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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Psychiatry
Sec. Anxiety and Stress Disorders
Volume 15 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2024.1483433

Quantitative EEG and Its Relationship With Attentional Control in Patients With Anxiety disorders

Provisionally accepted
DanFeng Yuan DanFeng Yuan Xiangyun Yang Xiangyun Yang Pengchong Wang Pengchong Wang Lijuan Yang Lijuan Yang Ting Yang Ting Yang Fang He Fang He Yi Xu Yi Xu Zhanjiang Li Zhanjiang Li *
  • Beijing Anding Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing, Beijing Municipality, China

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

    Attentional control is crucial in the development and maintenance of anxiety disorders. Understanding the underlying mechanisms of attentional control can help to shed light on the neuropathological processes in anxiety disorders (ANX). Quantitative electroencephalography (QEEG) offers a costeffective, non-invasive method for examining the neuropathological mechanisms of mental disorders. In this study, 67 patients with ANX and 45 healthy controls (HC) were recruited. EEG recordings were obtained for 5 minutes in an eyes-closed condition. QEEG was employed to evaluate the mechanisms of attentional control in ANX. Neurophysiological measures indicated that anxiety patients exhibited a more frontal topographic pattern of theta/beta ratio (TBR) compared to HC. Additionally, a significant decrease in temporal beta power was observed in the ANX group. Correlation analysis revealed that decreased beta power and increased TBR were significant association between attentional control deficits in ANX. These findings provide electrophysiological evidence of impaired attentional control processing in anxiety patients, characterized by decreased temporal beta power and increased frontal TBR. Temporal beta power and frontal TBR may serve as promising biomarkers for attentional control in ANX.

    Keywords: Anxiety Disorders, beta power, theta beta ratio, attentional control, Resting-state EEG

    Received: 20 Aug 2024; Accepted: 17 Oct 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Yuan, Yang, Wang, Yang, Yang, He, Xu and Li. 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: Zhanjiang Li, Beijing Anding Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing, 100088, Beijing Municipality, China

    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.