Publication

Altered heart-brain coupling in awake patients with isolated REM sleep behaviour disorder

2026

Abstract

Isolated REM sleep behaviour disorder (iRBD) represents a prodromal stage of alpha-synucleinopathies, frequently preceding Parkinson’s disease and dementia with Lewy bodies. Beyond the characteristic sleep disturbances, alterations in brain-body coupling, reflecting neural peripheral physiological interactions, have yet to be determined. Using whole-night polysomnography, we quantified brain-body coupling via heartbeat evoked potentials (HEPs) across wakefulness, NREM, and REM sleep. Individuals with iRBD ( n = 13) were compared with healthy controls ( n = 23), alongside analyses of ECG-derived features. During wakefulness, iRBD patients showed altered HEPs over frontal regions between 305 and 445 ms after the R-peak. No significant group differences were observed during NREM or REM sleep, and HEP amplitude alterations were not explained by ECG differences. These diurnal HEP changes may represent a novel quantitative biomarker for iRBD during wakefulness and, in the future, could serve as a marker for phenoconversion to alpha-synucleinopathy.

Official source

https://infoscience.epfl.ch/entities/publication/a8774fe4-9e17-42c0-9537-3347138fb368

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2026

Abstract

Official source

https://infoscience.epfl.ch/entities/publication/a8774fe4-9e17-42c0-9537-3347138fb368

About this result

Related concepts (32)

Sleep

Sleep is a state of reduced mental and physical activity in which consciousness is altered and sensory activity is inhibited to a certain extent. During sleep, there is a decrease in muscle activity, and interactions with the surrounding environment. While sleep differs from wakefulness in terms of the ability to react to stimuli, it still involves active brain patterns, making it more reactive than a coma or disorders of consciousness. Sleep occurs in repeating periods, during which the body alternates between two distinct modes: REM and non-REM sleep.

Dementia with Lewy bodies

Dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB) is a type of dementia characterized by changes in sleep, behavior, cognition, movement, and regulation of automatic bodily functions. Memory loss is not always an early symptom. The disease worsens over time and is usually diagnosed when cognitive impairment interferes with normal daily functioning. Together with Parkinson's disease dementia, DLB is one of the two Lewy body dementias. It is a common form of dementia, but the prevalence is not known accurately and many diagnoses are missed.

Neural oscillation

Neural oscillations, or brainwaves, are rhythmic or repetitive patterns of neural activity in the central nervous system. Neural tissue can generate oscillatory activity in many ways, driven either by mechanisms within individual neurons or by interactions between neurons. In individual neurons, oscillations can appear either as oscillations in membrane potential or as rhythmic patterns of action potentials, which then produce oscillatory activation of post-synaptic neurons.

Related publications (4)

Altered heart-brain coupling in awake patients with isolated REM sleep behaviour disorder

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Altered heart-brain coupling in awake patients with isolated REM sleep behaviour disorder

A Site-Specific Organometallic Approach for Installing Tyrosine Phosphorylation Mimics to Decipher the Role of Phosphorylation in α-Synuclein Aggregation and Seeding

A Site-Specific Organometallic Approach for Installing Tyrosine Phosphorylation Mimics to Decipher the Role of Phosphorylation in Alpha-Synuclein (aSyn) Aggregation and Seeding