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Mapping changes in cortical activity during sleep in the first 4 years of life
Author(s) -
Novelli Luana,
D'atri Aurora,
Marzano Cristina,
Finotti Elena,
Ferrara Michele,
Bruni Oliviero,
De Gennaro Luigi
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
journal of sleep research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.297
H-Index - 117
eISSN - 1365-2869
pISSN - 0962-1105
DOI - 10.1111/jsr.12390
Subject(s) - non rapid eye movement sleep , sleep spindle , electroencephalography , sleep (system call) , k complex , psychology , neuroscience , delta wave , neuroscience of sleep , slow wave sleep , rhythm , eye movement , audiology , medicine , computer science , operating system
Summary A coherent body of evidence supports the notion that sleep is a local and use‐dependent process. Significant changes in brain morphology and function occur in the first years of life, revealing a postero–anterior trajectory of cortical maturation. On this basis, a recent study demonstrated that regional cortical maturation between early childhood and late adolescence is reflected in regional changes of sleep slow wave activity ( SWA ) during non‐rapid eye movement ( NREM ) sleep. Our hypothesis is that changes of electroencephalogram ( EEG ) rhythms during sleep from birth to childhood are also mirrored by parallel regional changes in the EEG rhythms of sleep according to the assumption of a postero–anterior gradient in cortical maturation. We studied all‐night EEG of 39 healthy, full‐term, infants and children aged between 0 and 48 months, evaluating regional differences in NREM sleep. We confirmed the strictly local nature of sleep with frequency‐specific regional differences. Specifically, we found a general shift of maxima of the upper alpha activity from occipital to prefrontal regions, expressed mainly by the ~11 Hz frequency. This shift corresponds to a postero–anterior trajectory of the so‐called ‘slow spindles’. The theta and alpha EEG activity of the frontal cortex exhibits a clear, positive, correlation with age. We conclude that specific local differences during NREM sleep, parallel cortical maturation also in the first 4 years of life.