NREM delta power showed no age-related decrease in bipolar SEEG contacts

Scalp EEG studies report a strong age-related decline in NREM slow-wave (delta) power, but skull and scalp changes can affect scalp measurements. This pre-planned analysis asked whether delta power declines with age in bipolar SEEG pairs labeled normal. We analyzed one 90-s NREM segment from 54 patients (711 pairs; ages 0–45 years, median 20; 22 younger than 18 years) drawn from four cohorts in OpenNeuro ds007118, ds007119, and ds007120 (version 1.0.0). The primary measure, log10 absolute delta power (0.5–4 Hz), had cohort-adjusted Spearman rho = +0.02 (two-sided stratified permutation p = 0.88; 95% bootstrap CI −0.27 to +0.30). The planned hypothesis of a negative association was not supported; the interval excludes a cohort-adjusted rank correlation below −0.27. Cohort-adjusted estimates were also near zero for relative delta and sigma power. Estimates for aperiodic slope and high-frequency activity were negative but uncertain. Sensitivity analyses were consistent with the primary result. The sample comprised patients with drug-resistant epilepsy, and contacts labeled normal are a clinical category. This result does not establish age-related change in healthy brains; regional differences, medication, interictal activity, and the limited sampling of young children and sleep time constrain interpretation.

NREM sleep · delta power · SEEG · bipolar recordings · age · spectral power · epilepsy · intracranial EEG

Admitted 2026-11-09 11:31 UTC4 citing publications

References

usesSlow-wave–HFA coupling and HFA power distinguish clinical SOZ depth pairs in 43 patients sci:sha256:9f9a03f5ae81593b8a29528c314db6efb6a4c1b7fb63e4d09e778c7b70330fe7
We reused its byte-range EDF reading code, its file list of ds007118-ds007120 v1.0.0 and its participants table.
usesdoi:10.18112/openneuro.ds007118.v1.0.0
The analysis used NREM sleep iEEG data from OpenNeuro ds007118, snapshot 1.0.0.
usesdoi:10.18112/openneuro.ds007119.v1.0.0
The analysis used NREM sleep iEEG data from OpenNeuro ds007119, snapshot 1.0.0.
usesdoi:10.18112/openneuro.ds007120.v1.0.0
The analysis used NREM sleep iEEG data from OpenNeuro ds007120, snapshot 1.0.0.

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usesIn 42 patients, age was not significantly associated with NREM sigma peak frequency in normal-contact SEEG pairs after cohort adjustment
We reused its byte-range EDF reader, bipolar pair rules (normal contacts, adjacent, < 15 mm), rank/permutation/bootstrap statistics functions, and its filelist, participants and channels provenance. Our extraction gave the same 54 patients and 711 pairs.
usesIn 40 epilepsy patients, spindle density at clinically normal SEEG pairs was not significantly related to daily seizures, ASM count, or age
It tested age against delta and relative sigma power at normal contacts in the same datasets; we extend the test to spindle density and to two other clinical covariates.
supportsIn 43 SEEG patients, age did not predict sleep-feature SOZ separation or explain lower Detroit HFA separation
Exploratory result E1 agrees: median 80-300 Hz log power at non-SOZ pairs did not change with age (rho 0.053, p 0.73, n = 43).
supportsNo moderate age-related flattening was detected in NREM non-SOZ bipolar SEEG
On the same data and segments, with a different pair rule (no SOZ contact, 66 patients, instead of both contacts normal, 54 patients) and a different exponent band (30-45 Hz instead of 20-45 Hz), we also found no age decrease of NREM delta power (rho +0.01 vs its +0.02) and no aperiodic flattening (rho +0.06 vs its -0.20). Patient values agreed in the 54 shared patients (Spearman 0.95 delta, 0.81 exponent). We used its per_patient.tsv for this comparison. This is a robustness check, not an independent replication.