An All-Night Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging Sleep Study With Auditory Stimuli
National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS)
Summary
Background: An electroencephalogram (EEG) measures the brain s electrical activity. EEG shows that the louder the sound needed to wake a person, the deeper the person s sleep. Researchers are using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to study people during sleep so they can view brain activity in 3D. But they still need to correlate fMRI with sound thresholds, like the EEG. Objective: To measure brain activity during sleep using fMRI and EEG. Eligibility: Healthy people ages 18 34 who can sleep on their back for several hours. Design: Participants will be screened online about their sleep and general health. At a screening visit, participants will have: Physical exam Hearing exam MRI scan. A strong magnetic field and radio waves take pictures of the brain. Participants will lie down on a bed that slides into the scanner, which is shaped like a cylinder. Participants will wear an actigraph on their wrist that records their motor activity. Participants will follow a 2-week routine. This includes regular in-to-bed and out-of-bed times and limits on alcohol, caffeine, and nicotine. During the overnight visits, participants will have: Female subjects will have a urine pregnancy test. fMRI. A coil will be placed over the head. Participants will do tasks shown on a computer screen inside the scanner. EEG. Small electrodes on the scalp will record brain waves while sleeping or doing a task in the scanner. Participants will be asked to try to sleep while researchers collect fMRI and EEG data. Participants eyes will be monitored with a video camera. Headphones will deliver sounds to wake them up throughout the night. ...
Description
Objective Electroencephalography is generally considered the gold standard for defining sleep, but, in fact, sleep is a behavior and is defined by widely accepted behavioral characteristics like auditory arousal threshold. Electroencephalography merely became a surrogate for the behavioral definition when, in the first electroencephalographic sleep studies, researchers discovered a strong correlation between electroencephalographic slow waves and auditory arousal thresholds. With the advent of functional magnetic resonance imaging, one would expect the first sleep studies that used this new m…
Eligibility
- Age range
- 18–34 years
- Sex
- All
- Healthy volunteers
- Yes
* INCLUSION CRITERIA: 1. able to give informed consent; 2. in good general heath; 3. between the ages of 18 and 34 years; 4. able to sleep on your back for several hours (with breaks). EXCLUSION CRITERIA: 1. have a medical condition like diabetes or uncontrolled hypertension; 2. have a psychiatric or neurologic condition like depression or stroke; 3. have ever had a seizure; 4. have a sleep disorder like insomnia or sleep apnea; 5. work night shifts; 6. have metal in your body such as pacemakers, metal prostheses, or aneurysm clips that would make MRI scanning unsafe; 7. are pregnan…
Location
- National Institutes of Health Clinical CenterBethesda, Maryland