Effectiveness of behavioral activation treatment on asymmetry of alpha EEG in frontal lobe, cognitive flexibility and selective attention in patients suffering from depressive disorder

Depression is applied to a wide domain of problems related to mental health that is revealed with lack of positive emotion, low mood, and a range of emotional, cognitive, physical and behavioral symptoms. This research aims to study the effectiveness of behavioral activation treatment on asymmetry of alpha EEG in frontal lobe, cognitive flexibility and selective attention in patients suffering from depressive disorder. For this purpose, in a semi-experimental research with the multi-group pretest-posttest design and follow-up with control group, 30 persons were selected based as convenience samples using random sampling and placed in two test and control groups, from among clients of medical clinic of Tabriz that received the diagnosis of depressive disorder. Neurofeedback equipment of Canadian Technology Thought Company, model Procomp 2 was used for assessment of asymmetry of alpha in frontal lobe, before and after completion of behavioral activation treatment for measuring the effectiveness of this therapy on amendment of alpha asymmetry in frontal lobe. The test group received behavioral activation intervention for 8 weeks (1 therapy session per week). Analysis of multivariable covariance demonstrated that behavioral activation treatment results in increase of the activity of left sphere through reduction of alpha, F3 and reduction of cognitive flexibility and selective attention and reduction of the depression symptoms in test group. Behavioral activation treatment seems to be effective on improvement of cognitive flexibility and selective attention, and results in increase of the activity of left sphere, but has no effect on the improvement of cerebral alpha asymmetry.