April 29 - Psych Grand Rounds

Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences Grand Rounds 2021-2022

Originally recorded on April 29, 2022 

Satvinder Kaur, PhD, Assistant Professor, Dept. Neurology, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Harvard Medical School

Brain Circuitry for Arousal during Sleep Apnea

Join us as we host Dr. Satvinder Kaur, Assistant Professor, Dept. Neurology, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Harvard Medical School as she focus on the key question of identifying the role of different brain circuits that control waking up in response to hypercapnia. Obstructive sleep apnea patients suffers from sleep disruption due to repeated waking up during the course of night, and such sleep fragmentation has adverse effects on the cardiovascular health and metabolism. Undiagnosed apnea is a hidden health crisis, that leads to not only workplace and motor accidents due to decrease in vigilance, but is also the cause for many of the co-morbid diseases. The neural circuits that regulate arousal from apneas during sleep in patients suffering from obstructive sleep apnea are not well understood. We know from anatomical studies that respiratory chemosensory pathways converge on the parabrachial nucleus, which then sends glutamatergic projections to a variety of forebrain structures critical to arousal, including the basal forebrain, lateral hypothalamus, midline thalamus, and cerebral cortex. Dr. Kaur has developed an animal model for repetitive CO2 arousals and have used genetic tools to identify and manipulate different phenotypic populations in the parabrachial area in the brain stem, that helps regulate waking up during apnea.

As a PhD scientist, Dr. Kaur is an Investigator and spend 95% of my time on research investigations, with 5% spent on teaching and mentoring. Her research contributions include 22 publications in peer-reviewed journals, where she was first author on eleven, as well as authorship in three-book chapters and numerous scientific abstracts. Dr. Kaur has been invited on numerous occasions to present her research in various meetings nationally, have contributed as an ad-hoc journal reviewer, and have also served as a “Membership Committee Board Member” of Sleep Research Society for past three years (2017- 2019). Presently, as a member of the “Scientific Review Committee” for the Sleep Research Society,

Dr. Kaur is involved in reviewing of proposals for the Career development awards and Outstanding Early Investigator Award for the years 2021 and 2022. This year, she will also be serving as a Mail-In reviewer for the 2022 NIH Director’s New Innovator Award Program (DP2), a Trans-NIH initiative and high visibility funding mechanism.

At the completion of the presentation, attendees will be able to:
1. Importance of understanding obstructive sleep apeas, the need for an early diagnosis, hidden dangers of undiagnosed apneas.
2. Need to develop pharmacological interventions for preventing apeas.
3. Discuss the role of different brain circuits that control waking up in response to hypercapnia.
4. Use of mouse model for studying waking up during apneic events.
5. Use of genetic tools to identify and manipulate different phenotypic populations in the parabrachial area in

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