The First in-silico Model of Leg Movement Activity During Sleep

We developed the first model simulator of leg movements activity during sleep. We designed and calibrated a phenomenological model on control subjects not showing significant periodic leg movements (PLM). To test a single generator hypothesis behind PLM—a single pacemaker possibly resulting from two (or more) interacting spinal/supraspinal generators—we added a periodic excitatory input to the control model. We describe the onset of a movement in one leg as the firing of a neuron integrating physiological excitatory and inhibitory inputs from the central nervous system, while the duration of the movement was drawn in accordance with statistical evidence. The period and the intensity of the periodic input were calibrated on a dataset of subjects showing PLM (mainly restless legs syndrome patients). Despite its many simplifying assumptions—the strongest being the stationarity of the neural processes during night sleep—the model simulations are in remarkable agreement with the polysomnographically recorded data.