Temporal Slowing in the Elderly Revisited

ABSTRACT.

The waking EEGs of 50 healthy elderly (60 years or greater) subjects, without evidence of neurologic or psychiatric disorders, were reviewed. Intermittent temporal slowing was present in 18 (36%). Theta activity (≥1 sec in duration) was present in all 18, while only 6 subjects (12%) also had delta activity which occurred as single or double waveforms. Delta activity did not exceed 0.6% of the recording time. In all subjects but 1, delta and theta activity combined did not exceed 1.8%. Temporal slowing was maximal on the left in 72% of subjects with slowing.

Of the various montages employed (longitudinal bipolar, refer-ential-ipsilateral ear, transverse bipolar and referential-vertex), a transverse bipolar montage most often revealed temporal slowing. The alpha frequency of subjects with or without temporal slowing was 9.7 Hz.

KEY WORDS::

• Healthy elderly
• temporal slowing
• waking EEGs