Browsing by Author "Halonen, Risto"

Sleep spindles are thalamocortical oscillations that occupy the sigma band with trait-like inter-individual variability. Sleep spindles associate with reasoning abilities according to several studies, but some discrepancy exists in the strength and even direction of the associations. This may, to some extent, be due to methodological differences. The stage of brain maturation also affects spindle manifestation. In this community-based study, associations between spindle characteristics and reasoning abilities are examined in an understudied age group, adolescents. An all-night polysomnography was conducted at homes of 178 adolescents (104 girls). Working memory, visuospatial reasoning and verbal reasoning were measured in the same evening. An automatic algorithm was used to detect slow (10–13 Hz) and fast (13–16 Hz) spindles in frontal and central scalp derivations in NREM 2 sleep stage. The associations between spindle variables (density and intensity) and the cognitive test scores were analyzed with linear regression. Genders apart, the analyses were conducted first on the whole group and then separately on the Above Median (AM) and Below Median (BM) intelligence subgroups. In the analyses with all subjects, higher central fast density associated with better verbal reasoning in girls. When examining the subgroups separately, this association was not perceived in the AM group but appeared prominently in the BM group girls. No other associations were found between the spindle variables and the cognitive test scores. A positive spindle-intelligence relation is an established finding in females, but more commonly the association is typified by fluid/visuospatial reasoning and frontal brain areas. In the present study, young age may have related to the accentuated relative significance of more caudal brain regions and verbal intelligence in relation to spindles. The ongoing neural maturation and the heterogeneity of the sample may have contributed to the nature of the findings. More adolescent studies are needed to gain understanding of the matter.