National Institute of Mental Health, NIH, Bethesda, MD, USA.
Brigham and Women's Hospital & Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.
Sleep Med. 2024 Jul;119:320-328. doi: 10.1016/j.sleep.2024.05.008. Epub 2024 May 8.
To determine whether spindle chirp and other sleep oscillatory features differ in young children with and without autism.
Automated processing software was used to re-assess an extant set of polysomnograms representing 121 children (91 with autism [ASD], 30 typically-developing [TD]), with an age range of 1.35-8.23 years. Spindle metrics, including chirp, and slow oscillation (SO) characteristics were compared between groups. SO and fast and slow spindle (FS, SS) interactions were also investigated. Secondary analyses were performed assessing behavioural data associations, as well as exploratory cohort comparisons to children with non-autism developmental delay (DD).
Posterior FS and SS chirp was significantly more negative in ASD than TD. Both groups had comparable intra-spindle frequency range and variance. Frontal and central SO amplitude were decreased in ASD. In contrast to previous manual findings, no differences were detected in other spindle or SO metrics. The ASD group displayed a higher parietal coupling angle. No differences were observed in phase-frequency coupling. The DD group demonstrated lower FS chirp and higher coupling angle than TD. Parietal SS chirp was positively associated with full developmental quotient.
For the first time spindle chirp was investigated in autism and was found to be significantly more negative than in TD in this large cohort of young children. This finding strengthens previous reports of spindle and SO abnormalities in ASD. Further investigation of spindle chirp in healthy and clinical populations across development will help elucidate the significance of this difference and better understand this novel metric.
确定自闭症儿童与非自闭症儿童的纺锤波啸叫和其他睡眠振荡特征是否存在差异。
使用自动处理软件重新评估了代表 121 名儿童（91 名自闭症[ASD]，30 名正常发育[TD]）的现有一组多导睡眠图，年龄范围为 1.35-8.23 岁。比较了组间纺锤波指标，包括啸叫和慢振荡（SO）特征。还研究了 SO 与快和慢纺锤波（FS、SS）的相互作用。进行了二次分析，评估行为数据的相关性，并对非自闭症发育迟缓（DD）儿童进行了探索性队列比较。
与 TD 相比，ASD 的后部 FS 和 SS 啸叫明显更负。两组的纺锤内频率范围和方差相当。ASD 的额部和中央 SO 振幅降低。与以前的手动发现不同，在其他纺锤波或 SO 指标中未检测到差异。ASD 组显示出更高的顶叶耦合角度。在相位频率耦合方面未观察到差异。DD 组的 FS 啸叫较低，耦合角度高于 TD。顶叶 SS 啸叫与全面发育商呈正相关。
这是首次在自闭症中研究纺锤波啸叫，在这个大型幼儿队列中发现其明显比 TD 更负。这一发现加强了以前关于自闭症中纺锤波和 SO 异常的报告。进一步研究健康和临床人群在整个发育过程中的纺锤波啸叫将有助于阐明这种差异的意义，并更好地理解这种新的指标。
