A Miniature Wireless Device for Closed-Loop Auditory Sleep Modulation

Both sleep research and treatment of common sleep disorders can benefit from targeted modulation of sleep circuits. Noninvasive stimulation through the auditory pathway has proven to be an effective method for neuromodulation during sleep, particularly when timed to ongoing rhythms using a closed-loop system. However, such systems are not widely available to the research or clinical communities. Technical demands include real-time sleep scoring, phase estimation, and low-latency auditory feedback. Our goal is to develop a robust, easy-to-use, wireless, programmable, closed-loop sleep modulation device suitable for subjects ranging from mice to humans and for use outside of a sleep lab environment. Here, we present a prototype: a battery-powered, flex-rigid printed-circuit board with off-the-shelf components for polysomnography data acquisition and wireless transmission, as well as configurable closed-loop control through a Python graphical user interface. Performance was quantified through a series of experiments in freely behaving rats.