Twitches emerge postnatally during quiet sleep in human infants and are synchronized with sleep spindles
In humans and other mammals, the stillness of sleep is punctuated by bursts of rapid eye movements (REMs) and myoclonic twitches of the limbs.1 Like the spontaneous activity that arises from the sensory periphery in other modalities (e.g., retinal waves),2 sensory feedback arising from twitches is w...
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| Published in: | Current biology Vol. 31; no. 15; pp. 3426 - 3432.e4 |
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| Main Authors: | , , , , , , , , |
| Format: | Journal Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
England
Elsevier Inc
09-08-2021
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | Get full text |
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| Summary: | In humans and other mammals, the stillness of sleep is punctuated by bursts of rapid eye movements (REMs) and myoclonic twitches of the limbs.1 Like the spontaneous activity that arises from the sensory periphery in other modalities (e.g., retinal waves),2 sensory feedback arising from twitches is well suited to drive activity-dependent development of the sensorimotor system.3 It is partly because of the behavioral activation of REM sleep that this state is also called active sleep (AS), in contrast with the behavioral quiescence that gives quiet sleep (QS)—the second major stage of sleep—its name. In human infants, for which AS occupies 8 h of each day,4 twitching helps to identify the state;5–8 nonetheless, we know little about the structure and functions of twitching across development. Recently, in sleeping infants,9 we documented a shift in the temporal expression of twitching beginning around 3 months of age that suggested a qualitative change in how twitches are produced. Here, we combine behavioral analysis with high-density electroencephalography (EEG) to demonstrate that this shift reflects the emergence of limb twitches during QS. Twitches during QS are not only unaccompanied by REMs, but they also occur synchronously with sleep spindles, a hallmark of QS. As QS-related twitching increases with age, sleep spindle rate also increases along the sensorimotor strip. The emerging synchrony between subcortically generated twitches and cortical oscillations suggests the development of functional connectivity among distant sensorimotor structures, with potential implications for detecting and explaining atypical developmental trajectories.
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•In human infants, myoclonic twitches are a key component of active sleep•By 3 months of age, sleep spindles occur reliably during quiet sleep•Also around 3 months of age, twitches unexpectedly emerge during quiet sleep•When twitches occur during quiet sleep, they are synchronized with sleep spindles
Myoclonic twitching is a characteristic component of active sleep, especially in early development. Sokoloff et al. discover that, beginning around 3 months of age in human infants, twitches emerge unexpectedly during quiet sleep. These twitches are synchronized with sleep spindles, thus implicating them in sensorimotor plasticity. |
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| Bibliography: | ObjectType-Article-1 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Feature-2 content type line 23 Lead Contact: Mark S. Blumberg, Ph.D. Author Contributions Conceptualization, G.S. and M.S.B.; Methodology, G.S. and M.S.B.; Formal Analysis, G.S., J.C.D., R.M.G., K.S.A., and M.S.B.; Investigation, G.S., R.Y.W., M.M.H., L.G.E., and H.M.L.; Resources, G.S. and M.S.B.; Data Curation, G.S. and R.Y.W.; Writing - Original Draft, G.S., R.Y.W., J.C.D, R.M.G., K.S.A., and M.S.B.; Writing—Reviewing and Editing, G.S., J.C.D., R.M.G., R.Y.W., M.M.H., K.S.A., and M.S.B.; Visualization, G.S., J.C.D., R.M.G., and M.S.B.; Supervision, G.S. and M.S.B.; Project Administration, G.S. and M.S.B.; Funding Acquisition, G.S. and M.S.B. |
| ISSN: | 0960-9822 1879-0445 |
| DOI: | 10.1016/j.cub.2021.05.038 |