Reduced central alpha power at rest is associated with the risk of alcohol-induced blackout and frequency of non-REM parasomnia episodes in adults.

People who experience alcohol-induced blackouts (AIBs) are at increased risk of alcohol-related injury and even death. Blackout susceptibility is heritable and blackouts are not experienced by all who engage in hazardous drinking. Blackout is defined by amnesia, but a person in the blackout state also maintains consciousness and motor control at high levels of intoxication, which is behaviorally similar to episodes of sleepwalking or related parasomnias. Spectral analysis of resting-state electroencephalograms (EEG) can provide insight into individual differences in baseline neurophysiology which may predict blackout susceptibility in otherwise healthy individuals. The current study investigated potential neurophysiological phenotypes present in the resting-state EEG spectra of individuals with a history of blackout, sleepwalking, or related parasomnias. In Experiment 1, adult females with a history of blackout had reduced resting-state alpha peak power over the primary motor cortex compared to those with no such history, while aperiodic slope over the right sensorimotor cortex was negatively correlated with lifetime blackout score in males. In Experiment 2, increased frequency of parasomnia episodes was associated with reduced resting-state alpha peak power across males and females. Together, these findings provide the first support for the existence of common neurophysiological phenotypes between specific parasomnias and alcohol-induced blackout.