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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Hum. Neurosci.
Sec. Brain Health and Clinical Neuroscience
Volume 19 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fnhum.2025.1481760
This article is part of the Research Topic Current Research and Future Development of Neuropsychology View all 9 articles

Functional connectivity in burnout syndrome: A resting-state EEG study

Provisionally accepted
Natalia Afek Natalia Afek 1*Dmytro Harmatiuk Dmytro Harmatiuk 2Magda Gawłowska Magda Gawłowska 3João Miguel Alves Ferreira João Miguel Alves Ferreira 4Krystyna Golonka Krystyna Golonka 3Sergii Tukaiev Sergii Tukaiev 5,6Anton Popov Anton Popov 2Tadeusz Marek Tadeusz Marek 7
  • 1 Doctoral School in the Social Sciences, Jagiellonian University, Krakow, Poland
  • 2 Department of Electronic Engineering, Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute, Kyiv, Ukraine
  • 3 Institute of Applied Psychology, Faculty of Management and Social Communication, Jagiellonian University, Kraków, Lesser Poland, Poland
  • 4 Faculty of Medicine, University of Coimbra, Coimbra, Coimbra, Portugal
  • 5 Institute of Public Health, University of Italian Switzerland, Lugano, Ticino, Switzerland
  • 6 Educational Scientific Institute of High Technologies, Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv, Kyiv, Ukraine
  • 7 Faculty of Psychology, SWPS University, Katowice, Silesian, Poland

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Chronic occupational stress is associated with a pronounced decline in emotional and cognitive functioning. Studies on neural mechanisms indicate significant changes in brain activity and changed patterns of event-related potentials in burnout subjects. This study presents an analysis of brain functional connectivity in a resting state, thus providing a deeper understanding of the mechanisms accompanying burnout syndrome.The sample consists of 49 burnout employees and 49 controls, matched by age, gender and occupation (Mage = 36.15, SD = 8.10; 59 women, 39 men). Continuous dense-array EEG data were collected from a 256-channel EEG system. The difference in functional connectivity between burnout and control subjects was tested in the eyes-closed (EC) and eyes-open (EO) conditions using the resting-state paradigm.The results indicate significant differences in brain activity between the burnout and the control groups. The resting-state network of the burnout group is characterized by decreased functional connectivity in frontal and midline areas in the alpha3 sub-band (11-13 Hz) in an eyes-open condition. The most significant effect of decreased connectivity was observed in the right frontal brain area.For the first time, these analyses point to distinctive aspects of functional connectivity within the alpha3 sub-band in burnout syndrome. These findings provide insights into the neurobiological underpinnings of burnout syndrome and its associations with changed resting-state networks. The data on neural characteristics in burnout subjects may help to understand the mechanisms of decline in cognitive function and emotion regulation and to search for adequate methods of treatment.

    Keywords: functional connectivity, EEG, Burnout syndrome, stress, resting state

    Received: 16 Aug 2024; Accepted: 14 Jan 2025.

    Copyright: © 2025 Afek, Harmatiuk, Gawłowska, Ferreira, Golonka, Tukaiev, Popov and Marek. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Natalia Afek, Doctoral School in the Social Sciences, Jagiellonian University, Krakow, 31-010, Poland

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.