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Sleep‐related hypermotor epilepsy and non‐rapid eye movement parasomnias: Differences in the periodic and aperiodic component of the electroencephalographic power spectra
Author(s) -
Pani Sara M.,
Fraschini Matteo,
Figorilli Michela,
Tamburrino Ludovica,
Ferri Raffaele,
Puligheddu Monica
Publication year - 2021
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.13339
Subject(s) - epilepsy , electroencephalography , aperiodic graph , eye movement , rapid eye movement sleep , audiology , psychology , sleep stages , non rapid eye movement sleep , sleep (system call) , sleep spindle , slow wave sleep , movement disorders , medicine , neuroscience , polysomnography , mathematics , computer science , disease , combinatorics , operating system
Summary Over the last two decades, our understanding of clinical and pathophysiological aspects of sleep‐related epileptic and non‐epileptic paroxysmal behaviours has improved considerably, although it is far from complete. Indeed, even if many core characteristics of sleep‐related hypermotor epilepsy and non‐rapid eye movement parasomnias have been clarified, some crucial points remain controversial, and the overlap of the behavioural patterns between these disorders represents a diagnostic challenge. In this work, we focused on segments of multichannel sleep electroencephalogram free from clinical episodes, from two groups of subjects affected by sleep‐related hypermotor epilepsy ( N = 15) and non‐rapid eye movement parasomnias ( N = 16), respectively. We examined sleep stages N2 and N3 of the first part of the night (cycles 1 and 2), and assessed the existence of differences in the periodic and aperiodic components of the electroencephalogram power spectra between the two groups, using the Fitting Oscillations & One Over f (FOOOF) toolbox. A significant difference in the gamma frequency band was found, with an increased relative power in sleep‐related hypermotor epilepsy subjects, during both N2 ( p < .001) and N3 ( p < .001), and a significant higher slope of the aperiodic component in non‐rapid eye movement parasomnias, compared with sleep‐related hypermotor epilepsy, during N3 ( p = .012). We suggest that the relative power of the gamma band and the slope extracted from the aperiodic component of the electroencephalogram signal may be helpful to characterize differences between subjects affected by non‐rapid eye movement parasomnias and those affected by sleep‐related hypermotor epilepsy.