Related Experiment Video
Updated: Sep 15, 2025
06:34
Infant Auditory Processing and Event-related Brain Oscillations
Published on: July 1, 2015
16.5K
The development of aperiodic neural activity in the human brain
Zachariah R Cross1, Samantha M Gray2,3, Adam J O Dede2
1Northwestern University, Chicago, IL, USA. zachariah.cross@northwestern.edu.
Nature Human Behaviour
|July 16, 2025
Summary
Brain maturation involves changes in neural noise, measured by aperiodic activity slopes. This study reveals how these neural noise patterns develop with age, impacting attention and memory, particularly in the prefrontal cortex.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Developmental Neuroscience
- Cognitive Neuroscience
Background:
- Brain maturation continues into adulthood, influencing cognitive functions like attention and memory.
- Neurophysiological mechanisms, including neural noise, underpin these developmental changes.
- Aperiodic activity (1/f-like) serves as a proxy for neural noise, with slope steepness indicating noise levels.
Purpose of the Study:
- To map developmental trajectories of aperiodic activity across widespread brain regions using intracranial electroencephalography (iEEG).
- To investigate how age and attentional state influence aperiodic activity in sensorimotor, association, and prefrontal cortices.
- To link developmental changes in neural noise to cognitive development, specifically attention and memory.
Main Methods:
- Analysis of iEEG recordings from 101 children and adults (5.93–54.00 years) during task-based (attention) and resting-state conditions.
- Quantification of aperiodic activity slopes across numerous electrodes (n=5,691) in various brain regions.
- Correlation of aperiodic slope changes with age, cognitive performance (memory), and structural imaging data (grey matter volume).
Main Results:
- Aperiodic slopes flatten with age into young adulthood in association and sensorimotor cortices.
- In the prefrontal cortex (PFC), attentional state differentially affected age-related aperiodic slopes: steeper during tasks in adults, flatter during tasks in children.
- Age-related changes in task-based aperiodic slopes predicted memory performance gains.
- Grey matter volume showed associations with aperiodic slopes in association and sensorimotor cortices.
Conclusions:
- Developmental trajectories of aperiodic activity are region-specific and extend into adulthood.
- PFC aperiodic activity dynamics reflect the maturation of cognitive control during adolescence.
- Changes in neural noise contribute to the development of attention and memory capacities across the lifespan.
