Developmental Changes of Brain Oscillatory Pattern in Children With and Without Epilepsy

The neural oscillations or brain waves refer to repetitive neural activities in the central nervous system. It is believed that the brain processes information through the converging and diverging of these neural oscillations. The neural oscillatory pattern changes during growth and follows a specific trend throughout typical development. Nevertheless, it is largely unknown whether this pattern would be differentiable in neurodevelopmental disorders.

In this study, we aimed to investigate the developmental pattern of changes in typically developing children compared to age-matched children with epilepsy. And so, eyes-open resting-state electroencephalograms (EEGs) of epileptic and healthy children were acquired. Subsequently, changes in the power spectrum of clean EEG segments (with no seizure and removed from artifacts) in the two groups were statistically compared in children aged 6-9 and 9-12 years old.

The results showed significantly lower activities in the superior frontal and central regions, within the frequency range of 1-4 Hz, in epileptic children.

Epilepsy affects the activity of central and frontal brain regions in children. However, more investigations using a functional connectivity approach are required.