Department of Psychology, University of Rome "Sapienza", 00185, Rome, Italy.
Department of Biotechnological and Applied Clinical Sciences, University of L'Aquila, 67100, L'Aquila, Italy.
Sleep Med. 2018 Feb;42:73-82. doi: 10.1016/j.sleep.2017.11.1138. Epub 2017 Dec 12.
OBJECTIVE/BACKGROUND: Massive changes in brain morphology and function in the first years of life reveal a postero-anterior trajectory of cortical maturation accompanied by regional modifications of NREM sleep. One of the most sensible marker of this maturation process is represented by electroencephalographic (EEG) activity within the frequency range of sleep spindles. However, direct evidence that these changes actually reflect maturational modifications of fast and slow spindles still lacks. Our study aimed at answering the following questions: 1. Do cortical changes at 11.50 Hz frequency correspond to slow spindles? 2. Do fast and slow spindles show different age trajectories and different topographical distributions? 3. Do changes in peak frequency explain age changes of slow and fast spindles?
PATIENTS/METHODS: We measured the antero-posterior changes of slow and fast spindles in the first 60 min of nightly sleep of 39 infants and children (0-48 mo.).
We found that (A) changes of slow spindles from birth to childhood mostly affect frontal areas (B) variations of fast and slow spindles across age groups go in opposite direction, the latter progressively increasing across ages; (C) this process is not merely reducible to changes of spindle frequency.
As a main finding, our cross-sectional study shows that the first form of mature spindle (i.e., corresponding to the adult phasic event of NREM sleep) is marked by the emergence of slow spindles on anterior regions around the age of 12 months.
目的/背景：生命最初几年大脑形态和功能的巨大变化揭示了皮质成熟的后前轨迹，伴随着非快速眼动（NREM）睡眠的区域变化。这种成熟过程的一个最敏感的标志是睡眠纺锤波频率范围内的脑电图（EEG）活动。然而，直接证据表明这些变化实际上反映了快速和慢速纺锤波的成熟性改变仍然缺乏。我们的研究旨在回答以下问题：1. 11.50 Hz 频率的皮质变化是否对应于慢速纺锤波？2. 快速和慢速纺锤波是否表现出不同的年龄轨迹和不同的拓扑分布？3. 峰频率的变化是否可以解释慢速和快速纺锤波的年龄变化？
患者/方法：我们测量了 39 名婴儿和儿童（0-48 个月）每晚睡眠的前 60 分钟内的慢和快纺锤波的前后变化。
我们发现（A）从出生到儿童期的慢纺锤波变化主要影响额叶区域；（B）不同年龄组的快速和慢速纺锤波的变化方向相反，后者随年龄逐渐增加；（C）这个过程不能简单地归结为纺锤波频率的变化。
作为一个主要发现，我们的横断面研究表明，第一个成熟纺锤波的形式（即对应于 NREM 睡眠的成人相事件）以 12 个月左右前区缓慢纺锤波的出现为标志。
