ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Hum. Neurosci.
Sec. Brain Health and Clinical Neuroscience
Volume 19 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fnhum.2025.1582330
Alpha Oscillatory Dysregulation: Mapping EEG oscillatory in Suicidal Depression
Provisionally accepted
- 1First Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical University, Hefei, China
- 2Anhui Medical University, Hefei, Anhui Province, China
- 3Anhui Mental Health Center, Hefei, Anhui Province, China
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Background: Depression is a common mood disorder that can lead to suicide in severe cases. The aim of this study was to explore the characteristics of electrical activity in different brain regions in depressive patients with suicidal ideation (DSI), and to provide new insights into the neural mechanisms of suicidal ideation.Methods: 21 DSI, 18 depressive patients without suicidal ideation (DNSI), and 20 demographically matched healthy controls (HC) were included in the study. Differences in EEG power spectral density (PSD), frontal alpha asymmetry (FAA), and functional connectivity (FC) were computationally compared among the three groups to assess the differences in these EEG metrics between the different groups. Results：EEG analysis showed a significant increase in alpha-band PSD and a significant decrease in FAA in DSI compared to DNSI (p < 0.05). Compared with HC, DSI exhibited a significant increase in alpha-band FC between frontal-central and parietal-central regions (p < 0.05). Furthermore, in DSI, alpha-band FC between frontal and central regions was significantly and positively correlated with both severity (rho = 0.508, p = 0.038) and intensity (rho = 0.544, p = 0.024) of suicidal ideation.Conclusion：This study found significant alterations in the EEG alpha band in DSI compared to DNSI and HC. alpha band alterations may be a potential biomarker of suicide risk in depression. These findings contribute to further understanding of the neural mechanisms of DSI.
Keywords: Depression, Suicidal Ideation, EEG, alpha band, power spectral density, Frontal alpha asymmetry
Received: 24 Feb 2025; Accepted: 14 Jul 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Tian, Zhao, Guo, Wu, Zhang, Zheng, Xie and Wang. 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: Yanghua Tian, First Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical University, Hefei, China
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