According to recent research, slow waves may increase metabolic waste clearance during sleep, possibly through cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) pulsatile movement. Pulsations can also be caused by direct pressure effects from the cardiac and respiratory cycles, such as deep breaths. To examine this possibility, we designed a cued deep breathing experiment, which was previously demonstrated to result in widespread fMRI global signal reductions. In this work, our findings point to an alternative pathway for the creation of CSF pulsations that relies on autonomic changes rather than sleep.
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