Department of Psychology, University of Montréal, Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
Neurobiol Aging. 2013 Feb;34(2):468-76. doi: 10.1016/j.neurobiolaging.2012.05.020. Epub 2012 Jul 17.
Aging induces multiple changes to sleep spindles, which may hinder their alleged functional role in memory and sleep protection mechanisms. Brain aging in specific cortical regions could affect the neural networks underlying spindle generation, yet the topography of these age-related changes is currently unknown. In the present study, we analyzed spindle characteristics in 114 healthy volunteers aged between 20 and 73 years over 5 anteroposterior electroencephalography scalp derivations. Spindle density, amplitude, and duration were higher in young subjects than in middle-aged and elderly subjects in all derivations, but the topography of age effects differed drastically. Age-related decline in density and amplitude was more prominent in anterior derivations, whereas duration showed a posterior prominence. Age groups did not differ in all-night spindle frequency for any derivation. These results show that age-related changes in sleep spindles follow distinct topographical patterns that are specific to each spindle characteristic. This topographical specificity may provide a useful biomarker to localize age-sensitive changes in underlying neural systems during normal and pathological aging.
衰老会引起睡眠纺锤波的多种变化，这可能会阻碍它们在记忆和睡眠保护机制中的所谓功能作用。特定皮质区域的大脑衰老可能会影响产生纺锤波的神经网络，但这些与年龄相关的变化的拓扑结构目前尚不清楚。在本研究中，我们分析了 114 名年龄在 20 至 73 岁之间的健康志愿者在 5 个前后脑电头皮导联上的纺锤波特征。在所有导联中，年轻受试者的纺锤波密度、振幅和持续时间均高于中年和老年受试者，但年龄效应的拓扑结构差异很大。在前导中，密度和振幅的与年龄相关的下降更为明显，而持续时间则呈现出后导的突出性。对于任何导联，各年龄组的全夜纺锤波频率均无差异。这些结果表明，睡眠纺锤波的与年龄相关的变化遵循特定于每个纺锤波特征的独特拓扑模式。这种拓扑特异性可能为在正常和病理性衰老过程中定位基础神经系统中与年龄相关的变化提供有用的生物标志物。
