Abstract
In both humans and dogs sleep spindle occurrence between acquisition and recall of a specific memory correlate with learning performance. However, it is not known whether sleep spindle characteristics are also linked to performance beyond the span of a day, except in regard to general mental ability in humans. Such a relationship is likely, as both memory and spindle expression decline with age in both species (in dogs specifically the density and amplitude of slow spindles). We investigated if spindle amplitude, density (spindles/minute) and/or frequency (waves/second) correlate with performance on a short-term memory and a reversal-learning task in old dogs (> 7 years), when measurements of behavior and EEG were on average a month apart. Higher frequencies of fast (≥ 13 Hz) spindles on the frontal and central midline electrodes, and of slow spindles (≤ 13 Hz) on the central midline electrode were linked to worse performance on a reversal-learning task. The present findings suggest a role for spindle frequency as a biomarker of cognitive aging across species: Changes in spindle frequency are associated with dementia risk and onset in humans and declining learning performance in the dog.
Highlights
In both humans and dogs sleep spindle occurrence between acquisition and recall of a specific memory correlate with learning performance
In the reversal-learning test, for animals which started in the physical characteristics condition there was a negative correlation between the difference scores for trials needed to criterion and fast spindle frequency on Fz (r = −0.651, P = 0.012, Fig. 3A)
Increases in fast spindle frequency over Fz and Cz, as well as slow spindle frequency over Cz correlated with worse performance on the reversal-learning task for dogs which began in the physical characteristics condition
Summary
In both humans and dogs sleep spindle occurrence between acquisition and recall of a specific memory correlate with learning performance It is not known whether sleep spindle characteristics are linked to performance beyond the span of a day, except in regard to general mental ability in humans. Such a relationship is likely, as both memory and spindle expression decline with age in both species (in dogs the density and amplitude of slow spindles). A third common line of research has revealed associations between changes in spindle
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