Are High Frequency Oscillations in Scalp EEG Related to Age?

BackgroundHigh-frequency oscillations (HFOs) have received much attention in recent years, particularly in the clinical context. In addition to their application as a marker for pathological changes in patients with epilepsy, HFOs have also been brought into context with several physiological mechan...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Philipp Franz Windhager, Adrian V. Marcu, Eugen Trinka, Arne Bathke, Yvonne Höller
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Frontiers Media S.A. 2022-01-01
Series:Frontiers in Neurology
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Online Access:https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fneur.2021.722657/full
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Summary:BackgroundHigh-frequency oscillations (HFOs) have received much attention in recent years, particularly in the clinical context. In addition to their application as a marker for pathological changes in patients with epilepsy, HFOs have also been brought into context with several physiological mechanisms. Furthermore, recent studies reported a relation between an increase of HFO rate and age in invasive EEG recordings. The present study aimed to investigate whether this relation can be replicated in scalp-EEG.MethodsWe recorded high-density EEG from 11 epilepsy patients at rest as well as during motor performance. Manual detection of HFOs was performed by two independent raters following a standardized protocol. Patients were grouped by age into younger (<25 years) and older (>50 years) participants.ResultsNo significant difference of HFO-rates was found between groups [U = 10.5, p = 0.429, r = 0.3].ConclusionsLack of replicability of the age effect of HFOs may be due to the local propagation patterns of age-related HFOs occurring in deep structures. However, limitations such as small sample size, decreased signal-to-noise ratio as compared to invasive recordings, as well as HFO-mimicking artifacts must be considered.
ISSN:1664-2295