Frontal electroencephalography (EEG) alpha asymmetry (FAA), defined as the difference in frontal alpha power observed over the right and left frontal scalp regions, has been widely used in developmental research as a measure of multiple aspects of child behavior, such as temperament. Studies have used different equations to calculate FAA, which renders comparison of results across studies challenging. Furthermore, few studies have examined FAA's longitudinal stability across infancy and early childhood, which is a desirable feature of a temperament measure. We investigated the cross-sectional and the longitudinal correlations of FAA values from four different equations to calculate FAA used in the literature. We used baseline EEG data from a longitudinal sample of 321 infants and 168 3-year-old children (149 of whom had data at both timepoints). Consistent with previous work, FAA values calculated using two commonly used equations were highly correlated with each other cross-sectionally but not with values from a different equation that used log-transformed relative power. The log-transformed relative power FAA values were the only values that showed significant longitudinal stability. These findings suggest that researchers interested in FAA as a trait-like measure in children should consider using the relative power equation that renders stability across ages.

中文翻译：

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使用不同的方法计算额叶α不对称性，在大纵向样本中研究其从婴儿期到3岁的发展


额叶脑电图 (EEG) α 不对称性 (FAA) 定义为在左右额头皮区域观察到的额叶 α 功率差异，已广泛用于发育研究，作为儿童行为多个方面（例如气质）的衡量标准。研究使用不同的方程来计算 FAA，这使得比较不同研究的结果具有挑战性。此外，很少有研究考察 FAA 在婴儿期和幼儿期的纵向稳定性，而这是气质测量的一个理想特征。我们研究了四个不同方程中 FAA 值的横截面和纵向相关性，以计算文献中使用的 FAA。我们使用了 321 名婴儿和 168 名 3 岁儿童纵向样本的基线脑电图数据（其中 149 名儿童在两个时间点都有数据）。与之前的工作一致，使用两个常用方程计算的 FAA 值在横截面方面彼此高度相关，但与使用对数转换相对功率的不同方程的值不相关。对数转换的相对功率 FAA 值是唯一显示出显着纵向稳定性的值。这些发现表明，对 FAA 作为儿童特质测量感兴趣的研究人员应该考虑使用相对功效方程，以实现跨年龄段的稳定性。