Niskayuna GE Research team launches sleep deprivation study

NISKAYUNA — General Electric Research in Niskayuna has teamed with the federal government to launch a sleep study that will examine the effects of sleep deprivation on the human brain.

General Electric (GE) researchers are working alongside a team from Uniformed Services University (USU), the government’s health sciences university, in order to learn more about the connection between sleep, human performance and brain health.

The team is utilizing GE’s experimental brain Microstructure Anatomy Gradient for Neuroimaging with Ultrafast Scanning (MAGNUS) MRI system to visualize the flow of cerebrospinal fluid through the brain’s glymphatic pathway. As part of the study, that process will be conducted non-invasively for the first time.

A total of 75 subjects will be recruited by the university for the study, with a mixture of military personnel and civilians participating.

“There is an increasing body of scientific evidence that places sleep at the intersection of human performance and brain health,” GE Research Senior Principal Scientist Dr. Luca Marinelli said. “We have all heard it before, ‘You have a big test tomorrow, make sure you get a good night’s sleep.’ Human performance research has focused on quantification of sleep with wearable devices and its effect on physical and cognitive performance. Similarly, we are all familiar with the link between sleep disruption and neurological disorders. Disrupted sleep, for example, is an important symptom in concussions and traumatic brain injury. The GE and USU study will expand our knowledge of the neurobiological effects of sleep on physiological processes such as metabolic waste clearance in the brain.”

The study will be conducted at an undisclosed military treatment facility where the MAGNUS MRI system has already been deployed.

The study will include a mixture of good sleepers and sleep-deprived subjects who sleep less than the recommended seven to nine hours for those between the ages of 18-64.

“Sleep is a top priority for the military for maximizing human performance, having widespread impact on cognitive, physical, and immunological domains,” Dr. Kent Werner, who is leading the study for USU, noted in a statement. “This project will open new insights into sleep physiology, which has significant clinical and operational implications, offering opportunities to potentially enhance sleep on the battlefield and improve dysfunctional sleep in the clinic.”

The researchers hope to map and measure a chart of fluid flow in the brain over an entire sleep cycle that cannot be achieved with clinical MRI systems currently.

“In general, we hope to gain a deeper understanding of the impact of sleep deprivation or low sleep quality on human health, and particularly brain health and the potential link to diseases like Alzheimer’s,” Marinelli said. “The use of GE Research’s experimental high performance brain imaging platform, MAGNUS, is critical to enabling unprecedented, non-invasive views inside the brain that will further our understanding of sleep physiology and its link to brain health.”

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