Mazhari-Jensen Daniel Skak, Jensen Winnie, Muhammadee Janjua Taha Al, Meijs Suzan, Nørgaard Dos Santos Nielsen Thomas Gomes, Andreis Felipe Rettore
Neural Engineering and Neurophysiology, Department of Health Science and Technology, Aalborg University, Aalborg, Denmark.
Neural Engineering and Neurophysiology, Department of Health Science and Technology, Aalborg University, Aalborg, Denmark; Center for Neuroplasticity and Pain (CNAP), Department of Health Science and Technology, Aalborg University, Aalborg, Denmark.
Neuroscience. 2025 Jan 26;565:567-576. doi: 10.1016/j.neuroscience.2024.12.022. Epub 2024 Dec 16.
The most characteristic feature of the human electroencephalogram is the peak alpha frequency (PAF). While PAF has been proposed as a biomarker in several diseases and disorders, the disease mechanisms modulating PAF, as well as its physiological substrates, remain elusive. This has partly been due to challenges related to experimental manipulation and invasive procedures in human neuroscience, as well as the scarcity of animal models where PAF is consistently present in resting-state. With the potential inclusion of PAF in clinical screening and decision-making, advancing the mechanistic understanding of PAF is warranted. In this paper, we propose the female Danish Landrace pig as a suitable animal model to probe the mechanisms of PAF and its feature as a biomarker. We show that somatosensory alpha oscillations are present in anesthetized pigs using electrocorticography and intracortical electrodes located at the sensorimotor cortex. This was evident when looking at the time-domain as well as the spectral morphology of spontaneous recordings. We applied the FOOOF-algorithm to extract the spectral characteristics and implemented a robustness threshold for any periodic component. Using this conservative threshold, PAF was present in 18/20 pigs with a normal distribution of the peak frequency between 8-12 Hz, producing similar findings to human recordings. We show that PAF was present in 69.6 % of epochs of approximately six-minute-long resting-state recordings. In sum, we propose that the pig is a suitable candidate for investigating the neural mechanisms of PAF as a biomarker for disease and disorders such as pain, neuropsychiatric disorders, and response to pharmacotherapy.
人类脑电图最具特征性的特征是峰值阿尔法频率（PAF）。虽然PAF已被提议作为多种疾病和病症的生物标志物，但调节PAF的疾病机制及其生理底物仍不清楚。部分原因在于人类神经科学中与实验操作和侵入性程序相关的挑战，以及静息状态下始终存在PAF的动物模型的稀缺性。鉴于PAF有可能被纳入临床筛查和决策过程，有必要深入了解其作用机制。在本文中，我们提出丹麦长白母猪作为一种合适的动物模型，以探究PAF的机制及其作为生物标志物的特征。我们通过位于感觉运动皮层的皮层脑电图和皮层内电极显示，麻醉猪存在体感阿尔法振荡。从自发记录的时域和频谱形态来看，这一点很明显。我们应用FOOOF算法提取频谱特征，并对任何周期性成分实施稳健性阈值。使用这个保守阈值，20头猪中有18头存在PAF，峰值频率呈8-12赫兹的正态分布，产生了与人类记录相似的结果。我们表明，在大约6分钟长的静息状态记录中，69.6%的时段存在PAF。总之，我们认为猪是研究PAF作为疼痛、神经精神疾病和药物治疗反应等疾病和病症生物标志物的神经机制的合适候选动物。
