Developmental trajectory of movement-related cortical oscillations during active sleep in a cross-sectional cohort of pre-term and full-term human infants

TY - JOUR

T1 - Developmental trajectory of movement-related cortical oscillations during active sleep in a cross-sectional cohort of pre-term and full-term human infants

AU - Whitehead, Kimberley

AU - Meek, Judith

AU - Fabrizi, Lorenzo

PY - 2018/11/30

Y1 - 2018/11/30

N2 - In neonatal animal models, isolated limb movements during active sleep provide input to immature somatomotor cortex necessary for its development and are somatotopically encoded by alpha-beta oscillations as late as the equivalent of human full-term. Limb movements elicit similar neural patterns in very pre-term human infants (average 30 corrected gestational weeks), suggesting an analogous role in humans, but it is unknown until when they subserve this function. In a cohort of 19 neonates (31-42 corrected gestational weeks) we showed that isolated hand movements during active sleep continue to induce these same somatotopically distributed oscillations well into the perinatal period, but that these oscillations decline towards full-term and fully disappear at 41 corrected gestational weeks (equivalent to the end of gestation). We also showed that these highly localised alpha-beta oscillations are associated with an increase in delta oscillations which extends to the frontal area and does not decline with age. These results suggest that isolated limb movements during active sleep could have an important role in experience-dependent somatomotor development up until normal birth in humans.

AB - In neonatal animal models, isolated limb movements during active sleep provide input to immature somatomotor cortex necessary for its development and are somatotopically encoded by alpha-beta oscillations as late as the equivalent of human full-term. Limb movements elicit similar neural patterns in very pre-term human infants (average 30 corrected gestational weeks), suggesting an analogous role in humans, but it is unknown until when they subserve this function. In a cohort of 19 neonates (31-42 corrected gestational weeks) we showed that isolated hand movements during active sleep continue to induce these same somatotopically distributed oscillations well into the perinatal period, but that these oscillations decline towards full-term and fully disappear at 41 corrected gestational weeks (equivalent to the end of gestation). We also showed that these highly localised alpha-beta oscillations are associated with an increase in delta oscillations which extends to the frontal area and does not decline with age. These results suggest that isolated limb movements during active sleep could have an important role in experience-dependent somatomotor development up until normal birth in humans.

KW - Cerebral Cortex/physiology

KW - Cohort Studies

KW - Cross-Sectional Studies

KW - Female

KW - Humans

KW - Infant

KW - Infant, Newborn

KW - Infant, Premature

KW - Male

KW - Sleep/physiology

U2 - 10.1038/s41598-018-35850-1

DO - 10.1038/s41598-018-35850-1

M3 - Article

C2 - 30504857

SN - 2045-2322

VL - 8

SP - 17516

JO - Scientific Reports

JF - Scientific Reports

IS - 1

ER -