) - a disproportion in EEG alpha oscillations power between right and left frontal channels - has been one of the most popular measures of depressive disorders (DD) in electrophysiology studies. Patients with DD often manifest a left-sided FAA: relatively higher alpha power in the left versus right frontal lobe. Recently, however, multiple studies failed to confirm this effect, questioning its reproducibility. Our purpose is to thoroughly test the validity of FAA in depression by conducting a multiverse analysis - running many related analyses and testing the sensitivity of the effect to changes in the analytical approach - on data from five independent studies. Only 13 of the 270 analyses revealed significant results. We conclude the paper by discussing theoretical assumptions underlying the FAA and suggest a list of guidelines for improving and expanding the EEG data analysis in future FAA studies.

Keywords: EEG; alpha oscillations; depressive disorders; electrophysiology; frontal alpha asymmetry; human; neuroscience.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Adolescent
  • Adult
  • Affect
  • Alpha Rhythm*
  • Case-Control Studies
  • Depressive Disorder / diagnosis*
  • Depressive Disorder / physiopathology
  • Depressive Disorder / psychology
  • Electroencephalography*
  • Female
  • Frontal Lobe / physiopathology*
  • Functional Laterality*
  • Humans
  • Male
  • Middle Aged
  • Predictive Value of Tests
  • Reproducibility of Results
  • Signal Processing, Computer-Assisted
  • Young Adult

Associated data

  • Dryad/10.5061/dryad.5x69p8d18

Grants and funding

The funders had no role in study design, data collection and interpretation, or the decision to submit the work for publication.