Sex specificity of the spatiotemporal organization of brain bioelectric potentials in adults and five- to six-year-old children in a state of quiet wakefulness

Abstract

Correlation and coherence analyses of EEG recordings from 26 children aged five to seven years (12 boys and 14 girls) as compared to 33 adult subjects (18 women and 15 men) has been carried out to study the topical features of the spatial structure of EEG distant interactions. A higher level of EEG intrahemispheric interactions in the posttemporal and frontal areas of the left hemisphere has been found in men as compared to women in whom the prevalence of interhemispheric interactions due to the expressed EEG interactions in the bilaterally symmetric areas of both hemispheres has been found. A different type of sex-related differences in the systemic organization of interregional interactions of cortical potentials, as compared to adults, has been found in preschool children. In particular, a higher prevalence of EEG distant interactions has been found in those areas of the left hemisphere, the EEG interactions of which were higher in adult men. The data show that a distinct sexual dimorphism of interregional interactions of cortex potentials in adult subjects and children is formed due to the topology of the different EEG distant interactions differing in men and women. Investigations of the sex specificity of the spatiotemporal organization of brain bioelectric potentials in children can promote understanding of the sexual identity role in development of human brain systemic activity.