Preserved sleep microstructure in blind individuals

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 -