Brain oscillatory responses during the different stages of an auditory memory search task in children

We assessed brain oscillatory responses of the 4-30 Hz electroencephalographic frequency bands in children (mean age 13 years) during the different stages of an auditory memory search, namely the encoding of four words and recognition of the positive and negative probe words. In children, theta (similar to 4-6 Hz) electroencephalographic responses during recognition were of greater magnitude than those during encoding and a (similar to 8-12 Hz) event-related synchronization responses during encoding increased with increasing memory load. During recognition, greater magnitude alpha and beta (> 12 Hz) event-related desynchronization responses were observed during the presentation of the positive probe as compared with the negative. Complex patterns of theta, alpha and beta frequency brain oscillatory responses during auditory information processing are present already in children of age similar to 13 years.