{"doi":"10.1111/jsr.12390","title":"Mapping changes in cortical activity during sleep in the first 4 years of life","abstract":"<jats:title>Summary</jats:title><jats:p>A coherent body of evidence supports the notion that sleep is a local and use‐dependent process. Significant changes in brain morphology and function occur in the first years of life, revealing a postero–anterior trajectory of cortical maturation. On this basis, a recent study demonstrated that regional cortical maturation between early childhood and late adolescence is reflected in regional changes of sleep slow wave activity (<jats:styled-content style=\"fixed-case\">SWA</jats:styled-content>) during non‐rapid eye movement (<jats:styled-content style=\"fixed-case\">NREM</jats:styled-content>) sleep. Our hypothesis is that changes of electroencephalogram (<jats:styled-content style=\"fixed-case\">EEG</jats:styled-content>) rhythms during sleep from birth to childhood are also mirrored by parallel regional changes in the <jats:styled-content style=\"fixed-case\">EEG</jats:styled-content> rhythms of sleep according to the assumption of a postero–anterior gradient in cortical maturation. We studied all‐night <jats:styled-content style=\"fixed-case\">EEG</jats:styled-content> of 39 healthy, full‐term, infants and children aged between 0 and 48 months, evaluating regional differences in <jats:styled-content style=\"fixed-case\">NREM</jats:styled-content> sleep. We confirmed the strictly local nature of sleep with frequency‐specific regional differences. Specifically, we found a general shift of maxima of the upper alpha activity from occipital to prefrontal regions, expressed mainly by the ~11 Hz frequency. This shift corresponds to a postero–anterior trajectory of the so‐called ‘slow spindles’. The theta and alpha <jats:styled-content style=\"fixed-case\">EEG</jats:styled-content> activity of the frontal cortex exhibits a clear, positive, correlation with age. We conclude that specific local differences during <jats:styled-content style=\"fixed-case\">NREM</jats:styled-content> sleep, parallel cortical maturation also in the first 4 years of life.</jats:p>","journal":"Journal of Sleep Research","year":2016,"id":41083,"datarank":1.3751570212111544,"base_score":3.713572066704308,"endowment":3.713572066704308,"self_citation_contribution":0.5570358100056463,"citation_network_contribution":0.8181212112055082,"self_endowment_contribution":0.5570358100056463,"citer_contribution":0.8181212112055082,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":40,"citer_count":32,"citers_with_citation_signal":27,"citers_with_endowment":27,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":null,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":false,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":null,"fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":198448,"name":"Aurora D'atri","orcid":null,"position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":197527,"name":"Cristina Marzano","orcid":null,"position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":198449,"name":"Elena Finotti","orcid":null,"position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":197532,"name":"Michele Ferrara","orcid":null,"position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":198450,"name":"Oliviero Bruni","orcid":null,"position":5,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":197528,"name":"Luigi De Gennaro","orcid":null,"position":6,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":198447,"name":"Luana Novelli","orcid":null,"position":0,"is_corresponding":false}],"reference_count":0,"raw_metadata":{"has_enrichment":true,"base_score":3.713572066704308,"endowment":3.713572066704308,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"views":0,"has_version_chain":false,"is_dataset":false,"is_oa":false,"pmid":"26854271","pmcid":null,"openalex_id":"https://openalex.org/W2263383509","authors":[],"funders":[{"funder_name":"Ministero della Salute","grant_id":"RF‐2009‐1528677","title":null},{"funder_name":"Sapienza Università di Roma","grant_id":"","title":null}],"total_grants":2,"fwci":2.1859,"citation_percentile":0.86497144,"influential_citations":2,"citation_trend":[{"year":2017,"count":5},{"year":2018,"count":2},{"year":2019,"count":6},{"year":2020,"count":4},{"year":2021,"count":6},{"year":2022,"count":2},{"year":2023,"count":4},{"year":2024,"count":6},{"year":2025,"count":4},{"year":2026,"count":1}],"oa_status":"closed","license":"http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/termsAndConditions#vor","oa_locations":[{"url":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdfdirect/10.1111/jsr.12390","host_type":"BRONZE"},{"url":"https://api.wiley.com/onlinelibrary/tdm/v1/articles/10.1111%2Fjsr.12390","host_type":"publisher"},{"url":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/jsr.12390","host_type":"publisher"},{"url":"https://doi.org/10.1111/jsr.12390","host_type":"journal"},{"url":"https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26854271","host_type":"repository"},{"url":"http://hdl.handle.net/11573/933355","host_type":"repository"}],"fields_of_study":["Sleep and Wakefulness Research","EEG and Brain-Computer Interfaces","Neural dynamics and brain function","Psychology","Medicine","Biology","Aging","Alpha Rhythm","Child, Preschool","Electroencephalography","Female","Frontal Lobe","Humans","Infant","Infant, Newborn","Male","Sleep","Theta Rhythm"],"mesh_terms":["Aging","Alpha Rhythm","Child, Preschool","Electroencephalography","Female","Frontal Lobe","Humans","Infant","Infant, Newborn","Male","Sleep","Theta Rhythm"],"keywords":["Non-rapid eye movement sleep","Sleep spindle","Electroencephalography","Sleep (system call)","K-complex","Psychology","Neuroscience","Delta wave","Neuroscience of sleep","Slow-wave sleep","Rhythm","Eye movement","Audiology","Medicine","Internal medicine","Children","Brain Maturation","Local Sleep","Power Spectra","Regional Electroencephalogram"],"sdg_mappings":[],"linked_datasets":[],"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"database_accessions":[],"source":"live","citation_network_status":"fetched"},"created_at":"2026-06-12T20:58:37.077179Z","pmid":null,"pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}