[Age-related changes in time-frequency structure of sleep spindles in EEG in rats with genetic predisposition to...

It is known that sleep spindles are produced by thalamo-cortical system spontaneously during the slow-wave sleep; pathological processes in thalamo-cortical network might cause absence epilepsy. The aim of this study was to examine age-dependent changes in time-frequency structure of sleep spindles in parallel to a progressive increase in amount of absence seizures in WAG/Rij rat model. EEG was consistently recorded at the age of 5, 7 and 9 months by means of epidural electrodes implanted in the frontal cortex. Continuous wavelet transform was used for automatic identification and further time-frequency analysis of sleep spindles in EEG. It was found that the mean duration of epileptic discharges and total duration of epileptic activity increased with age, whereas the length of sleep spindles decreased. Mean frequency of oscillations within a spindle was used as a criterion for dividing sleep spindles in three categories: "slow" (9.3 Hz), "tr ansitional" (11.4 Hz) and "fast" (13.5 Hz). "Slow" and "transitional" spindles in 5-months animals displayed an increase in frequency from the beginning towards the end. It was shown that the higher incidence of epilepsy corresponded to the lower duration of sleep spindles (all types). Mean frequency of "transitional" and "fast" spindles was higher in rats with more intensive epileptic discharges. In general, high epileptic activity in WAG/Rij rats corresponded to the most substantial changes within "transitional" spindles, whereas changes within slow and fast spindles were moderate.