Reduced central alpha power at rest is associated with risk of alcohol-related blackout and frequency of non-REM parasomnia episodes.
medRxiv : the preprint server for health sciences September 27, 2025 Grace M Elliott, Madeline M Robertson, Celine E Locklear et al. preprint
People who experience alcohol-related blackouts show reduced resting-state alpha peak power over the primary motor cortex in a sex-specific pattern. In Experiment 1, adult females with a history of blackout had lower alpha peak power over the primary motor cortex compared to those without such history, while in males, aperiodic slope over the right primary motor cortex was negatively correlated with lifetime blackout score. In Experiment 2, more frequent parasomnia episodes were associated with reduced alpha peak power across both sexes. These results provide initial evidence for shared neurophysiological phenotypes between certain parasomnias and alcohol-related blackout, suggesting underlying dysfunction of motor inhibition that allows coordinated motor activity to persist during intoxication or sleep.