Dynamic spatio-spectral patterns of rhythmic EEG in infants

Electroencephalography has been studied to understand various brain functions. These functions can be related to their frequency and spatial patterns. These properties are relatively unknown in infants. The first year of life includes stages of significant growth neurologically and behaviorally. The present study is aimed to investigate infant brain development using high-density EEG(124 channel) collected on a weekly basis from 5 to 7 months of age. Spectral power and spatial topography of infant EEG were used to study the changing nature of infant brains during that time period. Data driven clustering analysis was used to blindly classify EEG spatial topographies as functions of frequency and time into different classes. Our results indicate that more differences in EEG spatial topographies are revealed in frequency domain than time domain (5-7 months). However, dynamic changes are further revealed in the spectral properties of classified spatial topographies, including shifts of frequency boundary and peak frequency, along the EEG spectrum (i.e., delta, theta, and alpha bands). These data provide insight on spectral structure of infant EEG and their dynamic patterns along maturation.