Auburn University researchers used repeated 7T MRI scans to study how nightly sleep patterns were associated with next-day brain glutamate levels.
Joshita Majumdar, a graduate student in electrical and computer engineering, underwent 104 MRI scans over 18 months for the longitudinal project.
She wore a sleep-tracking ring each night and entered Auburn University Neuroimaging Center’s 7T MRI scanner the following day for a 90-minute scan that included a spectroscopy session.
Each scan was paired with the previous night’s sleep metrics, allowing the team to compare sleep patterns with next-day glutamate levels.
Nights with less deep sleep and more light sleep tended to be followed by higher next-day glutamate. Deeper sleep tracked with lower glutamate levels, according to Auburn Engineering.
The university said the association held up statistically across the scan set, but the single-person study showed a consistent link rather than proof of causation.
Majumdar was not subjected to artificial sleep deprivation. Gopikrishna Deshpande, PhD, the Godbold Professor in Auburn’s Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, said the study followed normal sleep variation rather than a forced deprivation protocol.
“Having the 7T let us pull apart the chemical signals far more cleanly than a 3T scanner could,” Deshpande said.
Majumdar controlled for outside variables by logging food intake, tracking physical activity, and keeping scan times consistent.
The project also included Adil Bashir, PhD, associate professor of electrical and computer engineering, and graduate student Nguyen Phuoc Huynh.
Majumdar presented the research, “Deep Phenotyping reflects multivariate association between sleep metrics and Glutamate: A 7T longitudinal investigation,” at the International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine annual meeting on May 11 in Cape Town, South Africa.
Deshpande said the work could support future diagnostic frameworks for sleep-related disorders, including depression, PTSD, and schizophrenia.
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