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Abstract:
Sleep spindles are thalamocortical oscillations in nonrapid eye movement
sleep, which play an important role in sleep-related neuroplasticity and
offline information processing. Sleep spindle features are stable within
and vary between individuals, with, for example, females having a higher
number of spindles and higher spindle density than males. Sleep spindles
have been associated with learning potential and intelligence; however,
the details of this relationship have not been fully clarified yet. In a
sample of 160 adult human subjects with a broad IQ range, we
investigated the relationship between sleep spindle parameters and
intelligence. In females, we found a positive age-corrected association
between intelligence and fast sleep spindle amplitude in central and
frontal derivations and a positive association between intelligence and
slow sleep spindle duration in all except one derivation. In males, a
negative association between intelligence and fast spindle density in
posterior regions was found. Effects were continuous over the entire IQ
range. Our results demonstrate that, although there is an association
between sleep spindle parameters and intellectual performance, these
effects are more modest than previously reported and mainly present in
females. This supports the view that intelligence does not rely on a
single neural framework, and stronger neural connectivity manifesting in
increased thalamocortical oscillations in sleep is one particular
mechanism typical for females but not males.
