Clinical Study attributes
This study will investigate the spatio-temporal characteristics of brain activity during sleep. Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies have shown that in the absence of external stimuli, the brain continues to show spatial patterns of activity that resemble those during sensory and cognitive tasks. This phenomenon greatly affects the interpretation of neuroimaging studies based on positive emission tomography (PET) and fMRI, which rely on the contrast between brain activity during a task and activity during rest. In addition, resting state activity in itself may reveal information on the large-scale organization of neuronal networks and on functional abnormalities related to disease. Participants should represent a broad cross section of the healthy adult population. Any neurologically and psychiatrically healthy male or nonpregnant female between 18 and 65 years old may be eligible. Studies will be conducted in the In Vivo NMR Research Center. Concurrent electroencephalogram (EEG) and MRI studies will last between 1 and 2 hours. A typical study involves 15 minutes of anatomical MRI scanning followed by a 60-minute functional scan during which the subject relaxes with eyes closed and is encouraged to sleep while the fMRI/EEG are performed. Participants may be scanned 1 to 20 times. No more than 1 scan will be performed per day and no more than 20 scans will be performed within a year. During the last 5 to 10 minutes of the scan, the participant will open his or her eyes and actively participate in a visual stimulation or attention task. The participant's alertness will be measured by a behavioral (button-press) response. The visual stimuli (contrast reversing checkerboard displays, alternated with uniform grey fields) will be presented using the standard projection system available with the MRI scanner. The attention task will involve repeated visual presentation of groups of letters and digits; the participant will be asked about the correspondence between these groups. Magnetoencephalogram (MEG) scans will be performed on some participants. The precise and undistorted signals available with MEG will be used to enhance the interpretation of alertness and sleep-related characteristics of the EEG signals, which can vary quite dramatically across subjects. In addition, the MEG signals will provide preliminary spatial localization of the sleep-dependent changes more precisely than is possible with EEG. MRI scanner noise will be simulated using tape recordings to allow comparison with the MRI/EEG data. MEG scans will last 45 minutes to 2 hours. At all times during any of the brain scans the participant will be able to communicate the MRI scientist or MEG/EEG technician and can ask to be removed from the device at any time. The study will not have a direct benefit for participants. It may be help us learn more about brain function, which may lead to better treatments.
