SEEG delta power at clinically normal bipolar pairs did not decrease with age in 33 patients aged 0–45 years

Scalp EEG slow-wave power (0.5–4 Hz) decreases from childhood to adulthood. We tested whether 0.5–4 Hz delta power at clinically normal stereoelectroencephalography (SEEG) bipolar pairs showed the same pattern in epilepsy patients aged 0–45 years. We analyzed archived per-pair features from OpenNeuro ds007118, ds007119, and ds007120, version 1.0.0: 90 seconds of NREM sleep per patient, with no new EDF data read. The preregistered patient-level analysis included 33 patients and 396 pairs from four cohorts. Log delta power did not decrease with age (Spearman rho +0.24, 95% CI −0.12 to 0.55, permutation p 0.12, Holm p 0.12). The gain-free log delta-to-80–300 Hz power ratio also did not decrease (rho +0.41, 95% CI +0.09 to 0.66, permutation p 0.038, Holm p 0.076). Control HFA power had rho −0.09. The predicted negative relation did not occur in any tested subset. Exploratory checks showed that the positive trend depended on the three youngest patients (ages 0, 3, and 5); without them, delta rho was 0.00. The sample was small (13 patients aged 18 years or younger), NREM stage was unknown, adjacent bipolar pairs remove much far-field slow activity, tissue position and most regions were unknown, implantation sites varied with age and clinical question, and 1-Hz bins did not resolve oscillations below 1 Hz. These results do not show the developmental decrease in this selected SEEG sample; they do not exclude effects in the positive direction or remove the stated sampling and measurement limits.

stereoelectroencephalography · SEEG · delta power · NREM sleep · age · epilepsy · bipolar pairs · high-frequency activity · preregistered analysis