Analysis of slow waves in the cerebral cortex during aging

Abstract

Slow oscillations, which are the default mode of the cortex and the main oscillation in slow-wave sleep, may be affected by aging. In this project, aging effect on the properties of the cortical slow oscillation is studied in 3, 7, 15 and 20 months of age sedated mice with Slowpy, a specialized pipeline for slow oscillations. Results show that aging affects the duration of Ups and Downs, as they slightly decrease with age, as well as the is an increase of the firing rate of the Up states with age. These effects can be explained by several biological and physiological reasons, such as changes in neuronal excitability and network connectivity. However, the effects of aging in functional connectivity remain unclear with this project, as this relationship has not been directly addressed in this study.