Using Low Resolution Electromagnetic Tomography (LORETA), event-related current density was investigated in 14 patients with primary insomnia and 14 controls matched for age, gender and education level. All subjects were rated on the Athens Insomnia Scale, the Hyperarousal Scale, the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale and the Beck Depression Inventory. They also completed the Selective Reminding Test and the Continuous Attention Test. Only minor elevations on depression scales were found in patients. The Continuous Attention Test did not reveal any between group differences. However, insomniacs required more trials before all the Selective Reminding Test items were learned. Insomniacs showed less event-related current density in orbitofrontal, medial prefrontal and anterior cingulate cortex, i.e. brain regions of relevance for cognition and affect. Earliest group differences appeared in the P1 time range and then were observed at the N1, N2 and P3 stages of stimulus processing. These stimulus processing differences correlated most consistently with severity of insomnia. Neuropsychological impairment correlated most strongly with less current density in Brodmann area 10.
New multichannel descriptors of EEG activity: complexity (Omega), total power (Sigma) and generalized frequency (Phi) were applied to whole night sleep analysis in 11 healthy subjects. The values of Omega and Phi decreased systematically from waking to slow wave sleep, and increased systematically in consecutive NREM-REM sleep cycles. The changes of Sigma were opposite to Omega and Phi. These descriptors may be an alternative approach to the EEG sleep analysis.
Complexity of EEG (W), a global measure reflecting degree of spatial synchronization, was computed for whole night recordings of sleep EEG of 10 healthy volunteers, 9 males and 1 female (age 21-53) and 6 depressive patients, 5 males and 1 female (age 23-64). Sleep was scored visually in 20's epochs, W was calculated in 2.5 s segments and the median from 8 segments (20 s) was calculated. W was calculated for the whole field of 21 electrodes and for the left and right hemisphere separately (2 x 8 electrodes). Measure of global power (S) and generalized frequency (f) were also computed for the same data. In healthy subjects the complexity was higher over the right hemisphere during waking, and the difference shifted to higher complexity over the left hemisphere in slow wave sleep (F=5.15, df1=4, df2=6856, P<0.0005). The opposite trend was found in depressives (F=10.51, dfl=4, df2=3960, P<0.0001).
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