Eggert Torsten, Dorn Hans, Danker-Hopfe Heidi
Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Competence Centre of Sleep Medicine, Berlin, Germany.
Nat Sci Sleep. 2021 Sep 21;13:1611-1630. doi: 10.2147/NSS.S327221. eCollection 2021.
Quantification of nocturnal EEG activity has emerged as a promising extension to the conventional sleep evaluation approach. To date, studies focusing on quantitative sleep EEG data in relation to age and sex have revealed considerable variation across lifespan and differences between men and women. However, sleep EEG power values from elderly individuals are still rare. The present secondary analysis aimed to fill this gap.
Sleep EEG data of 30 healthy elderly males (mean age ± SD: 69.1 ± 5.5 years), 30 healthy elderly females (67.8 ± 5.7 years), and of 30 healthy young males (25.6 ± 2.4 years) have been collected in three different studies with the same experimental design. Each individual contributed three polysomnographic recordings without any intervention to the analysis. Sleep recordings were performed and evaluated according to the standard of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine. Sleep EEG signals were derived from 19 electrode sites. Sleep-stage specific global and regional EEG power were compared between samples using a permutation-based statistic in combination with the threshold-free cluster enhancement method.
The present results showed pronounced differences in sleep EEG power between older men and women. The nocturnal EEG activity of older women was generally larger than that of older men, confirming previously reported variations with sex in younger individuals. Aging was reflected by differences in EEG power between young and elderly men for lower frequencies and for the sleep spindle frequency range, again consistent with prior studies.
The findings of this investigation complement those of earlier studies. They add to the understanding of nocturnal brain activity manifestation in senior adulthood and show how it differs with age in males. Unfortunately, the lack of information on young women prevents a similar insight for females.
夜间脑电图（EEG）活动的量化已成为传统睡眠评估方法的一项有前景的扩展。迄今为止，聚焦于与年龄和性别相关的定量睡眠EEG数据的研究已揭示出整个生命周期中存在相当大的差异以及男性和女性之间的差异。然而，来自老年人的睡眠EEG功率值仍然很少见。本二次分析旨在填补这一空白。
在三项采用相同实验设计的不同研究中，收集了30名健康老年男性（平均年龄±标准差：69.1±5.5岁）、30名健康老年女性（67.8±5.7岁）以及30名健康年轻男性（25.6±2.4岁）的睡眠EEG数据。每个人提供了三次多导睡眠图记录，且未对分析进行任何干预。睡眠记录按照美国睡眠医学学会的标准进行执行和评估。睡眠EEG信号来自19个电极位点。使用基于排列的统计方法结合无阈值聚类增强方法，比较样本之间特定睡眠阶段的全局和区域EEG功率。
目前的结果显示老年男性和女性在睡眠EEG功率方面存在显著差异。老年女性的夜间EEG活动通常大于老年男性，这证实了先前报道的年轻人中存在的性别差异。年轻人和老年人在低频以及睡眠纺锤波频率范围内的EEG功率差异反映了衰老，这也与先前的研究一致。
本调查结果补充了早期研究的结果。它们增进了对成年晚期夜间大脑活动表现的理解，并展示了其在男性中随年龄的变化情况。遗憾的是，由于缺乏年轻女性的相关信息，无法对女性进行类似的深入了解。
