A Sleep Spindle Detection Algorithm That Emulates Human Expert Spindle Scoring

Overview

Journal J Neurosci Methods

Specialty Neurology

Date 2018 Aug 15

PMID 30107208

Citations 25

Authors

Karine Lacourse

Jacques Delfrate

Julien Beaudry

Paul Peppard

Simon C Warby

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Background: Sleep spindles are a marker of stage 2 NREM sleep that are linked to learning & memory and are altered by many neurological diseases. Although visual inspection of the EEG is considered the gold standard for spindle detection, it is time-consuming, costly and can introduce inter/ra-scorer bias.

New Method: Our goal was to develop a simple and efficient sleep-spindle detector (algorithm #7, or 'A7') that emulates human scoring. 'A7' runs on a single EEG channel and relies on four parameters: the absolute sigma power, relative sigma power, and correlation/covariance of the sigma band-passed signal to the original EEG signal. To test the performance of the detector, we compared it against a gold standard spindle dataset derived from the consensus of a group of human experts.

Results: The by-event performance of the 'A7' spindle detector was 74% precision, 68% recall (sensitivity), and an F1-score of 0.70. This performance was equivalent to an individual human expert (average F1-score = 0.67).

Comparison With Existing Method(s): The F1-score of 'A7' was 0.17 points higher than other spindle detectors tested. Existing detectors have a tendency to find large numbers of false positives compared to human scorers. On a by-subject basis, the spindle density estimates produced by A7 were well correlated with human experts (r = 0.82) compared to the existing detectors (average r = 0.27).

Conclusions: The 'A7' detector is a sensitive and precise tool designed to emulate human spindle scoring by minimizing the number of 'hidden spindles' detected. We provide an open-source implementation of this detector for further use and testing.

Citing Articles

Pupil size reveals arousal level fluctuations in human sleep.

Carro-Dominguez M, Huwiler S, Oberlin S, Oesch T, Badii G, Luthi A Nat Commun. 2025; 16(1):2070.

PMID: 40021662 PMC: 11871316. DOI: 10.1038/s41467-025-57289-5.

Abnormal power and spindle wave activity during sleep in young smokers.

Dong Y, Cheng Y, Wang J, Ren Z, Lu Y, Yuan K Front Neurosci. 2025; 19:1534758.

PMID: 40008299 PMC: 11850383. DOI: 10.3389/fnins.2025.1534758.

Detection and location of EEG events using deep learning visual inspection.

Fraiwan M PLoS One. 2024; 19(12):e0312763.

PMID: 39715265 PMC: 11666049. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0312763.

Intraoperative Sleep Spindle Activity and Postoperative Sleep Disturbance in Elderly Patients Undergoing Orthopedic Surgery: A Prospective Cohort Study.

Dai Y, Shi K, Liu Q, Shen C, Lu X, Qiu X Nat Sci Sleep. 2024; 16:2083-2097.

PMID: 39712881 PMC: 11662682. DOI: 10.2147/NSS.S486625.

Semi automatic quantification of REM sleep without atonia in natural sleep environment.

Possti D, Oz S, Gerston A, Wasserman D, Duncan I, Cesari M NPJ Digit Med. 2024; 7(1):341.

PMID: 39609533 PMC: 11605064. DOI: 10.1038/s41746-024-01354-8.

References

Tan X, Campbell I, Feinberg I . Internight reliability and benchmark values for computer analyses of non-rapid eye movement (NREM) and REM EEG in normal young adult and elderly subjects. Clin Neurophysiol. 2001; 112(8):1540-52. DOI: 10.1016/s1388-2457(01)00570-3. View

Molle M, Marshall L, Gais S, Born J . Grouping of spindle activity during slow oscillations in human non-rapid eye movement sleep. J Neurosci. 2002; 22(24):10941-7. PMC: 6758415. View

De Gennaro L, Ferrara M . Sleep spindles: an overview. Sleep Med Rev. 2003; 7(5):423-40. DOI: 10.1053/smrv.2002.0252. View

Danker-Hopfe H, Kunz D, Gruber G, Klosch G, Lorenzo J, Himanen S . Interrater reliability between scorers from eight European sleep laboratories in subjects with different sleep disorders. J Sleep Res. 2004; 13(1):63-9. DOI: 10.1046/j.1365-2869.2003.00375.x. View

Miano S, Bruni O, Leuzzi V, Elia M, Verrillo E, Ferri R . Sleep polygraphy in Angelman syndrome. Clin Neurophysiol. 2004; 115(4):938-45. DOI: 10.1016/j.clinph.2003.11.004. View

Petit D, Gagnon J, Fantini M, Ferini-Strambi L, Montplaisir J . Sleep and quantitative EEG in neurodegenerative disorders. J Psychosom Res. 2004; 56(5):487-96. DOI: 10.1016/j.jpsychores.2004.02.001. View

Tani P, Lindberg N, Nieminen-von Wendt T, von Wendt L, Virkkala J, Appelberg B . Sleep in young adults with Asperger syndrome. Neuropsychobiology. 2004; 50(2):147-52. DOI: 10.1159/000079106. View

Limoges E, Mottron L, Bolduc C, Berthiaume C, Godbout R . Atypical sleep architecture and the autism phenotype. Brain. 2005; 128(Pt 5):1049-61. DOI: 10.1093/brain/awh425. View

Ferrarelli F, Huber R, Peterson M, Massimini M, Murphy M, Riedner B . Reduced sleep spindle activity in schizophrenia patients. Am J Psychiatry. 2007; 164(3):483-92. DOI: 10.1176/ajp.2007.164.3.483. View

10.

Huupponen E, Gomez-Herrero G, Saastamoinen A, Varri A, Hasan J, Himanen S . Development and comparison of four sleep spindle detection methods. Artif Intell Med. 2007; 40(3):157-70. DOI: 10.1016/j.artmed.2007.04.003. View

11.

Silber M, Ancoli-Israel S, Bonnet M, Chokroverty S, Grigg-Damberger M, Hirshkowitz M . The visual scoring of sleep in adults. J Clin Sleep Med. 2007; 3(2):121-31. View

12.

Bastien C, St-Jean G, Turcotte I, Morin C, Lavallee M, Carrier J . Sleep spindles in chronic psychophysiological insomnia. J Psychosom Res. 2008; 66(1):59-65. DOI: 10.1016/j.jpsychores.2008.05.013. View

13.

Walker M . The role of sleep in cognition and emotion. Ann N Y Acad Sci. 2009; 1156:168-97. DOI: 10.1111/j.1749-6632.2009.04416.x. View

14.

Diekelmann S, Born J . The memory function of sleep. Nat Rev Neurosci. 2010; 11(2):114-26. DOI: 10.1038/nrn2762. View

15.

Fogel S, Smith C . The function of the sleep spindle: a physiological index of intelligence and a mechanism for sleep-dependent memory consolidation. Neurosci Biobehav Rev. 2010; 35(5):1154-65. DOI: 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2010.12.003. View

16.

Wamsley E, Tucker M, Shinn A, Ono K, McKinley S, Ely A . Reduced sleep spindles and spindle coherence in schizophrenia: mechanisms of impaired memory consolidation?. Biol Psychiatry. 2011; 71(2):154-61. PMC: 3561714. DOI: 10.1016/j.biopsych.2011.08.008. View

17.

Martin N, Lafortune M, Godbout J, Barakat M, Robillard R, Poirier G . Topography of age-related changes in sleep spindles. Neurobiol Aging. 2012; 34(2):468-76. DOI: 10.1016/j.neurobiolaging.2012.05.020. View

18.

Peppard P, Young T, Barnet J, Palta M, Hagen E, Hla K . Increased prevalence of sleep-disordered breathing in adults. Am J Epidemiol. 2013; 177(9):1006-14. PMC: 3639722. DOI: 10.1093/aje/kws342. View

19.

Christensen J, Kempfner J, Zoetmulder M, Leonthin H, Arvastson L, Christensen S . Decreased sleep spindle density in patients with idiopathic REM sleep behavior disorder and patients with Parkinson's disease. Clin Neurophysiol. 2013; 125(3):512-9. DOI: 10.1016/j.clinph.2013.08.013. View

20.

Warby S, Wendt S, Welinder P, Munk E, Carrillo O, Sorensen H . Sleep-spindle detection: crowdsourcing and evaluating performance of experts, non-experts and automated methods. Nat Methods. 2014; 11(4):385-92. PMC: 3972193. DOI: 10.1038/nmeth.2855. View