Resting State EEG in Children With Learning Disabilities

Abstract

In this study, the neurophysiological underpinnings of learning disabilities (LD) in children are examined using resting state EEG. We were particularly interested in the neurophysiological differences between children with learning disabilities not otherwise specified (LD-NOS), learning disabilities with verbal disabilities (LD-Verbal), and healthy control (HC) children. We applied 2 different approaches to examine the differences between the different groups. First, we calculated theta/beta and theta/alpha ratios in order to quantify the relationship between slow and fast EEG oscillations. Second, we used a recently developed method for analyzing spectral EEG, namely the group independent component analysis (gICA) model. Using these measures, we identified substantial differences between LD and HC children and between LD-NOS and LD-Verbal children in terms of their spectral EEG profiles. We obtained the following findings: (a) theta/beta and theta/alpha ratios were substantially larger in LD than in HC children, with no difference between LD-NOS and LD-Verbal children; (b) there was substantial slowing of EEG oscillations, especially for gICs located in frontal scalp positions, with LD-NOS children demonstrating the strongest slowing; (c) the estimated intracortical sources of these gICs were mostly located in brain areas involved in the control of executive functions, attention, planning, and language; and (d) the LD-Verbal children demonstrated substantial differences in EEG oscillations compared with LD-NOS children, and these differences were localized in language-related brain areas. The general pattern of atypical neurophysiological activation found in LD children suggests that they suffer from neurophysiological dysfunction in brain areas involved with the control of attention, executive functions, planning, and language functions. LDVerbal children also demonstrate atypical activation, especially in language-related brain areas. These atypical neurophysiological activation patterns might provide a helpful guide for rehabilitation strategies to treat the deficiencies in these children with LD.

Electroencephalographic characterization of subgroups of children with learning disorders

“…Although there is no consensus yet about what characterizes the EEG of learning disabled children, the most commonly reported pattern is an excess of slow activity, mainly in the theta frequency range [4,8,9,10,13,15,16,18,20], and an alpha activity deficit [6,7,8,10,11,15,16] when compared to typical children. Few of these studies included subjects with disability in more than one academic skill [4,7,10,16,19,20]. Excess delta activity has been reported when severe disability is observed [13].…”

“…Jäncke and Alahmadi [20] explored differences in the resting state EEG using an independent component analysis, between healthy control children, children with verbal disabilities, and children with LDNOS; they found differences in EEG oscillations in an eyes open condition in the left temporal cortex in delta, theta, alpha and beta-1 frequencies as well as in alpha in an eyes closed condition in the mesial paracentral cortex extending into the superior parietal lobe. They further found a higher theta/alpha ratio in the frontal regions in children with LDNOS.…”

Different Resting State EEG Features in Children from Switzerland and Saudi Arabia

“…This technique has been used in several articles by our group and has been described in detail in these articles (Ponomarev et al, 2014; Jäncke and Alahmadi, 2016). This technique is roughly similar to the group ICA used in the fMRI research (Calhoun et al, 2001).…”

Electroencephalographic characterization of subgroups of children with learning disorders

“…Although there is no consensus yet about what characterizes the EEG of learning disabled children, the most commonly reported pattern is an excess of slow activity, mainly in the theta frequency range [4,8,9,10,13,15,16,18,20], and an alpha activity deficit [6,7,8,10,11,15,16] when compared to typical children. Few of these studies included subjects with disability in more than one academic skill [4,7,10,16,19,20]. Excess delta activity has been reported when severe disability is observed [13].…”

“…In numerous studies, the resting state electroencephalogram (EEG) with eyes closed has been recorded in subjects with learning disorders with the objective of observing an electroencephalographic pattern that discriminates between this group and subjects with good academic performance [4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18,19]. Although there is no consensus yet about what characterizes the EEG of learning disabled children, the most commonly reported pattern is an excess of slow activity, mainly in the theta frequency range [4,8,9,10,13,15,16,18,20], and an alpha activity deficit [6,7,8,10,11,15,16] when compared to typical children. Few of these studies included subjects with disability in more than one academic skill [4,7,10,16,19,20].…”