Abstract
Learning disabilities (LDs) have an estimated prevalence between 5% and 9% in the pediatric population and are associated with difficulties in reading, arithmetic, and writing. Previous electroencephalography (EEG) research has reported a lag in alpha-band development in specific LD phenotypes, which seems to offer a possible explanation for differences in EEG maturation. In this study, 40 adolescents aged 10–15 years with LDs underwent 10 sessions of Live Z-Score Training Neurofeedback (LZT-NF) Training to improve their cognition and behavior. Based on the individual alpha peak frequency (i-APF) values from the spectrogram, a group with normal i-APF (ni-APF) and a group with low i-APF (li-APF) were compared in a pre-and-post-LZT-NF intervention. There were no statistical differences in age, gender, or the distribution of LDs between the groups. The li-APF group showed a higher theta absolute power in P4 (p = 0.016) at baseline and higher Hi-Beta absolute power in F3 (p = 0.007) post-treatment compared with the ni-APF group. In both groups, extreme waves (absolute Z-score of ≥1.5) were more likely to move toward the normative values, with better results in the ni-APF group. Conversely, the waves within the normal range at baseline were more likely to move out of the range after treatment in the li-APF group. Our results provide evidence of a viable biomarker for identifying optimal responders for the LZT-NF technique based on the i-APF metric reflecting the patient’s neurophysiological individuality.
Highlights
Learning disabilities (LDs) have an estimated prevalence of 5–9% in pediatric populations, with a higher incidence in boys than in girls [1]
We explored the Live Z-Score Training Neurofeedback (LZT-NF) response in a 4-out-of-19-channels (F3, F4, P3, and P4) quantitative EEG (QEEG) based on individual alpha peak frequency (i-APF) categories in adolescents aged 10–15 years with LDs
In the normal i-APF (ni-APF) group, we found 17 cases with only one disability—5 cases (53.6%) with reading disabilities and 2 cases (7.14%) with arithmetic disability—and none of the children from this group presented writing disabilities
Summary
Learning disabilities (LDs) have an estimated prevalence of 5–9% in pediatric populations, with a higher incidence in boys than in girls (up to 9:1) [1]. Low cognitive performance in children and adolescents with LDs seems to be related to a deviation from normal neural network development manifesting as an alpha-band developmental lag, which seems to explain differences in EEG maturation found in children and adolescents with this condition [3,6,7,8,9,10]. The normal values of i-APF are age related; a mature alpha frequency of 10 Hz is commonly reached by 10 years of age, while the maximum alpha peak is reached before this age [16,17] It is acknowledged as an endophenotype, highly stable across time for each subject and highly sensitive to developmental changes in cognitive neural networks, with its variance among individuals depending on the genotype [17,18,19,20]. These are important processes for working and semantic memory [17,18,19,20]
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