Doctoral Dissertations

Keywords and Phrases

Chimera; Jet lag; Model; Neuron; Sleep; Unihemispheric Sleep

Abstract

"Sleep and sleep cycles have been studied for over a century, and scientists have worked on modeling sleep for nearly as long as computers have existed. Despite this extensive study, sleep still holds many mysteries. Larger and more extensive sleep-wake models have been developed, and the circadian drive has been depicted in numerous fashions, as well as incorporated into scores of studies. With the ever-growing knowledge of sleep comes the need to find more ways to examine, quantify, and define it in the context of the most complex part of the human anatomy -- the brain. Presented here is the development of a computational model that explores the activity of individual neurons, modeled with coupled nonlinear ordinary differential equations, in key sleep-related brain regions. The activity patterns of the individual neurons are studied, as well as their synchronization with other neurons within the same region. The model is expanded into two separate interacting hemispheres, whose activity and synchronization reveal chimera-like activity. Multiple different perspectives on jetlag are presented, exploring the impact of circadian rhythm changes. Unihemispheric sleep, the unusual form of sleep exhibited by some ocean creatures and species of birds, is observed, as well as asymmetric sleep, which occurs in human subjects suffering from sleep apnea. These investigations provide a new perspective on the intricate balance between the neural activity in different brain regions that drives the essential phenomenon that is sleep"--Abstract, page iii.

Advisor(s)

Bahar, Sonya

Committee Member(s)

Flores, Ricardo
Parris, Paul Ernest, 1954-
Yamilov, Alexey
Herzog, Erik

Department(s)

Physics

Degree Name

Ph. D. in Physics

Comments

A dissertation presented to the Graduate School of the University of Missouri--St. Louis and Missouri University of Science and Technology in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Philosophy in Physics

The author acknowledges the NASA-Missouri Space Grant Consortium and thank them for their funding of this research.

Publisher

Missouri University of Science and Technology

Publication Date

Fall 2019

Pagination

xvii, 187 pages

Note about bibliography

Includes bibliographic references (pages 173-186).

Rights

© 2019 Tera Ashley Glaze, All rights reserved.

Document Type

Dissertation - Open Access

File Type

text

Language

English

Thesis Number

T 11623

Electronic OCLC #

1139525486

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