Silvia Ortiz-Mantilla | Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey (original) (raw)

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Papers by Silvia Ortiz-Mantilla

Sleep and circadian rhythms are thought to play an integral role in infant brain development. Var... more Sleep and circadian rhythms are thought to play an integral role in infant brain development. Variability in sleep patterns may serve as early biomarkers for several neurodevelopmental disorders. Two promising potential predictors are the spectral microstructure components of spindles and slow waves. These components have been proposed as electrophysiological measures of brain maturation, and have been linked to cognitive measures in school-aged children, adolescents, and adults. Sleep spindles emerge between four and nine weeks post-term, reach peak duration at 13 weeks, and peak density between three and six months. The present study aims to characterize the microstructure of non-REM daytime sleep, including slow wave and spindle neurophysiology and topography, using both cross-sectional and longitudinal groups of typically developing infants at 3.5 and 6.5 months. A total of 39 sleep sessions have been collected to date and dEEG data (128 channels) analyzed using Matlab toolboxes...

Journal of Visualized Experiments, 2015

Rapid auditory processing and acoustic change detection abilities play a critical role in allowin... more Rapid auditory processing and acoustic change detection abilities play a critical role in allowing human infants to efficiently process the fine spectral and temporal changes that are characteristic of human language. These abilities lay the foundation for effective language acquisition; allowing infants to hone in on the sounds of their native language. Invasive procedures in animals and scalp-recorded potentials from human adults suggest that simultaneous, rhythmic activity (oscillations) between and within brain regions are fundamental to sensory development; determining the resolution with which incoming stimuli are parsed. At this time, little is known about oscillatory dynamics in human infant development. However, animal neurophysiology and adult EEG data provide the basis for a strong hypothesis that rapid auditory processing in infants is mediated by oscillatory synchrony in discrete frequency bands. In order to investigate this, 128-channel, high-density EEG responses of 4-month old infants to frequency change in tone pairs, presented in two rate conditions (Rapid: 70 msec ISI and Control: 300 msec ISI) were examined. To determine the frequency band and magnitude of activity, auditory evoked response averages were first co-registered with age-appropriate brain templates. Next, the principal components of the response were identified and localized using a two-dipole model of brain activity. Single-trial analysis of oscillatory power showed a robust index of frequency change processing in bursts of Theta band (3 - 8 Hz) activity in both right and left auditory cortices, with left activation more prominent in the Rapid condition. These methods have produced data that are not only some of the first reported evoked oscillations analyses in infants, but are also, importantly, the product of a well-established method of recording and analyzing clean, meticulously collected, infant EEG and ERPs. In this article, we describe our method for infant EEG net application, recording, dynamic brain response analysis, and representative results.

Journal of Neuroscience, 2013

Developmental Psychobiology, 2008

Developmental Medicine & Child Neurology, 2013

Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 2012

Alzheimer's & Dementia, 2010