Sustained attention in schoolchildren with type-1 diabetes. A quantitative EEG study

Objective: Type-1 diabetes (T1D) is a disruptive metabolic disease that has an impact on neurodevelopment through its effects on the structure and function of the brain. One of the cognitive domains affected by T1D is sustained attention. The aim of this study was to analyze this process in children with T1D and compare their results to those of healthy controls.

Methods: Seventeen T1D children attending regular primary school and a similar group of healthy children matched by gender, age, handedness, and educational level were evaluated while identifying happy faces in a Go-NoGo task presented visually with simultaneous electrophysiological recording.

Results: Behavioral performance in the two groups was similar but, the T1D children showed greater prefrontal and frontoparietal spectral power in the theta and alpha bands, compared to controls. Distinct patterns of theta lateralization between groups were also observed, with a negative correlation between frontal power magnitudes in delta and theta and glycated hemoglobin levels.

Conclusions: These results seem to reflect the early deleterious effects of T1D on neurodevelopment, which affects mainly attention allocation processes and the neurofunctional substrates that underlie them.

Significance: This phenomenon emphasizes the need for studies on neural-specific targets in which T1D affects neurodevelopment.