Abstract
Event-related mu-rhythm activity has become a common tool for the investigation of different socio-cognitive processes in pediatric populations. The estimation of the mu-rhythm desynchronization/synchronization (mu-ERD/ERS) in a specific task is usually computed in relation to a baseline condition. In the present study, we investigated the effect that different types of baseline might have on toddler mu-ERD/ERS related to an action observation (AO) and action execution (AE) task. Specifically, we compared mu-ERD/ERS values computed using as a baseline: (1) the observation of a static image (BL1) and (2) a period of stillness (BL2). Our results showed that the majority of the subjects suppressed the mu-rhythm in response to the task and presented a greater mu-ERD for one of the two baselines. In some cases, one of the two baselines was not even able to produce a significant mu-ERD, and the preferred baseline varied among subjects even if most of them were more sensitive to the BL1, thus suggesting that this could be a good baseline to elicit mu-rhythm modulations in toddlers. These results recommended some considerations for the design and analysis of mu-rhythm studies involving pediatric subjects: in particular, the importance of verifying the mu-rhythm activity during baseline, the relevance of single-subject analysis, the possibility of including more than one baseline condition, and caution in the choice of the baseline and in the interpretation of the results of studies investigating mu-rhythm activity in pediatric populations.
Highlights
The present study represents a first attempt to characterize the effect of different baseline measures on the estimation of the event-related mu suppression in a pediatric population
In a task might be elicited by a specific baseline and not by others with differences among subjects. It seems that a static image condition could be a good baseline for studying the mu-ERD in the majority of the subjects
A universal optimal baseline probably does not exist, and in light of our results, we think there are some considerations to take into account when implementing a mu-rhythm study with pediatric populations
Summary
Electrophysiological (EEG) mu-rhythm has been increasingly studied in the last decade by developmental cognitive neuroscientists due to its association with the activity of the human mirror neuron system and its potentiality in investigating different cognitive processes (e.g., imitation, action interpretation, language, touch perception) that are crucial for the development of many social-cognitive skills [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8] This makes the mu-rhythm an interesting tool for the study of both healthy and clinical pediatric populations, underlying the neural correlates of the development of such skills and potentially identifying possible biomarkers of an atypical development [9,10,11], which can be used for improving the diagnosis processes and designing new rehabilitation programs. The choice of an adequate baseline measure is something to be carefully evaluated when designing an experiment aimed at studying the mu-rhythm activity [13] since this choice might even affect whether the mu-rhythm
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