Clinical trial NCT01852929: Sleep Apnea and Visual Perceptual Skill Learning
Official title: The Effect of Sleep Apnea on Sleep Dependent Learning Using the Visual Discrimination Task.
Study type: INTERVENTIONAL
Overall status: COMPLETED
Phase: NA
Conditions: Apnea
Keywords: Memory
Lead sponsor: University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
Sponsor class: OTHER
First posted: 2013-05-14
Enrollment: 14
Sex: ALL
Minimum age (years): 18
Maximum age (years): 50
Standard ages: ADULT
Accepts healthy volunteers: no
Allocation: NON_RANDOMIZED
Intervention model: CROSSOVER

Brief summary: The purpose of this study is to determine whether obstructive sleep apnea affects sleep dependent memory and learning. Subjects with apnea will be given a test of perceptual skill learning (the Visual Discrimination Task (VDT)) that has previously been shown to depend on sleep. Subjects will be tested on this task before and after sleep. The difference in performance after sleep compared to before sleep provides a measure of sleep dependent learning. Participants will be tested on one night when they have less apnea because they are using continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) as prescribed by their physician, which is well known to reduce apnea; and on another night when they are in their native state and have a greater degree of apnea. Memory performance will be compared between the two nights to determine how apnea affects sleep dependent memory.


Eligibility criteria: Inclusion Criteria:

* Clinical diagnosis of sleep apnea
* Use PAP therapy as prescribed by his/her physician for 3-4 weeks prior to enrollment
* Right-handed

Exclusion Criteria:

* Major neurological or psychiatric condition
* Chronic pain condition
* Learning disabilities
* Serious brain or head injury (e.g. seizure, stroke, head trauma)
* Major surgery or general anesthesia in the past year
* Pregnant or nursing
* Problems with eyes or vision (besides corrected-to-normal with glasses or contacts)
* Past diagnosis of infection that can affect the brain (e.g. meningitis, HIV/AIDS)
* Medications that affect sleep (antidepressants, muscle relaxants, sleep aids, beta-blockers, stimulants, or corticosteroids)
* Recreational drug use, including marijuana
* Night-shift work
* Cancer or cancer treatment in the last 2 years
* Smoke more than 10 cigarettes per day
* Consume more than 3 caffeinated foods or beverages per day

Primary outcomes:
measure: VDT learning Change Score
timeFrame: Change from baseline after 6-9 hours sleep
Secondary outcomes:
measure: Apnea Hypopnea Index (AHI)
timeFrame: During minimum 6 hour sleep recording
Other outcomes:
Locations:
city: Chapel Hill
country: United States
facility: UNC Hospitals Sleep Disorders Center
state: North Carolina
Study officials:
affiliation: University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
name: Heidi Roth, MD
role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR
References:
citation: Stickgold R, Whidbee D, Schirmer B, Patel V, Hobson JA. Visual discrimination task improvement: A multi-step process occurring during sleep. J Cogn Neurosci. 2000 Mar;12(2):246-54. doi: 10.1162/089892900562075.
citation: Karni A, Sagi D. Where practice makes perfect in texture discrimination: evidence for primary visual cortex plasticity. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1991 Jun 1;88(11):4966-70. doi: 10.1073/pnas.88.11.4966.
citation: Karni A, Tanne D, Rubenstein BS, Askenasy JJ, Sagi D. Dependence on REM sleep of overnight improvement of a perceptual skill. Science. 1994 Jul 29;265(5172):679-82. doi: 10.1126/science.8036518.
citation: Stickgold R, James L, Hobson JA. Visual discrimination learning requires sleep after training. Nat Neurosci. 2000 Dec;3(12):1237-8. doi: 10.1038/81756. No abstract available.