TY - JOUR
T1 - Preserved sleep microstructure in blind individuals
AU - Aubin, Sébrina
AU - Christensen, Julie A.E.
AU - Jennum, Poul
AU - Nielsen, Tore
AU - Kupers, Ron
AU - Ptito, Maurice
PY - 2018/2
Y1 - 2018/2
N2 - The loss of vision, particularly when it occurs early in life, is associated with compensatory cortical plasticity not only in the visual cortical areas, but throughout the entire brain. The absence of visual input to the retina can also induce changes in entrainment of the circadian rhythm, as light is the primary zeitgeber of the master biological clock found in the suprachiasmatic nucleus of the hypothalamus. In addition, a greater number of sleep disturbances is often reported in blind individuals. Here, we examined various electroencephalographic microstructural components of sleep, both during rapid-eye-movement (REM) sleep and non-REM (NREM) sleep, between blind individuals, including both of early and late onset, and normal-sighted controls. During wakefulness, occipital alpha oscillations were lower, or absent in blind individuals. During sleep, differences were observed across electrode derivations between the early and late blind samples, which may reflect altered cortical networking in early blindness. Despite these differences in power spectra density, the electroencephalography microstructure of sleep, including sleep spindles, slow wave activity, and sawtooth waves, remained present in the absence of vision.
AB - The loss of vision, particularly when it occurs early in life, is associated with compensatory cortical plasticity not only in the visual cortical areas, but throughout the entire brain. The absence of visual input to the retina can also induce changes in entrainment of the circadian rhythm, as light is the primary zeitgeber of the master biological clock found in the suprachiasmatic nucleus of the hypothalamus. In addition, a greater number of sleep disturbances is often reported in blind individuals. Here, we examined various electroencephalographic microstructural components of sleep, both during rapid-eye-movement (REM) sleep and non-REM (NREM) sleep, between blind individuals, including both of early and late onset, and normal-sighted controls. During wakefulness, occipital alpha oscillations were lower, or absent in blind individuals. During sleep, differences were observed across electrode derivations between the early and late blind samples, which may reflect altered cortical networking in early blindness. Despite these differences in power spectra density, the electroencephalography microstructure of sleep, including sleep spindles, slow wave activity, and sawtooth waves, remained present in the absence of vision.
KW - Alpha oscillation
KW - Blindness
KW - Sawtooth waves
KW - Sleep spindles
KW - Slow waves
KW - Spectral power
U2 - 10.1016/j.sleep.2017.11.1135
DO - 10.1016/j.sleep.2017.11.1135
M3 - Journal article
C2 - 29458742
AN - SCOPUS:85041457671
SN - 1389-9457
VL - 42
SP - 21
EP - 30
JO - Sleep Medicine
JF - Sleep Medicine
ER -