CSD methods have been widely used to determine differential topographic patterns of cortical activations in clinical conditions as distinguished from healthy controls in order to develop potential correlates and/or bio-markers for the disorder or condition. As described in the following sections, this review focuses only on the CSD methods as applied in several neuropsychiatric conditions in human participants. While the utility of CSD has been established in electrophysiological studies in animals as well as humans, it may be surprising to note that this method has not been adequately applied in some common clinical domains, such as substance use disorders (other than alcoholism), obsessive-compulsive disorder, and post-traumatic stress disorder. By summarizing the studies that have successfully used CSD measures, this review attempts to present an overview of salient findings and utility of CSD (in terms of activation patterns and topography) in several neuropsychiatric conditions, while listing out some of the limitations as well as future prospects.
