Association between waking electroencephalography and cognitive event-related potentials in patients with obstructive sleep apnea

Abstract

Objective: Abnormal event-related potentials (ERP) and slowing of the waking electroencephalographic (EEG) activity have been reported in patients with obstructive sleep apneas (OSA). This study aimed at evaluating whether an association exists between the severity of ERP abnormalities and EEG slowing in order to better understand cerebral dysfunction in OSA. Methods: Twelve OSA patients and 12 age-matched controls underwent an overnight polysomnographic recording, an EEG recording of 10 minutes of wakefulness and an auditory ERP protocol known to specifically measure attention. Amplitude and latency of each ERP component were measured as well as the spectral power in each frequency band of the waking EEG. Pearson’s correlations were used to measure associations between ERP characteristics and EEG spectral power in OSA patients and control subjects. Results: A positive correlation between the late P300 amplitude and theta power in occipital region was observed in OSA subjects (p<0.01). A positive correlation was also found between P3a amplitude and beta 1 power in central region in OSA subjects (p<0.01). No correlation was observed for control subjects. Conclusions: ERP abnormalities observed in an attention task are associated with a slowing of the waking EEG recorded at rest in OSA.