DYNAMIC CHARACTER AND AGE-DEPENDENCE OF F UNCTIONAL BRAIN ORGANIZATION IN ATTENTION

Intrahemispheric functional organization was studied during a task exp ectancy period with special reference to attention mechanisms. The est imation of coherence of functionally identical rhythmic EEG components was made to characterize the intracortical integration, Several facto rs influencing the possibility to make an adequate prognosis and to re alize it were varied. Different types of the task were used. Subjects of different age (7, 9-10 years, young adults) and children of the sam e age differing by the brain maturity level were under study. It was s hown that all factors studied have certain influence on the brain orga nization underlying the task preceding attention. Clear age difference s as well as the lag between the possibility to formation and realizat ion the prognosis in children were observed, Alternative ''strategies' ' used in different ages to facilitate the task performance were analy sed; underlying mechanisms were discussed.