Response conflict processes' classification in 7 and 9 year old children using EEG brain connectivity measures

Area of Science:

• Developmental Psychology
• Cognitive Neuroscience
• Neurophysiology

Background:

• Understanding cognitive development, particularly children's thinking and understanding, presents unique challenges.
• Psychological tasks like the Flanker task are crucial for studying the development of response conflict processes.
• Electroencephalography (EEG) provides valuable insights into brain activity during cognitive tasks.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate cognitive development by examining brain activity using EEG during the Flanker task.
• To analyze the coherence and imaginary part of coherency in delta, theta, alpha, and beta bands.
• To determine the effectiveness of different EEG frequency bands in classifying stimuli across age groups.

Main Methods:

• Longitudinal data collection from typically developing children at ages seven and nine.
• Utilized the Flanker task to induce cognitive conflict.
• Analyzed electroencephalography (EEG) signals, focusing on coherence and the imaginary part of coherency across frequency bands (delta, theta, alpha, beta).

Main Results:

• The imaginary part of coherency demonstrated higher efficacy in distinguishing between stimuli.
• In seven-year-old children, alpha and beta bands achieved a 90.90% classification rate.
• In nine-year-old children, beta and theta bands were more effective, achieving over 84.09% classification accuracy.

Conclusions:

• The imaginary part of coherency is a promising metric for understanding cognitive development and stimulus discrimination.
• Age-specific differences exist in the effectiveness of EEG frequency bands for classifying stimuli during conflict tasks.
• Findings contribute to a deeper understanding of the neural underpinnings of cognitive development in children.