CORRELATION DIMENSION OF EEG SLOW-WAVE ACTIVITY DURING SLEEP IN CHILDREN AND YOUNG-ADULTS

In a recent work, the calculation of the correlation dimension (CD) of the profiles of EEG slow-wave activity during sleep in 7 young subjec ts, allowed us to conclude that sleep-regulation might be considered a deterministic non-linear process with an average dimension above 3. I n this paper we report the results of the calculation of the CD of EEG slow-wave activity in 20 normal subjects (children and young adults) who slept in the laboratory for 3 consecutive nights. The results conf irm that it is possible to calculate the CD in most normal profiles (3 3 out of 40) and to discriminate between chaos and noise. The lower li mit of CD was found as ranging between approximately 2.5 and 4.5, it d id not show significant changes across consecutive nights in the same subject and did not seem to change significantly with age in children and young adults. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ireland Ltd.