Mobile Quantitative EEG Assessment and Children’s Preoperative Anxiety: a Psychometric and Feasibility Study

New technologies in mobile, wireless quantitative electroencephalography (EEG) allow for simple and non-invasive continuous monitoring of brain activity that may complement and enhance existing assessment tools that track preoperative anxiety in the surgical setting. Although individual differences in continuously monitored frontal brain electrical activity (EEG) are associated with anxiety in traditional laboratory settings, this relation has not been tested in the preoperative context. We measured continuous frontal and temporal EEG alpha power using a mobile, 4-sensor dry headband in 70 children (Mage = 10.36 years; 34 males) preparing for elective surgery across two separate visits: a preoperative visit approximately a week before surgery (visit 1), and during the day of surgery in the preoperative holding area (visit 2). We also measured preoperative anxiety at visit 2 using the self-reported Children’s Perioperative Multidimensional Anxiety Scale (CPMAS) and the observer-rated modified Yale Preoperative Anxiety Scale (mYPAS). Anterior EEG alpha power demonstrated very good internal consistency and good test–retest reliability. Furthermore, lower overall frontal EEG alpha power (i.e., greater frontal brain activity) at visit 1 correlated with higher self-reported state anxiety at visit 2. These findings provide preliminary evidence of the feasibility, reliability, and validity of using mobile, relatively non-invasive EEG measures to help understand and predict preoperative anxiety in children.