Inter-Individual Similarity of EEG Spatial Organization: Ontogenetic Study

The study involved 39 adult subjects, 28 children 12 years old, 21 children 8–9 years old, 26 children 5–6 years old, and 16 newborns. In each age group, the coefficient of interindividual similarity of the spatial organization of the electroencephalogram (EEG) was calculated using the Pearson cross-correlation algorithm. A high level of inter-individual similarity of the spatial structure of EEG distance connections was revealed, both in adults and in children it exceeded 0.80, which suggests the presence of a high generic genetic determination of the morphofunctional organization of intercortical interaction formation in the child’s ontogeny. In women, compared with men, a significantly higher level of inter-individual similarity of the spatial organization of the EEG was revealed for all studied combinations of EEG connections. Analysis of the obtained data allows us to assume with a high degree of probability that the relative stability in ontogeny of the spatial structure of the dynamic activity of the cortex is apparently ensured mainly by the genotype-determined distant intra- and interhemispheric relationships that form a certain morphofunctional “framework” of the neocortex. More functionally specific interactions are realized, apparently, through more plastic “local chains” of near intercortical relationships. Such a systemic organization of intercortical interactions makes it possible to ensure both the preservation of individual personality properties and the ability of the brain to effective adaption to various environmental influences during the formation of a phenotype in ontogenesis.