Background:After acquired brain injury (ABI), patients show various neurological impairments and outcome is difficult to predict. Identifying biomarkers of recovery could provide prognostic information about a patient’s neural potential for recovery and improve our understanding of neural reorganization. In healthy subjects, sleep slow wave activity (SWA, EEG spectral power 1–4.5 Hz) has been linked to neuroplastic processes such as learning and brain maturation. Therefore, we suggest that SWA might be a suitable measure to investigate neural reorganization underlying memory recovery. Objectives:In the present study, we used SWA to investigate neural correlates of recovery of function in ten paediatric patients with ABI (age range 7–15 years). Methods:We recorded high-density EEG (128 electrodes) during sleep at the beginning and end of rehabilitation. We used sleep EEG data of 52 typically developing children to calculate age-normalized values for individual patients. In patients, we also assessed every-day life memory impairment at the beginning and end of rehabilitation. Results:In the course of rehabilitation, memory recovery was paralleled by longitudinal changes in SWA over posterior parietal brain areas. SWA over left prefrontal and occipital brain areas at the beginning of rehabilitation predicted memory recovery. Conclusions:We show that longitudinal sleep-EEG measurements are feasible in the clinical setting. While posterior parietal and prefrontal brain areas are known to belong to the memory “core network”, occipital brain areas have never been related to memory. While we have to remain cautious in interpreting preliminary findings, we suggest that SWA is a promising measure to investigate neural reorganization.

中文翻译：

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记忆恢复的神经相关性：儿童和青少年获得性脑损伤的初步发现

背景：获得性脑损伤（ABI）后，患者表现出各种神经功能障碍，结果难以预测。识别恢复的生物标志物可以提供有关患者神经恢复潜力的预后信息，并提高我们对神经重组的理解。在健康受试者中，睡眠慢波活动（SWA，EEG 频谱功率 1-4.5 Hz）与学习和大脑成熟等神经可塑性过程有关。因此，我们建议 SWA 可能是研究记忆恢复的神经重组的合适措施。目的：在本研究中，我们使用 SWA 研究了 10 名 ABI 儿科患者（年龄范围 7-15 岁）功能恢复的神经相关性。方法：我们在康复开始和结束时记录了睡眠期间的高密度 EEG（128 个电极）。我们使用 52 个典型发育儿童的睡眠 EEG 数据来计算个体患者的年龄标准化值。在患者中，我们还评估了康复开始和结束时的日常生活记忆障碍。结果：在康复过程中，记忆恢复与后顶叶脑区 SWA 的纵向变化平行。康复开始时左前额叶和枕叶区域的 SWA 预测记忆恢复。结论：我们表明纵向睡眠脑电图测量在临床环境中是可行的。虽然已知后顶叶和前额叶脑区属于记忆“核心网络”，但枕叶脑区从未与记忆相关。