Frontal brain activation in anxious school children.

BACKGROUND: An atypical EEG pattern of frontal brain activation has been found in infants and adults with emotional disorders. Eighty-two 8-year-old children and 56 11-year-old children were examined with regard to the following questions: 1. Do children who are diagnosed with anxiety disorder exhibit an atypical pattern of frontal brain activation? 2. Can this pattern be demonstrated in children of different ages? and 3. Are there gender differences in these patterns similar to those that have been demonstrated in adults? Baseline EEG activity was subjected to power spectral analysis.
RESULTS: In 8- and 11-year-old anxious girls, the well-known pattern of greater right than left frontal activation emerged that has been found previously in internalizing preschoolers. Healthy girls showed no frontal asymmetry at 8 years of age, and a greater left than right frontal brain activation at 11 years. In contrast, healthy boys demonstrated a significantly greater right than left frontal activation, whereas anxious boys displayed no frontal asymmetry at the age of 8, and a greater left than right frontal activation at the age of 11.
CONCLUSIONS: Children suffering from anxiety disorders exhibited a significantly different pattern of frontal brain activation than healthy children without any lifetime diagnosis of mental disorder. Distinct gender differences in frontal activation were found in anxious as well as in healthy children. This could be demonstrated in two samples of different ages.