Discharge patterns of human tensor palatini motor units during sleep onset

CL Nicholas; AS Jordan; L Heckel; C Worsnop; B Bei; JP Saboisky; DJ Eckert; DP White; A Malhotra; J Trinder

Journal article

Discharge patterns of human tensor palatini motor units during sleep onset

CL Nicholas, AS Jordan, L Heckel, C Worsnop, B Bei, JP Saboisky, DJ Eckert, DP White, A Malhotra, J Trinder

Sleep | Published : 2012

DOI: 10.5665/sleep.1834

Abstract

Study Objectives: Upper airway muscles such as genioglossus (GG) and tensor palatini (TP) reduce activity at sleep onset. In GG reduced muscle activity is primarily due to inspiratory modulated motor units becoming silent, suggesting reduced respiratory pattern generator (RPG) output. However, unlike GG, TP shows minimal respiratory modulation and presumably has few inspiratory modulated motor units and minimal input from the RPG. Thus, we investigated the mechanism by which TP reduces activity at sleep onset. Design: The activity of TP motor units were studied during relaxed wakefulness and over the transition from wakefulness to sleep. Setting: Sleep laboratory. Participants: Nine young (2..

View full abstract

University of Melbourne Researchers

Christian Nicholas Author

Amy Jordan Author

Grants

Awarded by National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute

Funding Acknowledgements

The study was conducted in the School of Psychological Science, The University of Melbourne. Research was supported by NHMRC project grant #566781 and NIH 1RO1HL085188-01A2.This was not an industry supported study. Dr. Jordan has consulted for Apnex Medical. Dr. Malhotra has received research and consultant income from the NIH, AHA, Apnex Medical, Philips Respironics, SGS, SHC, Pfizer Pharmaceuticals, Merck Pharmaceuticals, Apnicure, Ethicon, Medtime Pharmacy, Sepracor Inc. and Cephalon. Dr. White is the chief medical officer of Phillips Respironics. Dr. Eckert has received research support from Sepracor Inc. and serves as a consultant for Apnex Medical. Dr. Worsnop serves on the national health and Medical Research Council of Australia. He received research support from the University of Melbourne, Austin Hospital, GlaxoSmithKline, AstraZeneca, Pfizer Pharmaceuticals, Boehringer Ingelheim, Medimark, Alfred Hospital and Novartis Healthcare. The other authors have indicated no financial conflicts of interest.