Work

Unraveling variability in young children’s brain responses to varied sensory stimulations

Year: 2025

Type: article

Abstract: Early childhood is a sensitive period of development, marked by high between and within individual variability in the acquisition of cognitive and social abilities. Our aim was to characterize electrophysiological individual sensory profiles of young children with electroencephalography. We recorded visual, auditory, and somesthetic event-related potentials (ERPs) to low-level, complex, and social sensory stimulations in 23 children (13 girls) without neurodevelopmental disorders (mean age: 47.8 months (±10.5) [30 64]). For each participant and condition, we analyzed ERPs' peak amplitudes and latencies and inter-trial consistency (ITC) as a measure of intra-individual variability. A hierarchical cluster analysis, following a principal-component analysis including all ERP measures, revealed 3 clusters; cluster separation was explained by mean ITC level. Neither age nor sensory-cognitive profiles explained cluster membership. Neurophysiological sensory profiles of young children differ mainly according to visual and auditory processing of complex information and do not rely solely on chronological age.

Source: iScience

DOI: 10.1016/j.isci.2025.113773

Authors: Lisa Michel, Mathilde Sassier-Roublin, Claire Wardak, Marianne Latinus

Institutions: Université de Tours, Inserm, Imaging, Brain, and Neuropsychiatry, Universidad Diego Portales

Language: English

Topic: Developmental and Educational Neuropsychology

Subfield: Neuropsychology and Physiological Psychology

Field: Psychology

Domain: Social Sciences

SDG: Good health and well-being

Open Access status: gold

Estimated APC paid: $3,240