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Coherence Dynamics of EEG Rhythms during Watching Prosocial and Antisocial Behavior in Children of an Early Age

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Abstract

Group-specific changes in the coherence of EEG activity were observed in children aged 17–43 months (mean age 31 months) who differently evaluated prosocial and antisocial actions performed by puppet characters (groups with high and low values of the moral evaluation index (MEI)). In higher-MEI children, observation of a prosocial action facilitated intrahemispheric interactions in the α-frequency range. In the lower-MEI group, changes in α-rhythm coherence were multidirectional. In the higher-IME group, a situation of decision making on how to distribute a reward between two characters who demonstrated either prosocial or antisocial behavior increased the α-activity coherence between the frontal, central, parietal, and occipital regions in the right hemisphere. In the lower-MEI children, the coherence decreased. No significant modulation of the EEG coherence was observed in the θ-frequency range. As for β activity, significant modulations were found only in children with low MEIs. The findings are discussed in the context of the functionality of brain control systems and the role of intrahemispheric cortical interconnections in the organization of moral behavior. The specifics of θ-, α-, and β-frequency coherence are of importance for understanding the mechanisms whereby moral evaluation develops in young children.

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Funding

This work was supported by the Russian Science Foundation (project no. 22-28-00720) and was performed using equipment of the Collective Access Center for Experimental Physiology and Biophysics and the Research and Clinical Center for Health and Rehabilitation Technologies.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Vernadsky Crimean Federal University, Simferopol, Russia

    L. S. Orekhova, A. M. Kulichenko, S. A. Makhin, A. A. Mikhailova & V. B. Pavlenko

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  1. L. S. Orekhova
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  2. A. M. Kulichenko
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  3. S. A. Makhin
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  4. A. A. Mikhailova
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  5. V. B. Pavlenko
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Contributions

L.S. Orekhova—data collection and processing, writing the article. A.M. Kulichenko—data processing, writing the article. S.A. Makhin—data processing, writing the article. A.A. Mikhailova—data collection and processing, writing the article. V.B. Pavlenko—research planning, writing the article.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to V. B. Pavlenko.

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Conflict of interests. The authors declare that they have no real or potential conflict of interest.

Statement of compliance with standards of research involving humans as subjects. All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the 1964 Helsinki Declaration and its later amendments and were approved by the Local Ethics Committee at the Vernadsky Crimean Federal University, Simferopol (Minutes no. 12 dated June 14, 2016). Parents of all individual participants involved in the study provided their informed consent after being informed about the potential risks and benefits and nature of the study.

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Translated by T. Tkacheva

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Orekhova, L.S., Kulichenko, A.M., Makhin, S.A. et al. Coherence Dynamics of EEG Rhythms during Watching Prosocial and Antisocial Behavior in Children of an Early Age. Hum Physiol 49, 12–21 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1134/S0362119722700104

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