Frontal alpha asymmetry and personality traits

Project lead: Sebastian Ocklenburg

“#EEGManyLabs Asymmetry” spin-off will leverage community engagement to record additional resting-state EEG data, and a set of personality questionnaires together with the replication attempts.

There is a large body of literature suggesting the existence of hemispheric asymmetries in alpha frequency band (8-13 hz) oscillation power over frontal EEG electrodes during resting state (Allen et al., 2018). Alpha is often assumed to reflect the absence of cognitive activity, so that a rightward alpha asymmetry would reflect leftward brain activation asymmetry (Ocklenburg et al., 2018). One of the central reasons for the interest of the neuroscience community in EEG alpha asymmetries are their links to both affective disorders and personality. It has been shown on the meta-analytical level that depression is associated with a relative increase in left frontal (compared to right frontal) alpha, reflecting a relative increase in right-frontal activity compared to healthy controls (Thibodeau, Jorgensen, & Kim, 2006). Moreover, individual differences in EEG alpha asymmetries have been linked to emotion processing (Tomarken et al., 1992) as well as to personality and motivation differences (Harmon-Jones & Gable, 2018).

The aim of the #EEGManyLabs Asymmetry spin-off is to shed light on the replicability of asymmetries in EEG alpha power (Reznik & Allen, 2018, 10.1111/psyp.12965) and their relation to personality traits.