Year: 2026
Type: article
Study design: Clinical Trial
Abstract: Children with epilepsy suffer a vicious cycle in which disturbed sleep heightens seizure susceptibility, while seizures further disrupt sleep quality, particularly impairing the slow-wave sleep (SWS) critical for cognitive, immune, and metabolic function. We present a phase-targeted auditory stimulation (PTAS) system that delivers stimuli timed to endogenous slow oscillations. In 27 children undergoing epilepsy monitoring with simultaneous scalp, intracranial, and thalamic recordings, PTAS significantly enhances SWS power, with maximal effects on thalamic, frontal, and auditory regions in a randomized cross-over protocol. Stimulation also suppresses interictal epileptiform discharges (from 0.4 to <0.1 spikes/min) and improves cognitive performance on a response inhibition task (from 76% to 95% accuracy). These results provide direct intracranial evidence that closed-loop auditory stimulation modulates sleep architecture, suppresses pathological activity, and enhances cognition. PTAS represents a physiologically informed, non-invasive approach for addressing both neurophysiological and cognitive comorbidities in pediatric epilepsy.
Source: Cell Reports Medicine
Authors: Simeon M. Wong, Vicki Li, Karim Mithani, Nebras M. Warsi, Hrishikesh Suresh, Sebastian C. Coleman, Olivia Arski, Colin Massicotte, Rohit Sharma, Alexander G. Weil, Aristides Hadjinicolaou, Hiroshi Otsubo, Puneet Jain, Ayako Ochi, James T. Rutka, Elizabeth N. Kerr, Mary Lou Smith, Lauren Sham, Shelly Weiss, Elizabeth Donner, George M. Ibrahim
Language: English
Subfield: Psychiatry and Mental health
Field: Medicine
Domain: Health Sciences
Open Access status: gold
Estimated APC paid: $5,620
OpenAlex ID: W7119522065