Department of Human Development, Washington State University, Pullman, Washington, USA.
Institute of Child Development, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA.
Dev Sci. 2018 Nov;21(6):e12691. doi: 10.1111/desc.12691. Epub 2018 Jun 4.
The connection between brain rhythms at rest and cognition remains poorly understood. This is especially true during early childhood in which neuroimaging data are relatively scarce. We developed a new method for collecting eyes closed and eyes open resting state electroencephalography (EEG) suitable for young children. We report results characterizing age-related change in power in multiple brain rhythms over frontal and posterior regions under eyes closed and open conditions of rest in 3-, 4-, 5- and 9-year-old children (N = 162). We observed two key patterns of results. First, with age theta decreased, alpha increased, and alpha peak frequency increased. Second, power was generally higher when eyes were closed than open for theta and alpha but higher when eyes were open than closed for beta and gamma. We also investigated the relation between resting state EEG activity and executive function (EF) using the Minnesota Executive Function Scale, a standardized behavioral measure of EF for ages 2 and up. Correlational and regression analyses showed that individual differences in the theta/beta ratio is associated with EF even after controlling for children's age and verbal abilities. We situate our results in a theoretical discussion of theta/beta and its role in control processes.
静息状态下的脑节律与认知之间的联系仍然知之甚少。这在儿童早期尤其如此，因为那时神经影像学数据相对较少。我们开发了一种新的方法，用于收集适合幼儿的闭眼和睁眼静息状态脑电图（EEG）。我们报告了特征在于在 3、4、5 和 9 岁儿童（N = 162）的闭眼和睁眼休息条件下，在前额和后区多个脑节律的与年龄相关的功率变化的结果。我们观察到两个关键的结果模式。首先，随着年龄的增长，θ波减少，α波增加，α波峰值频率增加。其次，与闭眼相比，θ波和α波在睁眼时的功率通常更高，而β波和γ波在闭眼时的功率通常更高。我们还使用明尼苏达执行功能量表（一种针对 2 岁及以上儿童的标准化执行功能行为测量），调查了静息状态 EEG 活动与执行功能（EF）之间的关系。相关和回归分析表明，即使在控制了儿童的年龄和语言能力之后，θ/β 比值的个体差异也与 EF 相关。我们将我们的结果置于对θ/β及其在控制过程中的作用的理论讨论中。
