The Resting State of Taiwan EEG Normative Database: Z-Scores of Patients with Major Depressive Disorder as the Cross-Validation

This study referred to the standard of electroencephalography (EEG) collection of normative databases and collected the Taiwan normative database to examine the reliability and validation of the Taiwan EEG normative database. We included 260 healthy participants and divided them into five groups in 10-year age-group segments and calculated the EEG means, standard deviation, and z-scores. Internal consistency reliability was verified at different frequencies between the three electrode locations in the Taiwan normative database. We recruited 221 major depressive disorder (MDD) patients for cross-validation between the Taiwan and NeuroGuide normative databases. There were high internal consistency reliabilities for delta, theta, alpha, beta, and high-beta at C3, Cz, and C4 in the HC group. There were high correlations between the two z-scores of the Taiwan and NeuroGuide normative databases in the frontal, central, parietal, temporal, and occipital lobes from MDD patients. The beta z-scores in the frontal lobe and central area, and the high-beta z-scores in the frontal, central, parietal, temporal, and occipital lobes were greater than one for MDD patients; in addition, the beta and high-beta absolute value z-scores in the whole brain were greater than the ones of MDD patients. The Taiwan EEG normative database has good psychometric characteristics of internal consistency reliability and cross-validation.

Automated summary

This study used the standard EEG collection method to gather the Taiwan normative database and examine its reliability and validation. The database showed high internal consistency reliabilities at different frequencies across the three electrode locations. Cross-validation was conducted between the Taiwan and NeuroGuide databases for major depressive disorder (MDD) patients, and high correlations were found between the z-scores in different lobes. The Taiwan EEG normative database demonstrated good psychometric characteristics of internal consistency reliability and cross-validation.