High-frequency oscillations in human somatosensory evoked potentials are enhanced in school children

High-frequency oscillations (HFOs) in the range of 300-900Hz have been shown to occur simultaneously with the primary response (N20) of the human somatosensory cortex following median nerve stimulation. We studied the effects of development on somatosensory evoked HFOs. Somatosensory evoked potentials (SEPs) were recorded with a filter set at 10-2000Hz following median nerve stimulation in 15 normal adult subjects and 15 normal children (6-12years). The HFOs were obtained by digitally filtering the wide-band SEPs (10-2000Hz) using a band-pass of 300-900Hz. In children, the HFOs were significantly higher in amplitude, longer in duration and larger in number of negative peaks than adult subjects. In addition, the interpeak latency of HFOs in children was longer than that of adult subjects. These results suggest that the HFOs are influenced by development.