A method of identifying chronic stress by EEG

Hong Peng, Bin Hu, Fang Zheng, Dangping Fan, Wen Zhao, Xuebin Chen, Yongxia Yang, Qingcui Cai

Abstract: There are a lot of studies on chronic stress assessment applying psychology instruments or hormones analysis. However, there are only few studies using electroencephalogram (EEG), which is a non-invasive method providing objective inspection on brain functioning. In this paper, we analyzed overall complexity and spectrum power of certain EEG bands (theta, alpha and beta) collected from two groups of human subjects—high stress versus moderate stress at prefrontal sites (Fp1, Fp2 and Fpz). The results showed that the differences of nonlinear features (C0, LZC, D2, L1 and RE) and linear features (power and alpha asymmetry score) between two groups are significant. C0, LZC and D2 significantly increased in stress group at Fp1 and Fp2, while L1 and RE significantly decreased. And those with chronic stress have higher left prefrontal power. Finally, we suggest that it may be effective to discriminate the high-stress people from moderate-stress people by EEG.