Affiliations: [a] Key Laboratory of Child Development and Learning Science of Ministry of Education, School of Biological Science & Medical Engineering, Southeast University, Nanjing, Jiangsu, PR China
| [b] Nanjing Les Information System Technology Company Ltd., Nanjing, Jiangsu, PR China
| [c] Department of Rehabilitation, Zhongda Hospital, Southeast University, Nanjing, Jiangsu, PR China
Correspondence:
[*]
Corresponding author. Xuesong Lu, Department of Rehabilitation, Zhongda Hospital, Southeast University, Nanjing 210009, Jiangsu, PR China. E-mail: luxue_001@163.com and Haixian Wang, Key Laboratory of Child Development and Learning Science of Ministry of Education, School of Biological Science & Medical Engineering, Southeast University, Nanjing 210096, Jiangsu, PR China. E-mail: hxwang@seu.edu.cn.
Note: [1] Joint first author.
Abstract: Using functional neuroimaging, electrophysiological techniques and neural data processing techniques, neuroscientists have found that mathematically gifted adolescents exhibit unusual neurocognitive features in the activation of task-related brain regions. Hemispheric information interaction, functional reorganization of networks, and utilization of task-related brain regions are beneficial to rapid and efficient task processing. Based on Granger causality channel selection, the transfer entropy (TE) value between effective channels was computed, and the information flow patterns in the directed functional brain networks derived from electroencephalography (EEG) data during deductive reasoning tasks were explored. We evaluated the workspace configuration patterns of the brain network and the global integration characteristics of separated brain regions using node strength, motif, directed clustering coefficient and characteristic path length in the brain networks of mathematically gifted adolescents with effective connectivity. The empirical results demonstrated that a more integrated functional network at the global level and a more efficient clique at the local level support a pattern of workspace configuration in the mathematically gifted brain that is more conducive to task-related information processing.
Keywords: Effective connectivity, EEG, mathematically gifted adolescents, information flow, graph theory
