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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2019 Jan 1.
Published in final edited form as: Biol Psychiatry Cogn Neurosci Neuroimaging. 2017 Oct 6;3(1):19–29. doi: 10.1016/j.bpsc.2017.09.009

Figure 1. Heterogeneity within and between groups limits potential of existing EEG metrics as biomarkers of ADHD.

Figure 1

(A) Population-level EEG heterogeneity is evident in the presence of five clusters within both ADHD and typically developing (TD) control groups. Each cluster is defined by elevations in oscillatory power within a frequency band (delta 1–3 Hertz [Hz] theta, 4–7 Hz, alpha 8–12 Hz, beta 13–20 Hz) and no spectral elevation [NSE]). There is no cluster or spectral power profile characteristic of either ADHD or TD group, suggesting resting EEG spectral power measures are insufficient to serve as a biomarker of ADHD. Figure reproduced with permission from (41). (B) The distribution of alpha ERD during the encoding interval in Fig. 2c. The image illustrates that ADHD and TD controls, despite a significant difference in group mean, have largely overlapping distributions of alpha ERD. These data, argue for the unsuitability of a single EEG metric as a diagnostic biomarker of ADHD.