Schedule of Events | Symposia

The association between physiological arousal and sleep EEG microstructure in young adulthood and middle age

Poster Session D - Monday, March 31, 2025, 8:00 – 10:00 am EDT, Back Bay Ballroom/Republic Ballroom

Xinran Niu¹ (xniu2@nd.edu), Kristin Sanders¹, Elizabeth Kensinger², Jessica Payne¹; ¹University of Notre Dame, ²Boston College

Sleep microstructure, particularly during slow-wave and rapid eye movement (REM) sleep, is known to influence physiological arousal through the parasympathetic nervous system activity. This study examines the association between microstructure features during slow-wave and REM sleep and heart rate deceleration (HRD) in response to emotional stimuli. A total of 133 healthy young (ages 18–35) and middle-aged (ages 36–59) adults viewed a series of negative (e.g., a vicious looking snake) and neutral objects (e.g., a chipmunk), superimposed on neutral backgrounds (e.g., an avenue). During scene viewing, HRD was recorded to measure physiological arousal to negative and neutral scenes. All participants underwent one night of laboratory-monitored polysomnography (PSG), where REM count (total number of REMs across all REM sleep) and slow-wave count (total number of slow waves across all slow-wave sleep) were recorded. In middle-aged adults, a higher slow-wave count was associated with an increased HRD response to negative scenes (r=0.29 , p=.051), but not neutral scenes (r=0.15 , p=.319). In contrast, a higher REM count was linked to increased HRD responses to both negative (r=0.34 , p=.044) and neutral scenes (r=0.40 , p=.017). However, in young adults, neither slow-wave nor REM count were correlated with HRD responses (ps>.7). Microstructure features during slow-wave and REM sleep may differentially influence physiological arousal responses in middle-aged adults. Slow-wave activities may enhance the discrimination between negative and neutral information, whereas REM sleep seems to exert a more generalized parasympathetic influence. These findings highlight age-related changes in the association between sleep and emotional processing.

Topic Area: EMOTION & SOCIAL: Emotional responding