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Sound Asleep: Technologies for uninterrupted whole night sleep recording in an MRI scanner

Award Number: R01EB038056
ORGANIZATION: NATIONAL INSTITUTE Of BIOMEDICAL IMAGING & BIOENGINEERING
OPDIV: NIH
AWARD CLASS: DISCRETIONARY
AWARD ACTIVITY TYPE: SCIENTIFIC/HEALTH RESEARCH (INCLUDES SURVEYS)
PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE START DATE: 07/01/2026
PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE END DATE: 03/31/2030

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Sound Asleep: Technologies for uninterrupted whole night sleep recording in an MRI scanner - Abstract The project aims to develop a platform that would enable whole-brain functional MRI (fMRI) during full night natural sleep in-sync to polysomnographic recordings (PSG), nearly as easily as in a PSG-only sleep lab. Sleep is vital for maintaining all aspects of human health. Extensive research has confirmed its role in homeostatic processes that are critical for brain health, especially in relation to aging and neurodegeneration. Yet, most of our knowledge of sleep neurophysiology in healthy individuals and patients has been limited by the capability of scalp EEG. EEG recordings, although extremely reliable, do not provide information with spatial specificity in the cortex nor do they provide information on the activity in subcortical areas, such as the medial temporal lobe and hippocampus, key brain areas involved in the study of cognitive decline due to dementia. fMRI provides superior spatial resolution of hemodynamics driven by neural activity, simultaneously in all brain areas, and provides a time resolution (seconds) relevant to sleep transitions (minutes) and their associated second scale events. However, attempts to obtain fMRI data during sleep have mostly been limited to light sleep in healthy young adults due to the difficulty of falling asleep and maintaining sleep in the MRI scanner environment where the acoustic noise is high, and participants are head-fixed in the coil. We will develop a novel platform to address these limitations and to enable simultaneous whole-night fMRI and polysomnographic recordings while the participants sleep naturally with minimal interruption. This platform will permit us to evaluate the coupling of fMRI brain activity and established polysomnographic recordings in a setup relevant for aged and clinical populations. Specifically, we will: (1) develop wearable high-density MRI head-cap arrays that are EEG compatible and allow the participants to adjust sleep posture while sleeping in the scanner environment; (2) adapt, and further develop silent fMRI using the looping-star sequence to eliminate acoustic noise while performing the scans; (3) develop an online real-time motion event classifier and scanner control for automatic sequence prescription for multiple head positions; (4) develop and integrate the analytical tools required to harmonize brain data recorded in multiple head positions; and (5) evaluate the platform in an aged population. Our proposed technology is highly innovative compared to the state of the art and addresses a significant need in the field of sleep studies. A success of the project will provide solution for simultaneous whole-night fMRI and polysomnographic recordings with quality comparable to that of clinical sleep labs outside MRI scanners. Our platform would open new diagnostic and research avenues, not possible today in patients and aged individuals.


Issue Date FY	Funding FY	Legal Entity Name	Legal Entity Address	Legal Entity City	Legal Entity State	Legal Entity Zip Code	Legal Entity COUNTY	Legal Entity COUNTRY	Assistance Listing	Award Code	Budget Year	Action Date	Action Type	Action Amount

Issue Date FY: 2026 ( Subtotal = $610,840 )
2026	2026	REGENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, THE	119 CALIFORNIA HALL	BERKELEY	CA	94720	ALAMEDA	USA	Discovery and Applied Research for Technological Innovations to Improve Human Health	000	1	6/19/2026	NEW	$610,840
														Subtotal = $610,840

Grand Total All Awards = $610,840

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Sound Asleep: Technologies for uninterrupted whole night sleep recording in an MRI scanner

Award Number: R01EB038056

ORGANIZATION: NATIONAL INSTITUTE Of BIOMEDICAL IMAGING & BIOENGINEERING

OPDIV: NIH

AWARD CLASS: DISCRETIONARY

AWARD ACTIVITY TYPE: SCIENTIFIC/HEALTH RESEARCH (INCLUDES SURVEYS)

PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE START DATE: 07/01/2026

PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE END DATE: 03/31/2030

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