Resting state EEG classifies developmental status in three-year-old children

Abstract

Monitoring cognitive development in early childhood enables detection of problems for timely intervention. However, currently recommended methods require lengthy evaluations of task performance, and are resource intense. Here we examined whether 3 minutes of resting-state EEG (rs-EEG) recorded in 70 33–40-month-old children using a 14-channel portable EEG device in low-resource households could classify performance on five domains of developmental outcomes (cognition, receptive language, expressive language, fine motor and gross motor coordination) as measured by the Bayley's Scale of Infant and Toddler Development, 3rd Edition (BSID-III). Applying supervised learning models to a combination of spectral features and novel time-domain features derived from EEG data, we predicted BSID-III domain scores with moderate accuracy (AUCs ranging from 0.70 to 0.84 and F1-scores ranging from 0.58 to 0.76). While spectral frequencies significantly correlated with cognitive and language domain scores, time-domain features describing amplitude variability were more significantly correlated and contributed more substantially to model outcomes. Model performance was reliable even with a subset of 4 channels. Overall, this study provides a first demonstration that rs-EEG from low electrode configuration devices can serve as a quick and reliable indicator of cognitive developmental outcomes and aid in identifying those requiring support during early childhood.