Center for Lifespan Psychology, Max Planck Institute for Human Development, Berlin, Germany.
Dev Sci. 2012 Jul;15(4):540-56. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-7687.2012.01153.x.
Electroencephalographic recordings (EEG) were used to assess age-associated differences in nonlinear brain dynamics during both rest and auditory oddball performance in children aged 9.0-12.8 years, younger adults, and older adults. We computed nonlinear coupling dynamics and dimensional complexity, and also determined spectral alpha power as an indicator of cortical reactivity. During rest, both nonlinear coupling and spectral alpha power decreased with age, whereas dimensional complexity increased. In contrast, when attending to the deviant stimulus, nonlinear coupling increased with age, and complexity decreased. Correlational analyses showed that nonlinear measures assessed during auditory oddball performance were reliably related to an independently assessed measure of perceptual speed. We conclude that cortical dynamics during rest and stimulus processing undergo substantial reorganization from childhood to old age, and propose that lifespan age differences in nonlinear dynamics during stimulus processing reflect lifespan changes in the functional organization of neuronal cell assemblies.
脑电图记录（EEG）用于评估 9.0-12.8 岁儿童、年轻成年人和老年人在休息和听觉异常任务表现期间非线性大脑动力学的年龄相关性差异。我们计算了非线性耦合动力学和维度复杂性，并确定了频谱α功率作为皮质反应性的指标。在休息期间，非线性耦合和频谱α功率都随年龄的增长而降低，而维度复杂性则增加。相反，当注意到异常刺激时，非线性耦合随年龄的增长而增加，而复杂性则降低。相关分析表明，听觉异常任务期间评估的非线性指标与独立评估的感知速度指标具有可靠的相关性。我们得出结论，从儿童期到老年期，休息和刺激处理期间的皮质动力学会发生实质性的重新组织，并且提出刺激处理期间非线性动力学的寿命差异反映了神经元细胞集合的功能组织的寿命变化。
