Research

What are the functions of sleep? How can we maintain stable cognitive performance during an entire day? How come we are still able to perform cognitive tasks when we should be sleeping? Why is performance poorer if wakefulness is extended overnight? Why is sleep-wake regulation changing in aging? What is the impact of sleep quality on cognition over the lifetime? What are the brain substrates of sleep disorders? How is light/caffeine affecting alertness and sleep?

 

These are some of the questions the Sleep Research Group is investigating using PET scan, fMRI, MRI, EEG, TMS and combinations of these techniques. Moreover, we have 8 isolated sleep rooms nearby these apparatus to conduct controlled sleep and chronobiology protocols.

 

Over the years, the main research interests have been focused on

  • The role of sleep in memory consolidation sleep vs. sleep deprivation protocols following implicit or explicit encoding of procedural or declarative memory traces
  • The physiology of sleep: assessing  brain activity in different brain states (wake; REM, non-REM sleep) using FDG and 02 PET scanning; investigation of the brain activity associated with sleep slow waves and spindles in fMRI.
  • The impact of light on non-visual cognitive brain activity: brain mechanisms associated with the activating impact of light on non-visual cognitive brain function using fMRI.
  • Circadian rhythmicity in cognition and its interaction with sleep need: changes in brain activity associated with time of day, sleep pressure and circadian timing; repeated fMRI or TMS-EEG assessment of brain activity during normal waking and sleep loss.
  • The genetics of sleep/wake regulation: research in individuals stratified according to known polymorphism affecting sleep/wake regulation such as PERIOD3,  BDNF or ADA
  • Age-related changes in sleep-wake regulation: changes in the impact of light on cognition in aging; changes in the impact of  the interaction between sleep pressure and the circadian clock on brain activity and associated cognitive performance.
updated on 3/25/25

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