A Comparative Study of EEG Signals from Healthy Subjects and Medicated Mental Disorder Patients while Doing a Selective Attention Task

The present work compares the electroencephalographic (EEG) signals from 10 healthy subjects (control group) and 10 medicated mental disorder patients while doing a selective attention task. Those disorders are anxiety and comorbidities such as depression, attention deficit disorder, post-traumatic stress, borderline personality disorder, bipolar and eating disorders, among others. The average age of the participants was 23 years old (± 3). The analysis was carried out in the frequency domain, by computing the bandpowers of beta, alpha and theta rhythms. The clinical interpretation of the results is also presented, indicating significant differences in the beta, alpha, and theta brain rhythms of both groups when performing a selective attention task. It is concluded that although both groups solve and learn the task, patients with comorbidities exert a high effort when trying to concentrate and learn an activity.