AUTHOR=Li Duan , Puglia Mike P. , Lapointe Andrew P. , Ip Ka I , Zierau Mackenzie , McKinney Amy , Vlisides Phillip E. 

TITLE=Age-Related Changes in Cortical Connectivity During Surgical Anesthesia

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience

VOLUME=11

YEAR=2020

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/aging-neuroscience/articles/10.3389/fnagi.2019.00371

DOI=10.3389/fnagi.2019.00371

ISSN=1663-4365

ABSTRACT=<p>An advanced understanding of the neurophysiologic changes that occur with aging may help improve care for older, vulnerable surgical patients. The objective of this study was to determine age-related changes in cortical connectivity patterns during surgical anesthesia. This was a substudy analysis of a prospective, observational study characterizing cortical connectivity during surgical anesthesia in adult patients (<italic>n</italic> = 45) <italic>via</italic> whole-scalp (16-channel) electroencephalography. Functional connectivity was estimated using a weighted phase lag index (wPLI), which was classified into a discrete set of states through k-means analysis. Temporal dynamics were quantified by occurrence rate and state transition probabilities. The mean global connectivity state transition probability [13.4% (±8.1)] was not correlated with age (<italic>ρ</italic> = 0.100, <italic>p</italic> = 0.513). Increasing age was inversely correlated with prefrontal-frontal alpha-beta connectivity (<italic>ρ</italic> = −0.446, <italic>p</italic> = 0.002) and positively correlated with frontal-parietal theta connectivity (<italic>ρ</italic> = 0.414, <italic>p</italic> = 0.005). After adjusting for anesthetic-related confounders, prefrontal-frontal alpha-beta connectivity remained significantly associated with age (<italic>β</italic> = −0.625, 95% CI −0.99 to −0.26; <italic>p</italic> = 0.001), while frontal-parietal theta connectivity was no longer significant (<italic>β</italic> = 0.436, 95% CI −0.03 to 0.90; <italic>p</italic> = 0.066). Specific transition states were also examined. Between frontal-parietal connectivity states, transitioning from theta-alpha to theta-dominated connectivity positively correlated with age (<italic>ρ</italic> = 0.545, <italic>p</italic> = 0.001). Dynamic connectivity states during surgical anesthesia, particularly involving alpha and theta bandwidths, maybe an informative measure to assess neurophysiologic changes that occur with aging.</p>