Microsleeps are Associated with Stage-2 Sleep Spindles from Hippocampal-Temporal Network

• Published in: International journal of neural systems Vol. 26; no. 4; p. 1650015
• Main Authors: Jonmohamadi, Yaqub, Poudel, Govinda R, Innes, Carrie C R H, Jones, Richard D
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Singapore 01.06.2016
• Subjects: Adult; Alpha Rhythm - physiology; Electroencephalography; Fingers - physiology; Hippocampus - physiology; Humans; Male; Neural Pathways - physiology; Neuropsychological Tests; Psychomotor Performance - physiology; Signal Processing, Computer-Assisted; Sleep - physiology; Sleep Wake Disorders - physiopathology; Temporal Lobe - physiology; Theta Rhythm - physiology; Time Factors; Visual Perception - physiology; localization; sleep spindles; hippocampi; EEG; ICA; Beamformer; temporal lobes; microsleeps
• DOI: 10.1142/S0129065716500155
• ISSN: 0129-0657

Behavioral microsleeps are associated with complete disruption of responsiveness for [Formula: see text][Formula: see text]s to 15[Formula: see text]s. They can result in injury or death, especially in transport and military sectors. In this study, EEGs were obtained from five nonsleep-deprived healthy male subjects performing a 1[Formula: see text]h 2D tracking task. Microsleeps were detected in all subjects. Microsleep-related activities in the EEG were detected, characterized, separated from eye closure-related activity, and, via source-space-independent component analysis and power analysis, the associated sources were localized in the brain. Microsleeps were often, but not always, found to be associated with strong alpha-band spindles originating bilaterally from the anterior temporal gyri and hippocampi. Similarly, theta-related activity was identified as originating bilaterally from the frontal-orbital cortex. The alpha spindles were similar to sleep spindles in terms of frequency, duration, and amplitude-profile, indicating that microsleeps are equivalent to brief instances of Stage-2 sleep.