Dataset Information

Theta waves in children's waking electroencephalogram resemble local aspects of sleep during wakefulness.

ABSTRACT: Vyazovskiy and colleagues found in rats' multi-unit recordings brief periods of silence (off-states) in local populations of cortical neurons during wakefulness which closely resembled the characteristic off-states during sleep. These off-states became more global and frequent with increasing sleep pressure and were associated with the well-known increase of theta activity under sleep deprivation in the surface EEG. Moreover, the occurrence of such off-states was related to impaired performance. While these animal experiments were based on intracranial recordings, we aimed to explore whether the human surface EEG may also provide evidence for such a local sleep-like intrusion during wakefulness. Thus, we analysed high-density wake EEG recordings during an auditory attention task in the morning and evening in 12 children. We found that, theta waves became more widespread in the evening and the occurrence of widespread theta waves was associated with slower reaction times in the attention task. These results indicate that widespread theta events measured on the scalp might be markers of local sleep in humans. Moreover, such markers of local sleep, seem to be related to the well described performance decline under high sleep pressure.

SUBMITTER: Fattinger S

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5593855 | biostudies-other | 2017 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-other

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Theta waves in children's waking electroencephalogram resemble local aspects of sleep during wakefulness.

Fattinger Sara S Kurth Salome S Ringli Maya M Jenni Oskar G OG Huber Reto R

Scientific reports 20170911 1

Vyazovskiy and colleagues found in rats' multi-unit recordings brief periods of silence (off-states) in local populations of cortical neurons during wakefulness which closely resembled the characteristic off-states during sleep. These off-states became more global and frequent with increasing sleep pressure and were associated with the well-known increase of theta activity under sleep deprivation in the surface EEG. Moreover, the occurrence of such off-states was related to impaired performance. ...[more]

PMID: 28894254

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Project description:Sleep and wakefulness are no longer to be considered as discrete states. During wakefulness brain regions can enter a sleep-like state (off-periods) in response to a prolonged period of activity (local use-dependent sleep). Similarly, during nonREM sleep the slow-wave activity, the hallmark of sleep plasticity, increases locally in brain regions previously involved in a learning task. Recent studies have demonstrated that behavioral performance may be impaired by off-periods in wake in task-related regions. However, the relation between off-periods in wake, related performance errors and learning is still untested in humans. Here, by employing high density electroencephalographic (hd-EEG) recordings, we investigated local use-dependent sleep in wake, asking participants to repeat continuously two intensive spatial navigation tasks. Critically, one task relied on previous map learning (Wayfinding) while the other did not (Control). Behaviorally awake participants, who were not sleep deprived, showed progressive increments of delta activity only during the learning-based spatial navigation task. As shown by source localization, delta activity was mainly localized in the left parietal and bilateral frontal cortices, all regions known to be engaged in spatial navigation tasks. Moreover, during the Wayfinding task, these increments of delta power were specifically associated with errors, whose probability of occurrence was significantly higher compared to the Control task. Unlike the Wayfinding task, during the Control task neither delta activity nor the number of errors increased progressively. Furthermore, during the Wayfinding task, both the number and the amplitude of individual delta waves, as indexes of neuronal silence in wake (off-periods), were significantly higher during errors than hits. Finally, a path analysis linked the use of the spatial navigation circuits undergone to learning plasticity to off periods in wake. In conclusion, local sleep regulation in wakefulness, associated with performance failures, could be functionally linked to learning-related cortical plasticity.

Project description:These studies address temporal changes in gene expression during spontaneous sleep and extended wakefulness in the mouse cerebral cortex, a neuronal target for processes that control sleep; and the hypothalamus, an important site of sleep regulatory processes. We determined these changes by comparing expression in sleeping animals sacrificed at different times during the lights on period, to that in animals sleep deprived and sacrificed at the same diurnal time. Experiment Overall Design: Experiments were performed on male mice (C57/BL6), 10 weeks of age Â±1 week. Animals were housed in a light/dark cycle of 12 hrs, in a pathogen free, temperature- and humidity-controlled room (22Â°C and 45-55%, respectively) with water available ad libitum. Food was accessible for 12 hrs only during the active period. Animals were subjected to 14 days of acclimatization during which a nighttime feeding pattern was established. This was done to avoid differential food intake between mice that were subsequently sleep deprived during the lights on period and those allowed to sleep. Mice were sacrificed following 3, 6, 9 and 12 hrs of total sleep deprivation (n=5 at each time point). Deprivation was initiated at lights-on, and performed through gentle handling. Sleeping animals, which were left undisturbed, were sacrificed at the same diurnal time points as sleep deprived mice (n=5 at each time point). An additional control group of mice were sacrificed at time zero, i.e., at the time of lights-on (n=5). All mice were behaviorally monitored using the AccuScan infrared monitoring system that detects movement when the mouse crosses electronic beams (Columbus Instruments). Mice were sacrificed by cervical dislocation. Brain sectioning was performed according to the mouse brain atlas of Franklin and Paxinos . The primary and secondary motor areas (M1 and M2) of the cerebral cortex and broadly defined regions and zones of the hypothalamus were sampled. RNA was isolated with Trizol (Invitrogen) and further purified using RNeasy columns (Qiagen) as per the manufacturer's instructions.

Dataset Information

Theta waves in children's waking electroencephalogram resemble local aspects of sleep during wakefulness.

Publications

Theta waves in children's waking electroencephalogram resemble local aspects of sleep during wakefulness.

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