Processing of auditory stimuli during tonic and phasic periods of REM sleep as revealed by event‐related brain potentials

Abstract

SUMMARY The brain has been reported to be more preoccupied with dreams during phasic than during tonic REM sleep. Whether these periods also differ in terms of the processing of external stimuli was examined. Event-related brain potentials (ERPs) to a frequent standard tone of 1000 Hz (P =97%) and infrequent deviant tones of 1100 and 2000 Hz (P= 1.S% f o r each) were recorded (n = 13) during wakefulness and nocturnal sleep.An ERP wave (called REM-P3) resembling a waking P3 wave was larger for the 2000 Hz deviant during tonic than during phasic REM sleep. Also the P210 wave was larger during tonic than during phasic REM sleep. A reliable mismatch negativity component appeared only in wakefulness. In summary, these results support the hypothesis that the brain is more 'open' for changes in an auditory input during tonic than phasic REM sleep.

Formation and suppression of acoustic memories during human sleep

“…To reconcile these observations, it is worth noting that the memory effect was positively associated with the proportion of tREM, and thus negatively correlated with the proportion of pREM. This result is in line with previous findings of increased sensitivity to sensory information in tREM 39, 48 . Interestingly, dream reports seem more vivid in pREM 49 .…”

“…However, these broadly defined phases contain a number of distinct events: REM sleep is composed of a tonic and a phasic subphase, defined by the respective absence or presence of rapid eye movements; tonic (tREM) and phasic (pREM) REM sleep have been shown to differentially impact sensory processing 39, 40 ; NREM sleep contains sleep spindles and slow waves 41 , which are assumed to gate sensory processing 42 and organize memory consolidation 12, 13 . To better understand the neural events that led to plasticity during sleep, we correlated behavioral and EEG data with these various sleep markers.…”

Sensory gating impairment associated with schizophrenia persists into REM sleep

“…Previous research has shown that relatively complex differential processing of acoustic information continues during paradoxical sleep, as evidenced by the presence of event-related potential components P300 (Cote & Campbell 1999a, 1999bPerrin, Garcia-Larrea, Mauguiere, & Bastuji, 1999;Sallinen, Kaartinen, & Lyytinen, 1996) and mismatch negativity (Atienza, Cantero, & Gomez, 2000;Loewy, Campbell, & Bastien, 1996;Loewy, Campbell, de Lugt, Elton, & Kok, 2000;Nashida et al, 2000). The present study demonstrates that impairment of differential acoustic processing, as measured by P50 sensory gating, can also be expressed during this particular state.…”

Physiological consequences of selective suppression of synaptic transmission in developing cerebral cortical networks in vitro: Differential effects on intrinsically generated bioelectric discharges in a living ‘model’ system for slow-wave sleep activity

“…1, to substitute the term 'midi'-bursts for what we used to call 'network bursts' of spike activity (e.g., Corner et al, 2002Corner et al, , 2005Corner and Crain, 1965;Habets et al, 1987;Ramakers et al, 1990Ramakers et al, , 1991. [The in situ equivalent to these in vitro 'midi-bursts' is phasic discharges, a term that has often been used (e.g., Corner, 1977Corner, , 1990Jouvet, 1972;Kohyama, 1996;Orem, 1996) to describe spontaneous events lasting on the order of a few seconds, in particular those occurring during episodes of rapid-eye-movement sleep (also see Sallinen et al, 1996;Takahara et al, 2002;Wehrle et al, 2007). ]…”