title: Characteristics of sleep slow waves in children and adolescents.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Slow waves, a major electrophysiological characteristic of non-rapid eye movement sleep, undergo prominent changes across puberty. This study provides a detailed description of sleep slow waves of prepubertal children and mature adolescents to better understand the mechanisms underlying the decrease of activity in the slow-wave frequency range across puberty.
  
  
  METHODS
  All-night sleep electroencephalographic recordings were performed for baseline and after sleep deprivation.
  
  
  METHODS
  N/A.
  
  
  METHODS
  Eight prepubertal children (Tanner 1/2, 11.9 +/- 0.8 years, 3 boys) and 6 mature adolescents (Tanner 4/5, 14.3 +/- 1.4 years, 3 boys).
  
  
  METHODS
  Thirty-six hours of sleep deprivation.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Both during baseline and after sleep deprivation, a steeper slope of slow waves was observed in prepubertal children (351.0 +/- 49.5 microV/s), compared with mature adolescents (215.0 +/- 27.2 microV/s, P<0.05; mean of first 5 NREM sleep episodes from baseline), even accounting for overall amplitude differences.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Based on a recent thalamocortical computer model, these findings may indicate a greater synaptic strength of neurons involved in the generation of sleep slow waves in prepubertal children, compared with mature adolescents. Such increased synaptic strength may be due to greater density or greater efficacy of cortical synapses or both.
authors.affiliation: Child Development Center, University Childrens Hospital Zurich, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Salomé
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kurth
authors.forename: Oskar G
authors.initials: OG
authors.lastname: Jenni
authors.forename: Brady A
authors.initials: BA
authors.lastname: Riedner
authors.forename: Giulio
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Tononi
authors.forename: Mary A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Carskadon
authors.forename: Reto
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Huber
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000367:Age Factors; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D002648:Child; D004569:Electroencephalography / Q000379:methods / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011627:Puberty; D012892:Sleep Deprivation / Q000503:physiopathology*; D012894:Sleep Stages; D012895:Sleep, REM; D013997:Time Factors
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