Cornelissen, LauraKim, Seong-EunPurdon, PatrickBrown, EmeryBerde, Charles2017-04-252015Cornelissen, Laura, Seong-Eun Kim, Patrick L Purdon, Emery N Brown, and Charles B Berde. 2015. “Age-Dependent Electroencephalogram (EEG) Patterns During Sevoflurane General Anesthesia in Infants.” eLife 4 (June 23). CLOCKSS. doi:10.7554/elife.06513.2050-084Xhttp://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:32416095Electroencephalogram (EEG) approaches may provide important information about developmental changes in brain-state dynamics during general anesthesia. We used multi-electrode EEG, analyzed with multitaper spectral methods and video recording of body movement to characterize the spatio-temporal dynamics of brain activity in 36 infants 0-6 months old when awake, and during maintenance of and emergence from sevoflurane general anesthesia. During maintenance: (1) slow-delta oscillations were present in all ages; (2) theta and alpha oscillations emerged around 4 months; (3) unlike adults, all infants lacked frontal alpha predominance and coherence. Alpha power was greatest during maintenance, compared to awake and emergence in infants at 4-6 months. During emergence, theta and alpha power decreased with decreasing sevoflurane concentration in infants at 4-6 months. These EEG dynamic differences are likely due to developmental factors including regional differences in synaptogenesis, glucose metabolism, and myelination across the cortex. We demonstrate the need to apply age-adjusted analytic approaches to develop neurophysiologic-based strategies for pediatric anesthetic state monitoring.en-USJournal Article2017-03-0320152017-04-2510.7554/elife.06513