title: Apnea-induced rapid eye movement sleep disruption impairs human spatial navigational memory.
abstract: Hippocampal electrophysiology and behavioral evidence support a role for sleep in spatial navigational memory, but the role of particular sleep stages is less clear. Although rodent models suggest the importance of rapid eye movement (REM) sleep in spatial navigational memory, a similar role for REM sleep has never been examined in humans. We recruited subjects with severe obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) who were well treated and adherent with continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP). Restricting CPAP withdrawal to REM through real-time monitoring of the polysomnogram provides a novel way of addressing the role of REM sleep in spatial navigational memory with a physiologically relevant stimulus. Individuals spent two different nights in the laboratory, during which subjects performed timed trials before and after sleep on one of two unique 3D spatial mazes. One night of sleep was normally consolidated with use of therapeutic CPAP throughout, whereas on the other night, CPAP was reduced only in REM sleep, allowing REM OSA to recur. REM disruption via this method caused REM sleep reduction and significantly fragmented any remaining REM sleep without affecting total sleep time, sleep efficiency, or slow-wave sleep. We observed improvements in maze performance after a night of normal sleep that were significantly attenuated after a night of REM disruption without changes in psychomotor vigilance. Furthermore, the improvement in maze completion time significantly positively correlated with the mean REM run duration across both sleep conditions. In conclusion, we demonstrate a novel role for REM sleep in human memory formation and highlight a significant cognitive consequence of OSA.
authors.affiliation: New York University (NYU) Sleep Disorders Center and Center for Neural Science, New York University, New York, New York 10003 andrew.varga@nyumc.org.
authors.forename: Andrew W
authors.initials: AW
authors.lastname: Varga
authors.affiliation: New York University (NYU) Sleep Disorders Center and.
authors.forename: Akifumi
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Kishi
authors.affiliation: New York University (NYU) Sleep Disorders Center and.
authors.forename: Janna
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Mantua
authors.affiliation: New York University (NYU) Sleep Disorders Center and.
authors.forename: Jason
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Lim
authors.affiliation: New York University (NYU) Sleep Disorders Center and.
authors.forename: Viachaslau
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Koushyk
authors.affiliation: New York University (NYU) Sleep Disorders Center and.
authors.forename: David P
authors.initials: DP
authors.lastname: Leibert
authors.affiliation: Center for Brain Health, NYU Langone School of Medicine, NYU, New York, New York 10016, and.
authors.forename: Ricardo S
authors.initials: RS
authors.lastname: Osorio
authors.affiliation: New York University (NYU) Sleep Disorders Center and.
authors.forename: David M
authors.initials: DM
authors.lastname: Rapoport
authors.affiliation: New York University (NYU) Sleep Disorders Center and.
authors.forename: Indu
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Ayappa
mesh_terms: D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008568:Memory / Q000502:physiology*; D008875:Middle Aged; D017286:Polysomnography; D020181:Sleep Apnea, Obstructive / Q000150:complications / Q000503:physiopathology*; D012893:Sleep Wake Disorders / Q000209:etiology / Q000503:physiopathology*; D012895:Sleep, REM / Q000502:physiology*; D065855:Spatial Processing / Q000502:physiology*
keywords: REM sleep; continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP); obstructive sleep apnea; randomized controlled trial; sleep fragmentation; spatial navigational memory