ArticleDevelopmental psychobiology2022
Electroencephalogram aperiodic power spectral slope can be reliably measured and predicts ADHD risk in early development.
Article in Developmental psychobiology, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 56 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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Who cites it
56 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 88 citations in OpenAlex.
- A Systematic Review of Aperiodic Neural Activity in Clinical Investigations.The European journal of neuroscience · 2025Pooled it
- Aperiodic and Hurst EEG exponents across early human brain development: A systematic review.Developmental cognitive neuroscience · 2024Pooled it
- The effects of transcranial random noise stimulation on excitation/inhibition balance in ADHD.NeuroImage. Clinical · 2026Trial
- Transcranial random noise stimulation combined with cognitive training for treating ADHD: a randomized, sham-controlled clinical trial.Translational psychiatry · 2023Trial
- Theta beta ratio in attention deficit hyperactivity disorder using a multiverse analysis.eLife · 2026Article
- The developmental shift in aperiodic activity and its link to the default mode network in attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder.Psychological medicine · 2026Article
- Relating ADHD to the aperiodic component of the EEG signal in both males and females across development.Developmental cognitive neuroscience · 2026Article
- Resting-state periodic and aperiodic brain oscillations from birth to preschool years: Aperiodic maturity predicts developmental course.Developmental cognitive neuroscience · 2026Article
- Brain complexity in response to auditory stimulation improves evaluation of cerebral maturation in premature newborns.Pediatric research · 2026Article
- Altered spectral patterns of aperiodic electroencephalography in autism.Psychiatry and clinical neurosciences · 2026Article
- Revolutionizing Pediatric Neurophysiology With Magnetoencephalography.Psychophysiology · 2026Review
- Article
- Peripheral Mitochondrial Energetics are Associated with Cortical Neurophysiological Alterations in Alzheimer's Disease.medRxiv : the preprint server for health sciences · 2026Article
- Beyond Neural Noise: Critical Dynamics Predict Slower Reaction Times in Adults With and Without ADHD.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- How to Improve the Reliability of Aperiodic Parameter Estimates in M/EEG: A Method Comparison.Psychophysiology · 2026Article
- A Framework Integrating Spiking Cortical Circuit Modeling and Simulation-Based Inference to Probe Biomarkers of Cortical Dysfunction in Alzheimer's Disease.Interdisciplinary sciences, computational life sciences · 2026Article
- Dissociating Contributions of Theta and Alpha Oscillations from Aperiodic Neural Activity in Human Visual Working Memory.The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience · 2026Article
- Confirmation of a Useful Dark-Room Resting-State Procedure: Periodic and Aperiodic MEG Activity in Children.Psychophysiology · 2026Article
- Aperiodic parameters of the fMRI power spectrum associate with preterm birth and neonatal age.Communications biology · 2026Article
- The Evolving ADHD Phenotype in the Externalizing Context.The American journal of psychiatry · 2026Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
11 authors at 4 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
The aperiodic exponent of the electroencephalogram (EEG) power spectrum has received growing attention as a physiological marker of neurodevelopmental psychopathology, including attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). However, its use as a marker of ADHD risk across development, and particularly in very young children, is limited by unknown reliability, difficulty in aligning canonical band-based measures across development periods, and unclear effects of treatment in later development. Here, we investigate the internal consistency of the aperiodic EEG power spectrum slope and its association with ADHD risk in both infants (n = 69, 1-month-old) and adolescents (n = 262, ages 11-17 years). Results confirm good to excellent internal consistency in infancy and adolescence. In infancy, a larger aperiodic exponent was associated with greater family history of ADHD. In contrast, in adolescence, ADHD diagnosis was associated with a smaller aperiodic exponent, but only in children with ADHD who had not received stimulant medication treatment. Results suggest that disruptions in cortical development associated with ADHD risk may be detectable shortly after birth via this approach. Together, findings imply a dynamic developmental shift in which the developmentally normative flattening of the EEG power spectrum is exaggerated in ADHD, potentially reflecting imbalances in cortical excitation and inhibition that could contribute to long-lasting differences in brain connectivity.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.