QEEG Characterizations During Hyperventilation, Writing and Reading Conditions: A Pre–Post Cognitive-Behavioral Intervention Study on Students with Learning Difficulty

Background: Electroencephalography (EEG) has been used to measure neural correlates of cognitive and social development in children for decades. It is essential to evaluate the relationship between EEG parameters and cognitive measures to understand the mechanisms of learning problems better. Methods and procedure: Fifty school-going children with complaints of learning problems were studied. EEG and other cognitive measures were used to assess children before and after PEABLS; a cognitive-behavioral intervention was imparted. EEG was recorded while hyperventilation, writing, and reading conditions, and the values for absolute and relative powers were calculated. Results: The results suggested that the post-intervention absolute (in the theta and alpha bands) and relative (delta, theta, and alpha) power values were higher, and the relative power beta value was significantly lower at most of the electrodes in comparison to pre-intervention EEG measures. A significant high positive correlation in the children with learning problems between the relative power of alpha, beta O1O2, the relative power of theta, delta T3T4, and the academic scores, IQ, working memory, DTLD, and BGT values. Conclusion: These quantitative electroencephalogram findings in children with learning problems are related to cognitive measures. The findings could be due to brain immaturity and lack of learning opportunities.