Abby Y. Ding1, 2, Iris Y. Zhou1, 2, Frank Y. Lee1, 2, Ed X. Wu1, 2
1Laboratory of Biomedical Imaging and Signal Processing, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China; 2Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China
Rapid eye movement (REM) sleep is believed to be critical for memory consolidation. To probe the microstructural changes after sleep deprivation (SD) in vivo, REM-SD and DTI were employed in this study. Significant axial, radial and mean diffusivity decreases were found bilaterally in various locations in hippocampus, suggesting specific layers of hippocampus such as dentate gyrus and CA1 may be more susceptible to SD. Significant FA, axial and mean diffusivity decreases were also detected in cortex. Our results indicated that DTI is sensitive for probing microstructural changes, and can provide insights into the microstructural plasticity associated with sleep and memory.