Comparison of methodologies to detect and evaluate Sharp Wave Ripples: assessed in the hippocampus of rats treated with a chronic dose of alcohol

Abstract

Evidence from several rodent models has revealed that ethanol causes cognitive impairments in hippocampal-dependent activities and that the severity of the damage varies depending on the stage of development at which the rodent was exposed to ethanol and the dose. To the authors’ knowledge, there is a biomarker for cognitive processes in the hippocampus that has not been evaluated in association with memory impairment by alcohol administration. This biomarker is called Sharp Wave Ripples which are synchronous oscillatory events that are well known to be involved in memory consolidation. Examining the effect of alcohol consumption in Sharp Wave Ripples as a biomarker for memory consolidation could provide an opportunity for new treatments to restore and improve cognitive impairment in alcoholism. This thesis focused on analyzing the effect of chronic exposure to alcohol on the occurrence, latency, and peak frequency of Sharp Wave Ripples generated in the hippocampus through Intracranial Electroencephalography signal analysis. In this work, registers from 28 rats were evaluated by implementing and integrating four reported methodologies for ripples identification. A significant difference (p = 0.009) was found in the occurrence of the group that received the alcohol treatment when compared to the before and after state of an evaluation set.