UDC

[612.8:616.899]:371.78

DOI

10.37482/2687-1491-Z201

Authors

Sergey N. Shilov*/** ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9132-6652
Irina V. Khabarova*** ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9745-2374
Natalya S. Bedereva**** ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3688-3389
*Krasnoyarsk State Pedagogical University named after V.P. Astafyev (Krasnoyarsk, Russia)
**Katanov Khakass State University (Abakan, Russia)
***Prof. V.F. Voino-Yasenetsky Krasnoyarsk State Medical University (Krasnoyarsk, Russia)
****Family Health Centre “Mumidom” (Krasnoyarsk, Russia)

Corresponding author: Sergey Shilov, address: ul. Ady Lebedevoy 89, Krasnoyarsk, 660049, Russia; e-mail: shiloff.serg@yandex.ru

Abstract

The link between delayed mental development and academic achievement in primary school children is an urgent problem of psychophysiology. The purpose of this article was to study frontal cortex activation and cerebral energy metabolism in primary school children with delayed mental development showing different levels of academic performance. Materials and methods. The research involved 110 children attending primary schools in the city of Krasnoyarsk: 64 neurotypical subjects (mean age 8.2 years) and 46 subjects with delayed mental development (mean age 8.6 years). To assess the activation effect in children, their infraslow biopotential (0–0.5 Hz) was recorded using the Omega Tester hardware and software complex (Russia). The sign and value of the potential along the channels C1 (left hemisphere) and C2 (right hemisphere) were studied. Cerebral metabolism was evaluated using the NEK-5 computer hardware complex (Russia), which records the level of steady potentials on the head surface. Neurometabolic responses to functional load (hyperventilation) were analysed. Educational activities and development of cognitive processes were studied by surveying teachers, who assessed children according to 5 criteria: behaviour and emotional characteristics, communicative activities, level of cognitive, motor and speech development, speed characteristics, and acquisition level. Results. Schoolchildren with delayed mental development showed both hypo- and hyperactivation of the frontal cortex. Underdevelopment of higher mental functions in intellectual disability can be attributed to various psychophysiological factors. The results obtained indicate differences in the activation systems in children with normal and delayed mental development. Interhemispheric dissonance found in subjects with delayed mental development may be an underlying cause of insufficiently developed mental processes.

Keywords

children with delayed mental development, primary school children, infraslow biopotentials, cerebral energy mapping, activation processes in the cerebral cortex, body’s adaptive reserves, academic performance

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