Regional Rates of Cerebral Protein Synthesis: Effects of Sleep and Memory Consolidation
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ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT00884702 |
Recruitment Status
:
Completed
First Posted
: April 21, 2009
Last Update Posted
: October 6, 2017
|
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Background:
- The brain needs sleep to function normally, but the purpose of sleep is not understood. Brain activity decreases during sleep, so it may be that sleep is important to maintain, repair, or reorganize brain cells. In animals, the formation of brain proteins increases during sleep, and the same thing may happen in humans.
- There is also evidence that learning and memory are helped by sleep, and that the synthesis of proteins in the brain are involved.
Objectives:
- To examine the formation of proteins in the brain while people are awake, deprived of sleep, and during sleep.
- To look at the formation of proteins in the brain while awake or asleep and following learning a task.
Eligibility:
- Healthy volunteers between 18 and 28 years of age.
- Volunteers must not have psychiatric, neurologic, or sleep disorders or certain types of vision problems, and must be able to undergo imaging studies.
Design:
- Study Part I (protein formation in waking, sleep deprivation, and sleep):
- Participants will wear an actigraph (a unit to record motor activity) for 2 weeks prior to admission.
- Participants will have physical and psychological examinations, along with a blood sample.
- After admission participants will have three positron emission tomography (PET) scans to study protein formation and one magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scan over the course of two days.
- Participants may be asked to stay awake for as long as 20 hours and will be monitored throughout.
- Participants will be able to sleep overnight after they complete the required scans and monitoring, and will be discharged the following morning.
- Study Part II (protein formation in waking and sleep combined with a learning task):
- Participants will wear an actigraph (a unit to record motor activity) for 2 weeks prior to admission.
- Participants will have physical and psychological examinations, along with a blood sample.
- After admission participants may be asked to stay awake for as long as 20 hours and will be monitored throughout.
- The next morning, participants will be trained to perform a computerized visual discrimination task, and will be tested 8 hours later (after sleep or after remaining awake) on the visual discrimination task.
- Some participants may have PET and MRI scans as part of the study.
- Participants will be able to sleep overnight after they complete the required tests and scans, and will be discharged the following morning.
- Participants will receive financial compensation for their participation in these studies.
Condition or disease |
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Brain Mapping |
Study Type : | Observational |
Actual Enrollment : | 538 participants |
Observational Model: | Cohort |
Time Perspective: | Prospective |
Official Title: | Regional Rates of Cerebral Protein Synthesis: Effects of Sleep and Memory Consolidation |
Study Start Date : | April 16, 2009 |
Study Completion Date : | April 18, 2017 |

- Regional rates of cerebral protein synthesis [ Time Frame: 48 hrs ]
- Sleep state and performance on visual discrimination task. [ Time Frame: 48 hrs ]

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Ages Eligible for Study: | 18 Years to 28 Years (Adult) |
Sexes Eligible for Study: | All |
Accepts Healthy Volunteers: | Yes |
- INCLUSION CRITERIA:
Healthy male and female volunteers who have no present or past diagnosis of neurologic, medical or psychiatric conditions which may confound either learning trails, normal sleep patterns or the ability to undergo sleep deprivation.
Healthy male and female subjects, 18-28 years of age, who do not meet any exclusion criteria, with self-reported normal sleep patterns (i.e., 6-9 h per night) and no major sleep disruptions during the four weeks prior to evaluation will be considered for inclusion in the study.
EXCLUSION CRITERIA INCLUDE A HISTORY OF, OR CURRENT:
- chronic medical condition which is a contraindication for PET or MRI scanning,
- past or present diagnosis of psychiatric conditions (DSM-IV criteria) (many conditions (e.g. depression), may confound performance on learning trails or be associated with baseline sleep abnormalities),
- chronic/degenerative/acquired neurologic disorder, (4) family history of genetically transmissible neurologic disorder,
(5) sleep disorders or medical conditions associated with chronically disordered sleep which may confound performance on learning trails or interfere with the sleep requirements of this study,
(6) visual impairments which may confound performance on learning trails,
(7) claustrophobic subjects,
(8) subjects who meet the above inclusion criteria, but are unable to cooperate with the requirements of the study (e.g. refusal to wear actigraphs or maintain 10 hours time in bed, reported difficulty sleeping away from home or on their backs).
(9) Subjects with chronic indicated or non-indicated use of any medications which interfere with sleep architecture and/or learning trails will be excluded. Generally, we will prohibit the use of medications/agents (e.g. anti-histamines, benadryl, melatonin, cigarettes, chocolate, coffee, tea, caffeine drinks etc.), which have significant CNS penetration, are alerting, and/or disrupt physiologic sleep-wake cycles or sleep architecture, for the 72 hrs immediately preceding presentation for the study. To acclimatize subjects, we will encourage patients to discontinue or minimize the use of these agents/medications (e.g. less than or equal to 1 cup of coffee/day) at the time of initial screening (at the same time as actigraphy application, approximately 2 wks prior to the study).
Similarly, we ask subjects to minimize alcohol use for the 2 wks prior to the study and will discontinue alcohol use for the 72 hrs immediately preceding the study.
(10) Subjects who have used illicit drugs (marijuana, cocaine, heroin, etc.) within the immediate 2 wks preceding the study.
(11) Female subjects will be excluded if either clinical history is suspicious for, or laboratory evaluation is consistent with pregnancy.
(12) Subjects unwilling to undergo HIV testing, unless enrolling in Part IIa of the study.
(13) Subjects who test HIV positive.
(14) Patients with para- and/or ferro-magnetic prosthesis/implants/fragments in their body will be excluded from the study.

To learn more about this study, you or your doctor may contact the study research staff using the contact information provided by the sponsor.
Please refer to this study by its ClinicalTrials.gov identifier (NCT number): NCT00884702
United States, Maryland | |
National Institutes of Health Clinical Center, 9000 Rockville Pike | |
Bethesda, Maryland, United States, 20892 |
Principal Investigator: | Carolyn B Smith, Ph.D. | National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) |
Publications:
Publications automatically indexed to this study by ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier (NCT Number):
Responsible Party: | National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) |
ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: | NCT00884702 History of Changes |
Other Study ID Numbers: |
090123 09-M-0123 |
First Posted: | April 21, 2009 Key Record Dates |
Last Update Posted: | October 6, 2017 |
Last Verified: | April 18, 2017 |
Keywords provided by National Institutes of Health Clinical Center (CC) ( National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) ):
Sleep 14C-Leucine Cerebral Protein Synthesis Memory |
Positron Emission Tomography (PET) HV Healthy Volunteer |