Age-related trends in aperiodic EEG activity and alpha oscillations during early- to middle-childhood
Marco McSweeney,
Santiago Morales,
Emilio A. Valadez,
George A. Buzzell,
Lydia Yoder,
William P. Fifer,
Nicolò Pini,
Lauren C. Shuffrey,
Amy J. Elliott,
Joseph R. Isler,
Nathan A. Fox
Affiliations
Marco McSweeney
Department of Human Development and Quantitative Methodology, University of Maryland, 3304 Benjamin Building, College Park, MD 20742, USA; Corresponding author.
Santiago Morales
Department of Psychology, University of Southern California, USA
Emilio A. Valadez
Department of Human Development and Quantitative Methodology, University of Maryland, 3304 Benjamin Building, College Park, MD 20742, USA
George A. Buzzell
Department of Psychology and the Center for Children and Families, Florida International University, USA
Lydia Yoder
Department of Human Development and Quantitative Methodology, University of Maryland, 3304 Benjamin Building, College Park, MD 20742, USA
William P. Fifer
Department of Psychiatry, Columbia University Irving Medical Center, New York, USA; Department of Paediatrics, Columbia University Irving Medical Center, New York, USA; Division of Developmental Neuroscience, New York State Psychiatric Institute, USA
Nicolò Pini
Department of Psychiatry, Columbia University Irving Medical Center, New York, USA; Division of Developmental Neuroscience, New York State Psychiatric Institute, USA
Lauren C. Shuffrey
Department of Psychiatry, Columbia University Irving Medical Center, New York, USA; Division of Developmental Neuroscience, New York State Psychiatric Institute, USA
Amy J. Elliott
Avera Research Institute, USA; Department of Paediatrics, University of South Dakota School of Medicine, USA
Joseph R. Isler
Department of Paediatrics, Columbia University Irving Medical Center, New York, USA
Nathan A. Fox
Department of Human Development and Quantitative Methodology, University of Maryland, 3304 Benjamin Building, College Park, MD 20742, USA
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.
