Effect of temperature on sleep regulation in an animal epilepsy model

Asmaa Ajwad, Farid Yaghouby, Dillon Huffman, Bruce O'Hara, Sridhar Sunderam

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contributionpeer-review

5 Scopus citations

Abstract

Besides recurring seizures, disordered sleep is common in individuals with epilepsy and may present as reduced sleep depth, altered proportions of different stages of sleep, intermittent arousal, and other phenomena. Sleep loss can in turn precipitate seizures, thus sustaining a vicious cycle. It is well known that changes in ambient temperature elicit thermoregulatory responses that alter the dynamics of sleep. As a first step toward therapeutic sleep modulation for epilepsy, we assessed the effect of elevated ambient temperature on sleep dynamics and seizure yield in the chronic pilocarpine mouse model of temporal lobe epilepsy. The results in a small sample indicate that temperature does in fact significantly alter the proportions and durations of each vigilance state in this model, with possibly correlated changes in seizure incidence. Manipulation of ambient temperature therefore offers a simple and relatively unobtrusive way of titrating sleep quality and perhaps alleviating the seizure burden in epilepsy.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publication2016 38th Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society, EMBC 2016
Pages1644-1647
Number of pages4
ISBN (Electronic)9781457702204
DOIs
StatePublished - Oct 13 2016
Event38th Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society, EMBC 2016 - Orlando, United States
Duration: Aug 16 2016Aug 20 2016

Publication series

NameProceedings of the Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society, EMBS
Volume2016-October
ISSN (Print)1557-170X

Conference

Conference38th Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society, EMBC 2016
Country/TerritoryUnited States
CityOrlando
Period8/16/168/20/16

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2016 IEEE.

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Signal Processing
  • Biomedical Engineering
  • Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition
  • Health Informatics

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