Research article summary (published 2 Jan 2006):

Development of MEG sleep patterns and magnetic auditory evoked responses during early infancy.

Full Abstract

OBJECTIVE: To follow the development of MEG sleep patterns and auditory evoked responses (AERs) during the first six months of life. METHODS: The subjects were 18 neonates, born at conceptional age (CA) 36-42 weeks, following uncomplicated pregnancies. During each session, several 10-min MEG recordings were acquired in the presence of auditory stimulation. The recordings were classified into three distinct MEG patterns-low amplitude irregular; high-amplitude slow; and mixed-based largely on MEG amplitude and frequency. Averaged AERs were computed for the entire recording and for each MEG pattern within the recording. The results were based on analysis of 61 recording sessions of the 10 subjects who yielded three or more sessions of usable data. RESULTS: Developmental changes in the MEG sleep patterns were most pronounced at the earliest ages. By CA 48 weeks the patterns had progressed to a more mature form, characterized by the prevalence of delta wave sleep, absence of discontinuity, and development of spindling and higher amplitude delta rhythms. In contrast to the MEG patterns, the AERs did not change markedly during the first 8 weeks (CA 40-48 weeks) and showed a simple morphology, consisting of a prominent deflection at 250 ms (P250m) and a more diffuse one at around 750 ms (N750m). During the period CA 48-54 weeks, however, a relatively abrupt transition occurred to a more complex morphology, characterized by a double peak with peak latencies 150ms (P150m) and 350 ms (P350m). Beyond this period the AERs continued to evolve, showing biphasic complexes and the emergence of late components arising from outside the auditory cortex. CONCLUSIONS: Over the age range of this study the MEG sleep patterns and AER developed in succession, rather than concurrently; i.e. development of the sleep patterns was most rapid during the first 8 weeks (CA 40-48 weeks) while major development of the AERs commenced after this time. SIGNIFICANCE: This finding suggests that the brain must achieve a certain level of overall maturity, reflected in the character of the MEG sleep patterns at CA 48 weeks, before the cortex enters a phase of significant functional development, reflected in the more rapid evolution of the AER after CA 48 weeks. The results of this study affirm the efficacy of MEG for spatiotemporal characterization of neonatal brain activity.

Author information

Author/s: Lutter, W J (WJ); Maier, M (M); Wakai, R T (RT);

Affiliation: Department of Medical Physics, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 300 University Ave., Madison, WI 53706, USA.

Grants: R01 NS37740 (Agency:NINDS NIH HHS)

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Comparative Study; Journal Article; Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural

Journal: Clinical neurophysiology : official journal of the International Federation of Clinical Neurophysiology (Clin Neurophysiol), published in Netherlands. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2006-Mar; vol 117 (issue 3) : pp 522-30

Dates: Created 2006/03/10; Completed 2006/05/25; Revised 2008/09/10;

PMID: 16414002, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 2/18/2009, IMS Date: )

Sourced from the National Library of Medicine. Abstract text and other information may be subject to copyright.

External Links for this article
(including full text providers, if available):

Click Electronic Full-text Provider Links to see options for finding the electronic full text links to this article. Note there may be a subscription or fee required for access to the full text. See our FAQ for information on finding FREE full text articles.

This article may also be located in paper journal collections available in many libraries. Use the Journal and Publication Information above to find the full article.

MeSH headings (categories)

This article was linked to the MESH Headings shown below.

Acoustic Stimulation - methods Brain - growth & development; physiology Brain Mapping Electroencephalography - methods Evoked Potentials, Auditory - physiology Female Humans

Humans Infant Magnetoencephalography Male Reaction Time - physiology Sleep - physiology Time Factors

Related articles

These are the highest related articles currently in the database:

• Combined mapping of human auditory EEG and MEG responses. 29 Jun 1998
• Timing in the baby brain. 29 Sep 2004
• Detection of nonlinear event-related potentials. May 2006
• Processing of pitch and time sequences in music. 2 Jun 2008
• Preferred EEG brain states at stimulus onset in a fixed interstimulus interval auditory oddball task, and their effects on ERP components. 27 Feb 2003
• Human auditory middle latency responses: influence of stimulus type and intensity. 30 Jul 2001
• Tempo dependence of middle- and long-latency auditory responses: power and phase modulation of the EEG at multiple time-scales. 30 Jul 2004
• Suprasegmental speech cues are automatically processed by the human brain: a mismatch negativity study. Jun 2004
• Source estimation of spontaneous MEG activity and auditory evoked responses in normal subjects during sleep. 30 Dec 1995
• Grammatical processing without semantics? An event-related brain potential study of preschoolers using jabberwocky sentences. 30 May 2007

See 100+ related articles.

Related Article Map

Legend: - FREE Full text Article. - Abstract only. - Title only. More help.

See a large map of 100+ related articles.