Theta responses during passive listening depend on cognitive abilities in children

Abstract

Event Abstract Back to Event Theta responses during passive listening depend on cognitive abilities in children Vasil Kolev1*, P. Nanova1 and Juliana Yordanova1 1 Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Bulgaria Cognitive development in children is accompanied by changes in frequency content of the spontaneous and event-related EEG activity. Event-related theta (4-7 Hz) and alpha (8-13 Hz) oscillations have been implicated with cognitive information processing in both children and adults. Typically, the functional relevance of EEG frequency responses is evaluated in task processing conditions. This type of assessment does not permit to reliably distinguish between task-related functional involvement and neurophysiological maturity of different EEG rhythms. The present study addressed this issue by comparing event-related oscillatory responses to passive (no task) stimuli of children at 6-8 years of age, who varied with respect to their cognitive performance in a working memory task (see accompanying abstract). According to verbal and reaction time criteria, twenty six normal healthy children were divided into two groups of good and bad performers (each comprising 13 subjects, mean group age 85 months, p>0.8). Auditory event-related potentials (ERPs) in response to 50 identical tones presented in a passive listening condition were recorded. Time-domain ERP analysis demonstrated that the latencies of N1 and P2 components were significantly shorter in good relative to bad performers. Also, in contrast to bad performers, a prominent positive wave P330 characterized in ERPs of good performers. Time-frequency ERP analysis demonstrated that theta but not delta (0.5-4 Hz) and alpha frequency ERP components differentiated passive stimulus processing in the two groups. As shown on the Figure, strongly enhanced theta oscillations within 250-500 ms after stimulus occurred synchronously at the three electrodes only in the group of good performers. Also, corresponding to latency shifts, oscillatory theta responses were phase delayed in bad performers, mostly at the central and parietal sites. These distinct patterns of oscillatory theta responses observed between the two groups during passive processing conditions imply that differences in memory performance are accompanied by specific organization of the underlying neural substrate. * Supported by the National Science Fund at the Ministry of Science and Education, Sofia, Bulgaria (L-1501/2005). pic1 pic tn_pic1 Conference: 10th International Conference on Cognitive Neuroscience, Bodrum, Turkey, 1 Sep - 5 Sep, 2008. Presentation Type: Poster Presentation Topic: Brain Electrical Oscillations in Cognition Citation: Kolev V, Nanova P and Yordanova J (2008). Theta responses during passive listening depend on cognitive abilities in children. Conference Abstract: 10th International Conference on Cognitive Neuroscience. doi: 10.3389/conf.neuro.09.2009.01.129 Copyright: The abstracts in this collection have not been subject to any Frontiers peer review or checks, and are not endorsed by Frontiers. They are made available through the Frontiers publishing platform as a service to conference organizers and presenters. The copyright in the individual abstracts is owned by the author of each abstract or his/her employer unless otherwise stated. Each abstract, as well as the collection of abstracts, are published under a Creative Commons CC-BY 4.0 (attribution) licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) and may thus be reproduced, translated, adapted and be the subject of derivative works provided the authors and Frontiers are attributed. For Frontiers’ terms and conditions please see https://www.frontiersin.org/legal/terms-and-conditions. Received: 05 Dec 2008; Published Online: 05 Dec 2008. * Correspondence: Vasil Kolev, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Sofia, Bulgaria, vasil_kolev@yahoo.com Login Required This action requires you to be registered with Frontiers and logged in. To register or login click here. Abstract Info Abstract The Authors in Frontiers Vasil Kolev P. Nanova Juliana Yordanova Google Vasil Kolev P. Nanova Juliana Yordanova Google Scholar Vasil Kolev P. Nanova Juliana Yordanova PubMed Vasil Kolev P. Nanova Juliana Yordanova Related Article in Frontiers Google Scholar PubMed Abstract Close Back to top Javascript is disabled. Please enable Javascript in your browser settings in order to see all the content on this page.