Electroencephalogram (EEG) research methods have become essential for understanding brain development, neural activity, and especially cortical maturation across various populations. EEG measures electrical activity in the brain across studies that track cortical maturation, cognitive functions, and behavioral outcomes. Research effectively utilizes EEG to provide critical insights into typical and atypical development, including the effects of upbringing, neurodivergent conditions, and environmental factors on brain function. Findings from EEG research methods can help patients (especially developing infants and preschoolers) with early diagnosis, intervention strategies, educational development, and representation in studies.
In the article Relations between frontal EEG maturation and inhibitory control in preschool in the prediction of children’s early academic skills, Dr. Martha Ann Bell and colleagues hypothesized that cortical maturation, specifically the prefrontal cortex, influences the development of inhibitory control and early academic skills in preschool neurotypical children from a stable upbringing. Testing their hypothesis, Dr. Ann Bell utilized an electroencephalogram (EEG) to effectively record cortical maturation/development of left and right scalp sites on ten-month-to-forty-eight-month-old children exposed to age-appropriate video clips and inhibitory control measurement tasks. Within ages below nine months, the EEG measurement helped Dr. Ann Bell and colleagues observe an increased resting state EEG alpha power, and by the maturated ages of ten months and thirty-six months, dropped drastically. These observable changes in the resting alpha power state of EEG measurement can help present the study’s findings of prefrontal cortex development and the use of inhibitory control development, which work together to improve education and learning.
In the lecture, Dr. Ann Bell stressed that within her and her colleague’s study, participants who were later diagnosed with atypical behaviors within the neurodivergent spectrum, prematurely born underweight, and other underlying conditions were removed from the study. The focus of Dr. Ann Bell’s participants focused on a specific demographic of children coming from a good home (or stable upbringing and environment), neurotypical, and prematurely born with no extending health conditions. Dr. Ann Bell’s participant group led me to ponder how experimental procedures (electroencephalogram) used within her study can be applied and interpret cortical maturation to neurodivergent-developing participants raised from an unstable upbringing (i.e., neglect, institutionalized, etc.). An article I found on this topic, Delayed Maturation in Brain Electrical Activity Partially Explains the Association Between Early Environmental Deprivation and Symptoms of Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), by McLaughlin and colleagues. McLaughlin sets up an experimental group where children are raised in institutional settings, which notably affects their sensitive periods of brain development, and the control group (similar to Dr. Ann Bell’s participant groups) is raised in the intervention of a loving, secure home and environment. Even more extensive research on the age demographics of participants, McLaughlin utilized EEG data, alpha, and theta (Hertz) to collect entry of age groups six to thirty months and a structured diagnostic interview of psychiatric disorders assigned at fifty-four-month-olds to document and measure the increasing or decreasing rate of hyperactive/impulsive or subtypes of ADHD. Supporting McLaughlin and colleagues’ hypothesis, these scientists found more significant symptoms of ADHD, anxiety, depression, and disruptive behavior disorders in their experimental than control groups. Their EEG found associations of developing symptoms of a neurodivergent spectrum marked with significant reductions in alpha relative power and an increase in theta relative power at fifty-four months, which ultimately reflects a cortical maturation. These specific findings support that having a separate study on measuring cortical maturation for participants ages six to thirty months in different upbringings (environmental deprivation) and neurodivergent development (subtypes of ADHD, etc.) can use similar EEG methods from research like Dr. Ann Bell.
Taking away from these two studies, electroencephalograms, especially for frontal EEG maturation, can be applied to children of all demographics: neurotypical and/or neurodivergent, with stable and/or unstable upbringing. Expanding methods and research across all demographics and marginalized groups of people can provide an all-inclusive range of research accessible to an individual with similar demographics in a study. Having research like this can help gain people access to knowledge they can apply and similarly use in their studies for other demographics and/or marginalized communities.
References:
Whedon, Margaret, et al. “Relations between Frontal EEG Maturation and Inhibitory Control in Preschool in the Prediction of Children’s Early Academic Skills.” Brain and Cognition, vol. 146,
no. 105636, Dec. 2020, p. 105636,
www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0278262620302396?via%3Dihub,
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bandc.2020.105636. Accessed 11 Dec. 2020.
McLaughlin, Katie A., et al. “Delayed Maturation in Brain Electrical Activity Partially Explains the Association between Early Environmental Deprivation and Symptoms of Attention-
Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder.” Biological Psychiatry, vol. 68, no. 4, Aug. 2010, pp. 329–336,
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biopsych.2010.04.005. Accessed 19 Mar. 2021.
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