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. 2023 Apr 1:269:119925.
doi: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2023.119925. Epub 2023 Feb 3.

Age-related trends in aperiodic EEG activity and alpha oscillations during early- to middle-childhood

Marco McSweeney  1 , Santiago Morales  2 , Emilio A Valadez  3 , George A Buzzell  4 , Lydia Yoder  3 , William P Fifer  5 , Nicolò Pini  6 , Lauren C Shuffrey  6 , Amy J Elliott  7 , Joseph R Isler  8 , Nathan A Fox  3
Affiliations

Age-related trends in aperiodic EEG activity and alpha oscillations during early- to middle-childhood

Marco McSweeney et al. Neuroimage. .

Abstract

Age-related structural and functional changes that occur during brain development are critical for cortical development and functioning. Previous electroencephalography (EEG) and magnetoencephalography (MEG) studies have highlighted the utility of power spectra analyses and have uncovered age-related trends that reflect perceptual, cognitive, and behavioural states as well as their underlying neurophysiology. The aim of the current study was to investigate age-related change in aperiodic and periodic alpha activity across a large sample of pre- and school-aged children (N = 502, age range 4 -11-years-of-age). Power spectra were extracted from baseline EEG recordings (eyes closed, eyes open) for each participant and parameterized into aperiodic activity to derive the offset and exponent parameters and periodic alpha oscillatory activity to derive the alpha peak frequency and the associated power estimates. Multilevel models were run to investigate age-related trends and condition-dependent changes for each of these measures. We found quadratic age-related effects for both the aperiodic offset and exponent. In addition, we observed increases in periodic alpha peak frequency as a function of age. Aperiodic measures and periodic alpha power were larger in magnitude during eyes closed compared to the eyes open baseline condition. Taken together, these results advance our understanding of the maturational patterns/trajectories of brain development during early- to middle-childhood.

Keywords: Aperiodic activity; EEG; FOOOF; Functional brain development; Periodic alpha oscillations; Specparam.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare no conflicts of interest

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
A) Power spectral density (PSD) for each age group during eyes closed and eyes open baseline conditions B) Aperiodic fits by age-group eyes closed and eyes open conditions C) Age-related change in the aperiodic offset and exponent (quadratic age effect) for eyes closed and eyes open conditions
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
A)Plot showing periodic alpha power for eyes closed (EC) condition B) Plot showing linear increases in periodic alpha peak frequency with increases in age C) Plot showing periodic alpha power for eyes open (EO) condition D) Plot showing age-related change in periodic alpha power for eyes closed and eyes open (EC and EO) conditions
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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