AUTHOR=Windhager Philipp Franz , Marcu Adrian V. , Trinka Eugen , Bathke Arne , Höller Yvonne 

TITLE=Are High Frequency Oscillations in Scalp EEG Related to Age?

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Neurology

VOLUME=Volume 12 - 2021

YEAR=2022

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/neurology/articles/10.3389/fneur.2021.722657

DOI=10.3389/fneur.2021.722657

ISSN=1664-2295

ABSTRACT=Background: High-frequency oscillations (HFO) 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, HFO have also been brought into context with several physiological mechanisms. Furthermore, recent studies reported a relation between HFO rate and age in invasive EEG recordings. The present study aimed to investigate whether this relation can be replicated in scalp-EEG. Methods: We recorded high-density EEG from 11 epilepsy patients at rest as well as during motor performance. Manual detection of HFO was performed by two independent raters following a standardized protocol. Patients were grouped by age into younger (< 25 years) and older (>50 years) participants. Results: No significant difference of HFO-rates was found between groups [U = 10.5, p = .429, r = .3.]. Conclusions: Lack of replicability of the age effect of HFO may be due to the local propagation patterns of age-related HFO 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 artefacts must be considered.