Research
The hypothesis that a major reorganization of the human brain takes place during adolescence, now widely accepted, was first proposed by Professor Feinberg in 1982. The sleep EEG is the most easily accessible indicator of this brain reorganization. Feinberg and Campbell have now carried out the first longitudinal measurement of the sleep EEG across adolescence. They have found that slow wave EEG activity peaks at about age 8 years, declines slowly until about age 12 years, and then declines steeply between ages 12 and 16.5 years. The two sexes differ in their slow wave EEG decline with girls' EEG beginning the steep decline earlier than the boys' EEG. The longitudinal data also demonstrate that the timing of the EEG decline is related to timing of sexual maturation. The study has also found that this adolescent brain reorganization is a major contributor to adolescent daytime sleepiness. These data shed light on an important process of brain development. They are particularly relevant to psychiatry because errors in the execution of the genetically programmed brain reorganization during adolescence may give rise to schizophrenia, which often has its onset in this period. Therefore, documenting the trajectory of the EEG changes across adolescence in normal subjects provide the normative data base required for an eventual study of patients at high risk for schizophrenia.
The lab is now studying the relations between prior sleep duration and daytime performance or daytime sleepiness and how these relations change with age across adolescence and into early adulthood.
The lab is now studying the relations between prior sleep duration and daytime performance or daytime sleepiness and how these relations change with age across adolescence and into early adulthood.
Delta (1-4 Hz) Power Density Across Ages 6-18 Years
© UCD Sleep Lab 2020