Spectral band powers of the resting EEG reflect basic characteristics of neural oscillatory activity. Overall, there is a relative consensus that abundant alpha-band oscillations reflect cortical deactivation, whereas scarce or absent alpha oscillation and increased higher frequency activity reflects increased level of cortical arousal. However, functional interpretation of individual differences in spectral characteristics of the resting EEG is not very straightforward due to the lack of consistent evidence for their correlations with individual differences in behavior.
