Aperiodic and Hurst EEG exponents across early human brain development: a systematic review
Poster No:
1308
Submission Type:
Abstract Submission
Authors:
Ryan Stanyard1, David Mason1, Claire Ellis1, Hannah Dickson1, Roxanna Short1, Dafnis Batalle1, Tomoki Arichi1
Institutions:
1King's College London, London, United Kingdom
First Author:
Co-Author(s):
Introduction:
Electrophysiological recordings of human brain activity are characterised by a negative power law relationship between frequency (Hz) and spectral power (µV^2). Frequency-power slope exponents (termed β or χ) have been proposed to be of physiological relevance as proxies of neural activity excitation:inhibition (E:I) balance. As alterations in E:I balance may contribute to the pathophysiology underlying neurodevelopmental conditions (e.g. autism), understanding how exponents (1/f^β) evolve across childhood may have key implications for their early assessment and intervention. Common 1/f frequency-based measures include power law exponents (PLE), and aperiodic components (AE) which account for the influence of oscillations on the slope. We explore evidence surrounding the maturation of these exponents as well as their analogue in the temporal domain, the resting Hurst exponent (HE). To synergise the 1/f literature, we convert HE into AE, where AE=2*HE-1. This systematic review aims to characterise how and when 1/f measures change in early typical human development, thereby offering a more nuanced perspective of sensitive periods of neurodevelopment.
Methods:
The systematic review was completed according to the PRISMA guidelines and pre-registered with PROSPERO (CRD42023363294). Relevant literature referred to the development/maturation of the 1/f^β signal including the maturation of AE, PLE or HE across the early human lifespan (from birth to young adulthood) as measured using EEG recorded during eyes open or closed rest (EOR, ECR) from typically developing individuals. Searches were performed across Ovid-Embase, Ovid-PsycInfo, Ovid-Medline, Scopus and Web of Science (with appropriate MESH headings and adjacency terms where possible), during March 2023.
Risk of bias was assessed using the Quality Assessment for Diverse Studies tool; rater scores (91.07% agreement) were compared to ensure differences of <2 points (0.01%, 6/504 cases), with differing cases discussed, agreed and calibrated. As few studies reported age correlations or effect sizes (N=8) and raw AE effect size interpretation is ambiguous, with no comparison state uniform to all studies, a meta-analysis was not performed. Rather, we qualitatively synthesised findings from infancy-young adulthood across global and regional scales for each method and condition (ECR/EOR).
Risk of bias was assessed using the Quality Assessment for Diverse Studies tool; rater scores (91.07% agreement) were compared to ensure differences of <2 points (0.01%, 6/504 cases), with differing cases discussed, agreed and calibrated. As few studies reported age correlations or effect sizes (N=8) and raw AE effect size interpretation is ambiguous, with no comparison state uniform to all studies, a meta-analysis was not performed. Rather, we qualitatively synthesised findings from infancy-young adulthood across global and regional scales for each method and condition (ECR/EOR).
Results:
Forty-two studies were identified containing one or more available 1/f measures (N=3478 participants). Risk of bias analysis showed the performance of included studies was generally strong across all items with scores >2 (scale 0-3). Studies were generally poorer at providing recruitment data, discussing study strengths and limitations and providing clearly defined research aims/hypotheses. Article synthesis revealed that HE consistently exceeded 0.50 throughout early development. Overall, age-related trends were complex (largely owing to large within- and between-study variance), with a rapid decrease in AE during infancy and heterogenous changes thereafter, consistent across methods of calculating AE. AE values in ECR consistently exceeded those in EOR. Regionally, AE maxima shifted topologically during development, from posterior to frontocentral.
·Consistency of the (a) global aperiodic exponent across global (solid lines) and regional (dotted lines) scales and (b) the global trend of eyes-open rest AE. Colour alpha: sample size, whiskers: SD.
·Illustrative regional maturation of the aperiodic exponent with age. Due to limited access to study data in each lifespan stage, topoplots have been generated from available eyes-open data.
Conclusions:
Age-related AE changes in early development are complex, with significant gaps in the published literature preventing clear identification of directions of change and reliable AE ranges, particularly in infancy and toddlerhood. We identify consistent AE across methods, scales and in terms of AE being greater in ECR than EOR, as well as developmental changes in AE maxima. Topological shifts in AE maxima throughout development may potentially reflect known spatial changes in brain network hub maturation. Furthermore, characterising typical AE development provides a point of reference for exploring atypical development in neurodevelopmental conditions, and could act as a potential non-invasive biomarker.
Disorders of the Nervous System:
Neurodevelopmental/ Early Life (eg. ADHD, autism)
Lifespan Development:
Normal Brain Development: Fetus to Adolescence 1
Neuroanatomy, Physiology, Metabolism and Neurotransmission:
Normal Development
Novel Imaging Acquisition Methods:
EEG 2
Physiology, Metabolism and Neurotransmission :
Neurophysiology of Imaging Signals
Keywords:
ADULTS
Development
Electroencephaolography (EEG)
GABA
Glutamate
Modeling
NORMAL HUMAN
PEDIATRIC
Pre-registration
Sleep
1|2Indicates the priority used for review
Provide references using author date format
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