Shifts in broadband power and alpha peak frequency observed during long-term isolation

Prolonged periods of social isolation and spatial confinement do not only represent an issue that needs to be faced by a few astronauts during space missions, but can affect all of us as recently shown during pandemic situations. The fundamental question, how the brain adapts to periods of sensory d...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Weber, Jan, Klein, Timo, Abeln, Vera
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Nature Publishing Group UK 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7581825/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33093553
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-75127-0
_version_ 1783599056491118592
author Weber, Jan
Klein, Timo
Abeln, Vera
author_facet Weber, Jan
Klein, Timo
Abeln, Vera
author_sort Weber, Jan
collection PubMed
description Prolonged periods of social isolation and spatial confinement do not only represent an issue that needs to be faced by a few astronauts during space missions, but can affect all of us as recently shown during pandemic situations. The fundamental question, how the brain adapts to periods of sensory deprivation and re-adapts to normality, has only received little attention. Here, we use eyes closed and eyes open resting-state electroencephalographic (EEG) recordings to investigate how neural activity is altered during 120 days of isolation in a spatially confined, space-analogue environment. After disentangling oscillatory patterns from 1/f activity, we show that isolation leads to a reduction in broadband power and a flattening of the 1/f spectral slope. Beyond that, we observed a reduction in alpha peak frequency during isolation, but did not find strong evidence for isolation-induced changes that are of oscillatory nature. Critically, all effects reversed upon release from isolation. These findings suggest that isolation and concomitant sensory deprivation lead to an enhanced cortical deactivation which might be explained by a reduction in the mean neuronal population firing rate.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-7581825
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2020
publisher Nature Publishing Group UK
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-75818252020-10-23 Shifts in broadband power and alpha peak frequency observed during long-term isolation Weber, Jan Klein, Timo Abeln, Vera Sci Rep Article Prolonged periods of social isolation and spatial confinement do not only represent an issue that needs to be faced by a few astronauts during space missions, but can affect all of us as recently shown during pandemic situations. The fundamental question, how the brain adapts to periods of sensory deprivation and re-adapts to normality, has only received little attention. Here, we use eyes closed and eyes open resting-state electroencephalographic (EEG) recordings to investigate how neural activity is altered during 120 days of isolation in a spatially confined, space-analogue environment. After disentangling oscillatory patterns from 1/f activity, we show that isolation leads to a reduction in broadband power and a flattening of the 1/f spectral slope. Beyond that, we observed a reduction in alpha peak frequency during isolation, but did not find strong evidence for isolation-induced changes that are of oscillatory nature. Critically, all effects reversed upon release from isolation. These findings suggest that isolation and concomitant sensory deprivation lead to an enhanced cortical deactivation which might be explained by a reduction in the mean neuronal population firing rate. Nature Publishing Group UK 2020-10-22 /pmc/articles/PMC7581825/ /pubmed/33093553 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-75127-0 Text en © The Author(s) 2020 Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
spellingShingle Article
Weber, Jan
Klein, Timo
Abeln, Vera
Shifts in broadband power and alpha peak frequency observed during long-term isolation
title Shifts in broadband power and alpha peak frequency observed during long-term isolation
title_full Shifts in broadband power and alpha peak frequency observed during long-term isolation
title_fullStr Shifts in broadband power and alpha peak frequency observed during long-term isolation
title_full_unstemmed Shifts in broadband power and alpha peak frequency observed during long-term isolation
title_short Shifts in broadband power and alpha peak frequency observed during long-term isolation
title_sort shifts in broadband power and alpha peak frequency observed during long-term isolation
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7581825/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33093553
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-75127-0
work_keys_str_mv AT weberjan shiftsinbroadbandpowerandalphapeakfrequencyobservedduringlongtermisolation
AT kleintimo shiftsinbroadbandpowerandalphapeakfrequencyobservedduringlongtermisolation
AT abelnvera shiftsinbroadbandpowerandalphapeakfrequencyobservedduringlongtermisolation