EEG asymmetries may be affected by cranial and brain parenchymal asymmetries

The plagiocephaly index, an index that reflects an underlying anatomic asymmetry of the brain, was assessed in ten schizophrenic patients and its values were correlated with the lateral distribution of quantitatively evaluated EEG. The correlations between the index and alpha power at F7 were significant, positive for frontal asymmetry (frontal bulging) and negative for occipital flattening. We then studied ten normal subjects in an attempt to illuminate the contribution of several cephalic and cranial variables to the imbalance of alpha-afterdischarges (AD) of VEP recorded at O1-O2. The asymmetry index of AD was computed and correlated with asymmetries of CT-derived measures of occipital bone thickness, occipital lobe width, mastoid area, and sulcal asymmetry (the asymmetry of intraparietal sulcus location from the longitudinal fissure). With the exception of the sulcal variable all measures significantly covaried with alpha AD. These findings caution that it may be important to determine cranial and brain parenchymal asymmetries where brain laterality is pertinent to studies of EEG.