Factors Related to Behavioral Control by Stimuli Presented During Sleep

Abstract

Two experiments are presented concerning the control of learned behavior by stimuli presented during sleep. The rule of associative and nonassociative factors was assessed in Experiment 1. Group I was tested to demonstrate that, following instructions during wakefulness, subjects would terminate tones presented during sleep by taking a deep breath. To determine the likelihood of spontaneous responses during the tone, two groups were tested following the same instructions but with tones omitted on every trial (Group II) or every other trial (Group III). To determine whether breathing responses might be due to tone‐elicited arousal. Group IV was tested without instructions to make the breathing response. Reliable responding was found only for Group I. Experiment 2 concerned within‐ and across‐night patterns of responsiveness under the procedure investigated in Experiment 1. Subjects were tested for either 4 consecutive or 4 nonconsecutive nights. Response latencies increased within nights and also across nights with a greater rate of increase on consecutive nights. The data are discussed in relation to the importance of understanding the effects of behavioral demands during sleep.

Stimulus control and sleep.

“…The results obtained across experiments provide a consistent picture of the effects of behavioral control on sleep structure. Thus, when subjects are tested with an average interstimulus interval of 4 rnin or more, the only effect on structure is a reduction in Stage 4 sleep (Badia et al, 1984;Badia et al, 1985;Harsh et al, 1987). The observation of minimal change in sleep structure under these test conditions is in accord with the subjects' morning reports (described previously) of minimal sleep disturbance.…”

“…Because earlier reports suggested that reinforcement affects the probability of responding (e.g., Williams et al, 1966), reinforcement contingencies were varied in our first studies (e.g., Badia et al, 1984;Harsh et al, 1987). Our studies used young adult volunteer subjects who were told while they were awake that tones would be presented repeatedly while they were asleep and that their task would be to respond to the tones by taking a deep breath.…”

“…In each case, the interstimulus interval averaged 4 min. Further details regarding the procedures, the control conditions, and the rationale for response selection can be found in Badia et al (1984) and Harsh et al (1987). The conditions were (a) instructions only, in which subjects were told that their task was to respond to the tone (65 dB of 30-s duration); (b) escape, in which subjects were told to respond to the tone and that responding would terminate the tone (65 dB of 30-s maximum duration); (c) escape/ Mean response probability and mean response latency for responses duravoidance, in which subjects were told to respond to terminate the tone (65 dB of 30-s maximum duration) and that failure to do so would result in a louder (90 dB) tone; and (d) incremental escape/avoidance, in which subjects were told to respond to terminate the tone that was initially 45 dB but, in the absence of a response, increased in 10 dB increments every 10 s up to 95 dB.…”

“…The morning reports we obtained in early experiments (e.g., Badia et al, 1984;Badia, Harsh, Balkin, ORourke, & Burton, 1985;Harsh et al, 1987) assessed subjects' perceptions of sleep quality and also assessed recall of stimulus/response events that occurred in sleep. In these experiments, subjects reliably responded to stimuli presented on an average of once every 4-8 min.…”

Evaluation of a cure process during alarm treatment for nocturnal enuresis

“…In the original version, awakenings were not considered essential to acquire the passive avoidance behavior (sphincter contraction). However, previous studies have demonstrated an inability for avoidance learning during sleep, although avoidance responses learned in wakefulness can transfer to sleep (Badia et al, 1984;Harsh et al, 1987). Therefore, the role of awakenings at the start of the alarm becomes essential if passive avoidance can be formed in the urine-alarm treatment process (Houts, 1995).…”