SEEG peak alpha frequency did not decrease with age in 197 adults with epilepsy, although peak height increased

We tested whether peak alpha frequency (PAF) in stereoelectroencephalography (SEEG) decreases with age in 197 adults with drug-resistant epilepsy aged 18–64. The pooled median PAF association, adjusted for site, sampling rate, sex, log number of pairs, and dataset, was small and not statistically significant (partial Spearman ρ = −0.04, 95% bootstrap CI −0.18 to +0.11, permutation p = 0.59); the ordinary least-squares slope was −0.07 Hz per decade. Under the preregistered criterion, the confidence interval excludes |ρ| > 0.2. Secondary tests found that peak height (ρ = +0.37) and the fraction of pairs with a valid peak (ρ = +0.22) increased with age, as did relative 8–13 Hz power (ρ = +0.31). Relative power remained higher after adjustment for PAF and the fraction of peak pairs (ρ = +0.23). Thus, the power increase was not explained by a shift of the alpha peak to lower frequencies. The sample included only 26 patients aged 50–64; all participants had drug-resistant epilepsy, and medication, disease duration, and implant location were not controlled. Each patient contributed one 60-second word-encoding segment, not a rest recording. The findings do not establish the age pattern in adults older than 64.

peak alpha frequency · SEEG · stereoelectroencephalography · epilepsy · aging · spectral power · partial Spearman correlation