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Brain electrical correlates of psychological measures: Strategies and problems

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Summary

We explore relationships between brain electrical activity and cognitive performance where qEEG data are correlated with psychological variables gathered at a different time. For a population of 202 healthy adults using univariate and multivariate correlation techniques in a split half replication design, we confirm prior findings that subjects with better psychological scores show shorter evoked potential (EP) latency, suggesting that speed of processing is an important factor in cognitive performance. By canonical correlation we demonstrate a consistent, replicable relationship between electrophysiological and behavioral data. We suggest that reliance upon univariate correlation may have fueled early controversies about relationships between electrophysiology and IQ. In addition we correlate psychological factors with the entire qEEG data set (both EP and spectral analyzed EEG) and demonstrate the use a multidimensional image graphics techniques to assist in visual assessment of the resulting correlation matrices.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Neurology, Childrens Hospital and Harvard Medical School, 300 Longwood Avenue, 02115, Boston, MA, USA

    F. H. Duffy & G. B. McAnulty

  2. Florence Heller Graduate School for Advanced Studies in Social Welfare, Brandeis University, Waltham, USA

    K. Jones

  3. Dept. of Psychiatry, Childrens Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, USA

    H. Als

  4. Depts. of Psychiatry and Neurology, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Fruit Street, Boston, USA

    M. Albert

Authors
  1. F. H. Duffy
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  2. G. B. McAnulty
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  3. K. Jones
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  4. H. Als
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  5. M. Albert
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Additional information

This work was supported in part by NIA program project PO1AG049853 to M. Albert and the Mental Retardation Program Project P30HD18655 to J.J. Volpe. We thank our qEEG technologists Adele Mirabella, Susan Katz, Ellen Belles and Marianne McGaffigan as well as our research secretaries for their unflagging support. We thank Sandra Kosta for her analytic help, Dr. Cary Savage for his programming assistance, and Dr. Kristin Harris of the Image Graphics Laboratory at Childrens Hospital for her aid with 3D image construction.

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Duffy, F.H., McAnulty, G.B., Jones, K. et al. Brain electrical correlates of psychological measures: Strategies and problems. Brain Topogr 5, 399–412 (1993). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01128698

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