• Science of Emotion and Sensibility
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• v.8 no.4
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• pp.415-422
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• 2005

The purpose of the present study was to investigate the differences of nonlinear characteristics of electroencephalogram (EEG) depending on different sensitivities of behavioral activation system (BAS) and behavioral inhibition system (BIS) of young and elderly groups. The EEGs from Fpl and Fp2 electrodes were recorded during resting condition. The young and elderly groups consisted of 19 and 31 healthy right-handed volunteers, respectively. We estimated 1/f scaling exponent which reflects the nonlinear dynamical complexity of EEG. As results, we found the differences of 1/f scaling exponent between young ant elderly BAS sensitive groups. The 1/f scaling exponent of young BAS sensitive group showed significantly higher values than those of elderly BAS sensitive group at the left prefrontal area (Fpl). The young BAS sensitive group had also a tendency to higher 1/f scaling exponent at the right prefrontal area (Fp2). Decrease of the 1/f scaling exponent indicates the increase of complexity and the decrease of the amount of information related to the statistical distribution. Therefore, the elderly BAS sensitive group has higher complexity than young BAS sensitive group, though they were all classified as BAS sensitive group by BAS/BIS scale. Our results suggest the possibility of correlation between BAS sensitivity an4 age.