Abstract
BACKGROUND: Neonatal seizures (NS) are the most common form of neurological dysfunction observed in newborns. PURPOSE: The purpose of this study in newborn piglets was to determine the effect of cerebral hypothermia (CH) on neural activity during pharmacologically induced NS. We hypothesized that the neuroprotective effects of CH would preserve higher frequencies observed in electrocorticogram (ECoG) recordings. METHODS: Power spectral density was employed to determine the levels of brain activity in ECoGs to quantitatively assess the power of each frequency observed in neurological brain states of delta, theta, alpha, and beta-gamma frequencies. RESULT: The most significant reduction of power occurs in the lower frequency band of delta-theta-alpha of CH cohorts, while t score probabilities imply that high-frequency brain activity in the beta-gamma range is preserved in the CH population. CONCLUSION: While the overall power density decreases over time in both groups, the decrease is to a lesser degree in the CH population.