High-density EEG power topography and connectivity during confusional arousal
Castelnovo, Anna
ORCID
Sleep Medicine Unit, Neurocenter of Southern Switzerland, Ospedale Civico, Lugano, Switzerland ; Faculty of Biomedical Sciences, Università della Svizzera italiana, Switzerland ; University Hospital of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland
Amacker, JulianInstitute of Computational Life Sciences, Zurich University of Applied Sciences, W€adenswil, Switzerland
Maiolo, MassimoInstitute of Computational Life Sciences, Zurich University of Applied Sciences, W€adenswil, Switzerland ; Institute of Pathology, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland
Amato, NinfaSleep Medicine Unit, Neurocenter of Southern Switzerland, Ospedale Civico, Lugano, Switzerland
Pereno, MatteoSleep Medicine Unit, Neurocenter of Southern Switzerland, Ospedale Civico, Lugano, Switzerland
Riccardi, SilviaSleep Medicine Unit, Neurocenter of Southern Switzerland, Ospedale Civico, Lugano, Switzerland
Danani, Andrea
ORCID
Istituto Dalle Molle di studi sull'intelligenza artificiale (IDSIA), Facoltà di scienze informatiche, Università della Svizzera italiana, Svizzera
Ulzega, SimoneInstitute of Computational Life Sciences, Zurich University of Applied Sciences, W€adenswil, Switzerland
Manconi, Marco
ORCID
Sleep Medicine Unit, Neurocenter of Southern Switzerland, Ospedale Civico, Lugano, Switzerland ; Faculty of Biomedical Sciences, Università della Svizzera italiana, Switzerland ; Department of Neurology, University Hospital, Inselspital, Bern, Switzerland
English
Confusional arousal is the milder expression of a family of disorders known as Disorders of Arousal (DOA) from non-REM sleep. These disorders are characterized by recurrent abnormal behaviors that occur in a state of reduced awareness for the external environment. Despite frequent amnesia for the nocturnal events, when actively probed, patients are able to report vivid hallucinatory/dream-like mental imagery. Traditional (low-density) scalp and stereo-electroencephalographic (EEG) recordings previously showed a pathological admixture of slow oscillations typical of NREM sleep and wake-like fast-mixed frequencies during these phenomena. However, our knowledge about the specific neural EEG dynamics over the entire brain is limited. We collected 2 consecutive in-laboratory sleep recordings using high-density (hd)-EEG (256 vertex-referenced geodesic system) coupled with standard video-polysomnography (v-PSG) from a 12-year-old drug-naıve and otherwise healthy child with a long-lasting history of sleepwalking. Source power topography and functional connectivity were computed during 20 selected confusional arousal episodes (from -6 to + 18 sec after motor onset), and during baseline slow wave sleep preceding each episode (from -3 to -2 min before onset). We found a widespread increase in slow wave activity (SWA) theta, alpha, beta, gamma power, associated with a parallel decrease in the sigma range during behavioral episodes compared to baseline sleep. Bilateral Broadman area 7 and right Broadman areas 39 and 40 were relatively spared by the massive increase in SWA power. Functional SWA connectivity analysis revealed a drastic increase in the number and complexity of connections from baseline sleep to full-blown episodes, that mainly involved an increased out-flow from bilateral frontomedial prefrontal cortex and left temporal lobe to other cortical regions. These effects could be appreciated in the 6 sec window preceding behavioral onset. Overall, our results support the idea that DOA are the expression of peculiar brain states, compatible with a partial re-emergence of consciousness.