title: Developmental trajectories of EEG sleep slow wave activity as a marker for motor skill development during adolescence: a pilot study.
abstract: Reliable markers for brain maturation are important to identify neural deviations that eventually predict the development of mental illnesses. Recent studies have proposed topographical EEG-derived slow wave activity (SWA) during NREM sleep as a mirror of cortical development. However, studies about the longitudinal stability as well as the relationship with behavioral skills are needed before SWA topography may be considered such a reliable marker. We examined six subjects longitudinally (over 5.1 years) using high-density EEG and a visuomotor learning task. All subjects showed a steady increase of SWA at a frontal electrode and a decrease in central electrodes. Despite these large changes in EEG power, SWA topography was relatively stable within each subject during development indicating individual trait-like characteristics. Moreover, the SWA changes in the central cluster were related to the development of specific visuomotor skills. Taken together with the previous work in this domain, our results suggest that EEG sleep SWA represents a marker for motor skill development and further supports the idea that SWA mirrors cortical development during childhood and adolescence.
authors.affiliation: Child Development Center, University Children's Hospital Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland.|Children Research Center, University Children's Hospital Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland.|Neuroscience Center Zurich, University and ETH Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland.|Department of Psychiatry, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, North Carolina.
authors.forename: Caroline
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Lustenberger
authors.affiliation: Child Development Center, University Children's Hospital Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland.|Children Research Center, University Children's Hospital Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland.|Neuroscience Center Zurich, University and ETH Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Anne-Laure
authors.initials: AL
authors.lastname: Mouthon
authors.affiliation: Child Development Center, University Children's Hospital Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland.|Children Research Center, University Children's Hospital Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland.|Neuroscience Center Zurich, University and ETH Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Noemi
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Tesler
authors.affiliation: Child Development Center, University Children's Hospital Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland.|Children Research Center, University Children's Hospital Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland.|Neuroscience Center Zurich, University and ETH Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland.|Department of Integrative Physiology, University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, Colorado.
authors.forename: Salome
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kurth
authors.affiliation: Child Development Center, University Children's Hospital Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland.|Children Research Center, University Children's Hospital Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland.|Neuroscience Center Zurich, University and ETH Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Maya
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ringli
authors.affiliation: Children Research Center, University Children's Hospital Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland.|MR Research Center, University Children's Hospital Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland.|Department of Neurology, University Hospital Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Andreas
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Buchmann
authors.affiliation: Child Development Center, University Children's Hospital Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland.|Children Research Center, University Children's Hospital Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland.|Neuroscience Center Zurich, University and ETH Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland.|Zurich Center for Integrative Human Physiology, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Oskar G
authors.initials: OG
authors.lastname: Jenni
authors.affiliation: Child Development Center, University Children's Hospital Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland.|Children Research Center, University Children's Hospital Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland.|Neuroscience Center Zurich, University and ETH Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland.|Zurich Center for Integrative Human Physiology, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland.|Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Psychiatric Hospital, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Reto
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Huber
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D041923:Adolescent Development / Q000502:physiology*; D002648:Child; D004569:Electroencephalography; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D009048:Motor Skills / Q000502:physiology*; D010865:Pilot Projects; D012894:Sleep Stages / Q000502:physiology*
keywords: adolescence; children; cortical maturation; high-density EEG; humans; motor performance variability; trait topography; visuomotor learning