ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Neurosci.
Sec. Brain Imaging Methods
Volume 19 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fnins.2025.1612884
A Comparative Study of EEG Functional and Effective Connectivity Patterns in Children with Learning Difficulties During Reading and Math Tasks
Provisionally accepted
- School of Psychology, Hainan Normal University, Haikou, China
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This study utilized electroencephalography (EEG) to compare brain functional connectivity (weighted Phase Lag Index, wPLI) and effective connectivity (Directed Transfer Function, DTF) patterns in children with reading difficulties (RD group) and math difficulties (MD group) during specific reading and math tasks, respectively. Data from 28 children aged 7-13 years (RD group: 11, MD group: 17) were analyzed from a large, publicly available dataset. Our findings reveal distinct patterns in functional connectivity: the RD group exhibited significantly higher beta band synchronization in the right temporal lobe compared to the MD group. Conversely, the MD group showed significantly greater connectivity in the frontal lobe's delta band and the parietal lobe's theta band. However, no statistically significant differences were observed between the groups regarding effective connectivity. These results highlight specific task-related brain functional connectivity differences between reading and math learning difficulties, although they did not yield significant distinctions in directed information flow. This research underscores the critical importance of task design and sample size in complex brain network analysis. It also provides key insights for future studies, emphasizing the need for larger sample sizes, more stringent control of confounding variables, and the integration of multi-modal neuroimaging data to more accurately elucidate the neurophysiological underpinnings of learning difficulties.
Keywords: learning difficulties, EEG, Brain network connectivity, wpli, DTF
Received: 16 Apr 2025; Accepted: 25 Jul 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Liu and Liu. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Haiyan Liu, School of Psychology, Hainan Normal University, Haikou, China
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