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 <b>purpose</b> 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. <b>Materials and methods.</b> 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. <b>Results.</b> 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

References

1. Taibova D.R., Salikhova N.R. Morfofunktsional’nye izmeneniya pri narusheniyakh chteniya i pis’ma [Morphofunctional Changes in Reading and Writing Disorders]. Vysshaya shkola: nauchnye issledovaniya [Higher School: Scientific Research]. Ufa, 2022, pp. 179–189.
2. Koynova T.N. Uchet urovnya aktivatsii mozgovykh struktur kak uslovie optimizatsii i povysheniya kachestva obrazovaniya [Taking into Account the Level of Brain Structures Activation as a Condition for Optimizing and Improving the Quality of Education]. Kachestvo professional’nogo obrazovaniya: opyt, problemy, perspektivy [Quality of Professional Education: Experience, Problems, Prospects]. Kemerovo, 2004, pp. 113–116.
3. Takacs C. Enjoy Your Gifted Child. New York, 1986. 192 p.
4. Khabarova I.V., Bedereva N.S., Shilov S.N. Effect of Temperament, Neural Energy Metabolism, and Level of Cerebral Cortex Activation on the Mental Development of Younger Schoolchildren. J. Med. Biol. Res., 2017, vol. 5, no. 3, pp. 43–55. https://doi.org/10.17238/issn2542-1298.2017.5.3.43
5. Gribanov A.V., Anikina N.Yu., Gudkov A.B. Cerebral Energy Exchange as a Marker of Adaptive Human Reactions in Natural Climatic Conditions of the Arctic Zone of the Russian Federation. Ekologiya cheloveka, 2018, no. 8, pp. 32–40 (in Russ.). https://doi.org/10.33396/1728-0869-2018-8-32-40
6. Yashpaeva O.M. Vzaimosvyaz’ mezhpolusharnoy asimmetrii i uspeshnosti obucheniya shkol’nikov [Relationship Between Hemispheric Asymmetry and Academic Performance of Schoolchildren]. Vestnik sovremennykh issledovaniy, 2019, no. 1.2, pp. 122–125.
7. Vingerhoets G., Li X., Hou L., Bogaert S., Verhelst H., Gerrits R., Siugzdaite R., Roberts N. Brain Structural and Functional Asymmetry in Human situs inversus totalis. Brain Struct. Funct., 2018, vol. 223, no. 4, pp. 1937–1952. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00429-017-1598-5
8. Ilyukhina V.A., Krivoshchapova M.N., Ponomareva E.A. Osobennosti izmeneniy sootnosheniya aktivatsii proektsionnykh zon lobnoy i temennoy kory u detey s raznym urovnem narusheniy razvitiya psikhicheskikh funktsiy i rechi [Changes in the Ratio of Activation of Projection Areas in the Frontal and Parietal Cortex in Children with Different Degrees of Developmental Disorders]. Neyroimmunologiya, 2003, vol. 1, no. 2, pp. 60–61.
9. Krivoshchapova M.N., Ilyukhina V.A. Age-Related Specificity of the Frontal and Temporoparietal Cortex Activation Levels in Three- to Seven-Year-Old Children. Hum. Physiol., 2006, vol. 32, no. 1, pp. 47–58. https://doi.org/10.1134/S0362119706010075
10. Kuraev G.A., Morozova G.I., Lednova M.I. Ispol’zovanie metoda omegametrii v ekspress-obsledovaniyakh shkol’nikov [Use of Omegametry in Schoolchildren’s Check-Ups]. Valeologiya, 1999, no. 4, pp. 33–37.
11. Murik S.E. Omegaelectroencephalography: Formation History and Diagnostic Capabilities of the New Method in Electrophysiology. Bull. Irkutsk State Univ. Ser. Biol. Ecol., 2018, vol. 26, pp. 69–85 (in Russ.). https://doi.org/10.26516/2073-3372.2018.26.69
12. Smit N.Yu., Aleksandrov M.V., Karelina N.R., Lytaev S.A., Marchenko E.V. Svyaz’ parametrov bioelektricheskoy aktivnosti lobnykh otdelov kory golovnogo mozga s urovnem ekstraversii i neyrotizma [Relationship Between the Parameters of the Frontal Cortex Bioelectric Activity and Extraversion and Neuroticism Level]. Pediatr, 2021, vol. 12, no. 1, pp. 31–41. https://doi.org/10.17816/PED12131-41
13. Rusalova M.N. Funktsional’naya asimmetriya mozga i emotsii [Functional Asymmetry of the Brain and Emotions]. Uspekhi fiziologicheskikh nauk, 2003, vol. 34, no. 4, pp. 93–112.
14. Aron A.R., Monsell S., Sahakian B.J., Robbins T.W. A Componential Analysis of Task-Switching Deficits Associated with Lesions of Left and Right Frontal Cortex. Brain, 2004, vol. 127, no. 7, pp. 1561–1573. https://doi.org/10.1093/brain/awh169
15. Kurikawa T., Haga T., Handa T., Harukuni R., Fukai T. Neuronal Stability in Medial Frontal Cortex Sets Individual Variability in Decision-Making. Nat. Neurosci., 2018, vol. 21, no. 12, pp. 1764–1773. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41593-018-0263-5
16. Lukyanova I.E., Utenkova S.N. The Development of Thinking in Primary School Children in the Context of Hemispheric Asymmetry. Psychophysiol. News, 2022, no. 2, pp. 171–173.