TY - JOUR
T1 - Sleep slow-wave activity reveals developmental changes in experience-dependent plasticity
AU - Wilhelm, Ines
AU - Kurth, Salomé
AU - Ringli, Maya
AU - Mouthon, Anne Laure
AU - Buchmann, Andreas
AU - Geiger, Anja
AU - Jenni, Oskar G.
AU - Huber, Reto
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2014 by the Society for Neuroscience. All rights reserved.
Copyright:
Copyright 2018 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.
PY - 2014/9/10
Y1 - 2014/9/10
N2 - Experience-dependent plasticity, the ability of the brain to constantly adapt to an ever-changing environment, has been suggested to be highest during childhood and to decline thereafter. However, empirical evidence for this is rather scarce. Slow-wave activity (SWA; EEG activity of 1– 4.5 Hz) during deep sleep can be used as a marker of experience-dependent plasticity. For example, performing a visuomotor adaptation task in adults increased SWA during subsequent sleep over a locally restricted region of the right parietal cortex, which is known to be involved in visuomotor adaptation. Here, we investigated whether local experience-dependent changes in SWA vary as a function of brain maturation. Three age groups (children, adolescents, and adults) participated in a high-density EEG study with two conditions (baseline and adaptation) of a visuomotor learning task. Compared with the baseline condition, sleepSWAwas increased after visuomotor adaptation in a cluster of eight electrodes over the right parietal cortex. The local boost in SWA was highest in children. Baseline SWA in the parietal cluster and right parietal gray matter volume, which both indicate region-specific maturation, were significantly correlated with the local increase in SWA. Our findings indicate that processes of brain maturation favor experience-dependent plasticity and determine how sensitive a specific brain region is for learning experiences. Moreover, our data confirm thatSWAis a highly sensitive tool to map maturational differences in experience-dependent plasticity.
AB - Experience-dependent plasticity, the ability of the brain to constantly adapt to an ever-changing environment, has been suggested to be highest during childhood and to decline thereafter. However, empirical evidence for this is rather scarce. Slow-wave activity (SWA; EEG activity of 1– 4.5 Hz) during deep sleep can be used as a marker of experience-dependent plasticity. For example, performing a visuomotor adaptation task in adults increased SWA during subsequent sleep over a locally restricted region of the right parietal cortex, which is known to be involved in visuomotor adaptation. Here, we investigated whether local experience-dependent changes in SWA vary as a function of brain maturation. Three age groups (children, adolescents, and adults) participated in a high-density EEG study with two conditions (baseline and adaptation) of a visuomotor learning task. Compared with the baseline condition, sleepSWAwas increased after visuomotor adaptation in a cluster of eight electrodes over the right parietal cortex. The local boost in SWA was highest in children. Baseline SWA in the parietal cluster and right parietal gray matter volume, which both indicate region-specific maturation, were significantly correlated with the local increase in SWA. Our findings indicate that processes of brain maturation favor experience-dependent plasticity and determine how sensitive a specific brain region is for learning experiences. Moreover, our data confirm thatSWAis a highly sensitive tool to map maturational differences in experience-dependent plasticity.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84907009609&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.0962-14.2014
DO - 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.0962-14.2014
M3 - Journal articles
C2 - 25209294
AN - SCOPUS:84907009609
SN - 0270-6474
VL - 34
SP - 12568
EP - 12575
JO - Journal of Neuroscience
JF - Journal of Neuroscience
IS - 37
ER -