Abstract
This study focuses on the resting state network analysis of the brain, as well as how these networks change both in topology and location throughout life. The magnetoencephalogram (MEG) background activity from 220 healthy volunteers (age 7-84 years), was analysed combining complex network analysis principles of graph theory with both linear and non-linear methods to evaluate the changes in the brain. Granger Causality (GC) (linear method) and Phase Slope Index (PSI) (non-linear method) were used to observe the connectivity in the brain during rest, and as a function of age by analysing the degree, clustering coefficient, efficiency, betweenness, modularity and maximised modularity of the observed complex brain networks. Our results showed that GC showed little linear causal activity in the brain at rest, with small world topology, while PSI showed little information flow in the brain, with random network topology. However, both analyses produced complementary results pertaining to the resting state of the brain.