title: Sleep slow-wave activity reveals developmental changes in experience-dependent plasticity.
abstract: 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, sleep SWA was 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 that SWA is a highly sensitive tool to map maturational differences in experience-dependent plasticity.
authors.affiliation: Child Development Center and.
authors.forename: Ines
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Wilhelm
authors.affiliation: Child Development Center and University of Colorado at Boulder, Boulder, Colorado, 80309.
authors.forename: Salomé
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kurth
authors.affiliation: Child Development Center and.
authors.forename: Maya
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ringli
authors.affiliation: Child Development Center and.
authors.forename: Anne-Laure
authors.initials: AL
authors.lastname: Mouthon
authors.affiliation: Child Development Center and Department of Neurology, University Hospital Zürich, 8091 Zürich, Switzerland, and.
authors.forename: Andreas
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Buchmann
authors.affiliation: Child Development Center and.
authors.forename: Anja
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Geiger
authors.affiliation: Child Development Center and Children's Research Center, University Children's Hospital Zürich, 8032 Zürich, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Oskar G
authors.initials: OG
authors.lastname: Jenni
authors.affiliation: Child Development Center and Children's Research Center, University Children's Hospital Zürich, 8032 Zürich, Switzerland, University Clinics for Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 8032 Zürich, Switzerland reto.huber@kispi.uzh.ch.
authors.forename: Reto
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Huber
mesh_terms: D000222:Adaptation, Physiological / Q000502:physiology; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000375:Aging / Q000502:physiology*; D058256:Brain Waves / Q000502:physiology*; D002648:Child; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007858:Learning / Q000502:physiology*; D008297:Male; D009473:Neuronal Plasticity / Q000502:physiology*; D010296:Parietal Lobe / Q000502:physiology*; D011597:Psychomotor Performance / Q000502:physiology*; D012890:Sleep / Q000502:physiology*; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: development; experience-dependent plasticity; learning; maturation; sleep; slow wave sleep