The Neurophysiological Effect of Acoustic Stimulation with Real-time Sleep Spindle Detection

Sleep spindle is a salient brain activity found in the sigma frequency range (11-16 Hz) during sleep stage 2. It has been demonstrated that sleep spindle is related to memory consolidation, neurodegenerative disease, and mental disorders. Slow wave activity (0.5-4 Hz) is the most prominent EEG activity during sleep and appears as a large, spontaneous synchronization of cortical neurons. The role of slow wave activity has been proposed to regulate synaptic strength and memory consolidation. Many studies have investigated the effect of acoustic stimuli during the sleep slow wave. However, there have been few studies which investigated an effect of acoustic stimulation during sleep spindle activity. In this study, we examined the neurophysiological effect of acoustic stimulation during sleep spindle activity. We delivered pink noise after the detection of sleep spindle, and surmised that acoustic stimulation after sleep spindle detection may preserve delta activity during ongoing sleep. Further, we observed suppression of the sleep spindle activity around the times of acoustic stimulation and evoked slow wave activity and theta band activity immediately after tone onset.