An investigation into EEG asymmetry in young children

Language performance is thought to be related to the functional specialisation of the brain, and particularly to the degree of asymmetry of activity in the two cerebral hemispheres. A microprocessor-based system has been constructed to investigate the relationship between the analogous asymmetry of the EEG and language ability in young children. The system is based on the Intel 8086 microprocessor, with software written both in the high level language PL/M-86 and 8086 assembly language. A test script, instructing the child to perform various lateralised tasks, is played from a cassette recorder to provide a constant stimulus across subjects. The computed power spectra of the resulting EEG waveforms, and the hemispheric specialisation, represented by a derived dominance factor, have been analysed both visually and numerically. Results from a test group of 16 children have not shown a strong correlation between the dominance factors and the related reading quotient.