O'Reilly Michelle A, Bathelt Joe, Sakkalou Elena, Sakki Hanna, Salt Alison, Dale Naomi J, de Haan Michelle
Clinical Neurosciences Section, Developmental Neurosciences Programme, UCL Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health, London, UK.
MRC Cognition & Brain Sciences Unit, University of Cambridge, UK; Cognitive Neuroscience and Neuropsychiatry Section, Developmental Neurosciences Programme, UCL Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health, UK.
Clin Neurophysiol. 2017 Nov;128(11):2191-2199. doi: 10.1016/j.clinph.2017.08.016. Epub 2017 Sep 8.
Young children with congenital visual impairment (VI) are at increased risk of behavioral vulnerabilities. Studies on 'at risk' populations suggest that frontal EEG asymmetry may be associated with behavioral risk. We investigated frontal asymmetry at 1year (Time 1), behavior at 2years (Time 2) and their longitudinal associations within a sample of infants with VI. Frontal asymmetry in the VI sample at 1year was also compared cross-sectionally to an age-matched typically sighted (TS) group.
At Time 1, 22 infants with VI and 10 TS infants underwent 128-channel EEG recording. Frontal asymmetry ratios were calculated from power spectral density values in the alpha frequency band. At Time 2, Achenbach Child Behavior Checklist data was obtained for the VI sample.
63.6% of the VI sample and 50% of the TS sample showed left frontal asymmetry; no significant difference in frontal asymmetry was found between the two groups. 22.7% of the VI sample had subclinical to clinical range 'internalizing' behavior difficulties. Greater left frontal asymmetry at one year was significantly associated with greater emotionally reactive scores at two years within the VI sample (r=0.50, p=0.02).
Left frontal asymmetry correlates with later behavior risk within this vulnerable population.
These findings make an important first contribution regarding the utility of frontal EEG asymmetry as a method to investigate risk in infants with VI.
患有先天性视力障碍（VI）的幼儿出现行为问题的风险增加。对“高危”人群的研究表明，额叶脑电图不对称可能与行为风险有关。我们在一组患有视力障碍的婴儿样本中，调查了1岁时（时间1）的额叶不对称情况、2岁时（时间2）的行为表现以及它们之间的纵向关联。还将1岁时视力障碍样本的额叶不对称情况与年龄匹配的视力正常（TS）组进行了横断面比较。
在时间1，22名患有视力障碍的婴儿和10名视力正常的婴儿接受了128导脑电图记录。根据阿尔法频段的功率谱密度值计算额叶不对称率。在时间2，获取了视力障碍样本的阿肯巴克儿童行为量表数据。
63.6%的视力障碍样本和50%的视力正常样本表现出左侧额叶不对称；两组之间的额叶不对称没有显著差异。22.7%的视力障碍样本存在亚临床到临床范围的“内化”行为困难。在视力障碍样本中，1岁时更大的左侧额叶不对称与2岁时更高的情绪反应得分显著相关（r = 0.50，p = 0.02）。
在这一脆弱人群中，左侧额叶不对称与后期行为风险相关。
这些发现首次为额叶脑电图不对称作为一种调查视力障碍婴儿风险的方法的实用性做出了重要贡献。
