Behavioral changes and brain activity alterations can provide important information about potential diseases, allowing for earlier intervention and better management of conditions. Sleep plays a crucial role in various physiological and psychological processes. We intend to use sleep as a starting point to conduct integrated research.
The over-arching goal of this study is to elucidate the neural network subserving sleep and identify its genetic origins and behavioral manifestations. Specific aims include: 1) identifying the functional connectivity related to the suprathalamic nucleus (SCN), a part of basal ganglia supporting circadian rhythm regulation, 2) revealing how the SCN network is related to sleep behaviors, including subjective and objective measures, 3) discovering the genetic underpinning accounting for the variability of sleep behaviors across individuals, and 4) investigating how SCN-network connectivity mediates the genetic effect on sleep.
Sleep serves as a starting point. With these understandings, we will extend the study goals toward other interactions between neural and genetic mechanisms underlying various phenotypes and quantitative traits, especially those related to behaviors. UK Biobank has an extensive collection of behavioral measurements other than sleep. We are particularly interested in mental health, well-being, and cognitive functions. Sleep can heavily influence these behaviors. We aim to see how sleep mediates the genetic and neural effects on these behaviors. We summarize this relationship as gene-brain-sleep-behavior.