SLEEP 2011 Abstract Supplement
SLEEP 2011 Abstract Supplement
SLEEP 2011 Abstract Supplement
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A. Basic Science IX. Learning, Memory and Cognition<br />
0248<br />
POSITIVE AIRWAY PRESSURE EFFECTS ON PERCEPTUAL<br />
SKILL LEARNING IN PATIENTS WITH <strong>SLEEP</strong> APNEA<br />
Hart CP 1 , Roth HL 1 , Sanders DJ 1 , Vaughn B 1 , Stickgold R 2<br />
1<br />
Neurology, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC, USA,<br />
2<br />
Center for Sleep and Cognition, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical<br />
Center, Boston, MA, USA<br />
Introduction: The purpose of this study was to learn whether PAP therapy<br />
improves perceptual learning in patients with sleep apnea. Sleep<br />
may facilitate brain plasticity and result in memory consolidation, a phenomenon<br />
that has been called sleep dependent learning. Most sleep dependent<br />
learning research has been done in young normal subjects, and<br />
little is known about how sleep dependent learning might be affected by<br />
sleep disorders, including sleep apnea.<br />
Methods: 18 subjects undergoing clinical polysomnogram tests (age<br />
range 21-53) were given a visual texture discrimination task (VDT)<br />
(Karni & Sagi, 1991) before and after sleep. In this task subjects are<br />
shown peripheral targets made of contiguous diagonal bars that differ in<br />
orientation from a background of jittered horizontal bars. Subjects view<br />
the display for 17 ms which is then replaced with a mask containing<br />
randomly oriented patterns. The subject’s ability to perceive the orientation<br />
of the peripheral target is measured at different stimulus and mask<br />
intervals to obtain a threshold of perception for each testing session.<br />
Results: Subjects included 13 patients undergoing diagnostic polysomnograms<br />
and 5 patients who underwent PAP titration. Eight of the 13<br />
subjects undergoing diagnostic polysomnograms had apnea and the remainder<br />
were being tested for other sleep complaints. Subjects who underwent<br />
PAP titration had improved perceptual detection of the targets<br />
after sleep, compared to subjects who were not treated with PAP therapy<br />
(p = .019). When the apnea patients given PAP therapy were compared<br />
to just the 8 apnea patients without therapy, those on PAP therapy improved<br />
after sleep, whereas those without PAP did not (p=.037). Total<br />
sleep time and sleep efficiency were similar for patients with apnea with<br />
and without therapy, and those who did not have apnea.<br />
Conclusion: These results suggest that treatment of sleep apnea may<br />
result in improved perceptual skill learning in patients with sleep apnea.<br />
Support (If Any): The North Carolina Translational and Clinical Sciences<br />
Institute (NC TraCS)<br />
0249<br />
POLYSOMNOGRAPHIC EFFECTS OF COGNITIVE<br />
WORKLOAD ON <strong>SLEEP</strong><br />
Di Antonio A, Goel N, Dinges DF<br />
Division of Sleep and Chronobiology, Department of Psychiatry,<br />
University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, Philadelphia, PA, USA<br />
Introduction: Sleep physiology reflects the interaction of homeostatic<br />
and circadian processes, but aspects of sleep may also reflect plastic processes<br />
(e.g., learning and memory) occurring during wakefulness. We<br />
sought to determine the effects of high (HW) versus low (LW) cognitive<br />
workload on PSG measures following sleep restriction (SR) and no<br />
sleep restriction (NSR).<br />
Methods: In a laboratory experiment underway, N=49 healthy adults<br />
(33.4±8.7y;22f) had 3 baseline nights (8h TIB) followed by 5 SR (4h<br />
TIB) or 5 NSR (8h TIB) nights. Subjects were randomized to 1 of 4 conditions:<br />
HW+SR (N=20); HW+NSR (N=13); LW+SR (N=8); LW+NSR<br />
(N=8). The HW vs. LW conditions differed in the duration of cognitive<br />
testing throughout each day (LW=½HW). PSG was recorded on<br />
baseline night 3 (B3) and experimental night 5 (SR5, NSR5). Sleep was<br />
scored blind to condition. One-way and mixed-model (night×condition)<br />
ANOVAs compared differences among conditions; paired t-tests compared<br />
B3 to SR5/NSR5 within each group.<br />
Results: B3 sleep outcomes did not differ across conditions. The<br />
HW+NSR group, but not the LW+NSR group, showed an increase in<br />
SOL (p=0.005) from B3 to NSR5. Across days, the HW+NSR group<br />
showed less S2 %TST (p=0.026) than the LW+NSR group. Stage 2<br />
latency decreased with SR (p=0.006), especially in the LW+SR group<br />
(p=0.02). The HW+SR and LW+SR groups showed significant, but<br />
not differential, increases in SE and SWS%TST, and decreases in TST,<br />
SOL, WASO, Stage 1 and 2%TST, and REM duration from B3 to SR5<br />
(all p