Abstract
Infants of alcoholic mothers showed prominent EEG hypersynchrony in all three stages
of sleep: in quiet sleep, indeterminate sleep and active-REM sleep. Spectral analysis
of the EEG using fast Fourier transform revealed significant increase in power in
most frequency bands in all three stages of sleep in infants born to alcoholic mothers
when compared with normal healthy infants matched for gestational age. In quiet sleep
“alcoholic” infants differed from healthy babies by significantly higher power in
a wide range of frequency bands (1.5—17.5 Hz) with an average 143 % increase of the
integrated EEG (1.5—25 Hz). In indeterminate sleep “alcoholic” infants showed significantly
higher power in all analyzed frequency bands (0.1—25 Hz) with an average 196% increase
of the integrated EEG (1.5—25 Hz). In active-REM sleep infants of alcoholic mothers
showed significantly higher power in the frequency range from 0.1 to 17.5 Hz in comparison
with healthy controls. The average increase of the integrated EEG (1.5—25 Hz) was
200 %. All healthy term infants showed significantly higher power in most frequency
bands during quiet sleep in comparison with active-REM sleep. In infants born to alcoholic
mothers this quiet sleep — REM sleep frequency spectrum difference in the majority
of cases was nonsignificant mainly due to high values of the EEG power during REM
sleep. It is unlikely that the EEG hypersynchrony in infants of alcoholic mothers
represents one of the symptoms of the neonatal alcohol-withdrawal syndrome since hypersynchrony
has been detected as long as 6 weeks after birth. During this time any withdrawal
symptoms would have been dissipated.
Keyword
“Alcoholic” infants - sleep - EEG power spectra
