Frontal alpha asymmetry and negative mood: a cross-sectional study in older and younger adults

The data presented in this study are openly available in Open Science Framework and can be found here (accessed on 26 July 2022): https://osf.io/v7y62/.
Frontal alpha asymmetry (FAA) has been associated with emotional processing and affective psychopathology. Negative and withdrawal stimuli and behaviors have been related to high levels of right cortical activity, while positive and approach stimuli and behaviors have been related to increased left cortical activity. Inconsistent results in terms of depressive and anxious symptoms and their relationship to FAA have been previously observed, especially at older ages. Additionally, no studies to date have evaluated whether loneliness, a negative feeling, is related to FAA. Therefore, this study aimed (i) to compare FAA between younger and older adults and (ii) to investigate the possible relationships between loneliness, depressive and anxious symptomatology with FAA in young and older adults. Resting electroencephalogram recordings of 39 older (M<i>age</i> = 70.51, <i>SD</i> = 7.12) and 57 younger adults (M<i>age</i> = 22.54, <i>SD</i> = 3.72) were analyzed. Results showed greater left than right cortical activity for both groups and higher FAA for older than younger adults. FAA was not predicted by loneliness, depressive or anxious symptomatology as shown by regression analyses. Findings bring clarity about FAA patterns at different ages and open the discussion about the relationship between negative emotional processing and frontal cortical imbalances, especially at older ages.
This research was funded by Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) projects POCI-01-0145-FEDER-028682 (PTDC/PSI-GER/28682/2017) and NORTE-01-0145-FEDER-032152 (PTDC/PSI-GER/32152/2017) through national and European Regional Development (FEDER) funds. D.P. was supported by the FCT grant SFRH/BPD/120111/2016, and C.B. by FCT grant 2020.07157.BD. The Centre for Research in Psychology (CIPsi/UM-PSI/01662) is supported by FCT through the Portuguese State Budget (UIDB/01662/2020) and by the Portuguese Ministry of Education and Science through national and FEDER funds through COMPETE2020 under the PT2020 Partnership Agreement (POCI-01-0145-FEDER-007653).