Consciousness and cortical responsiveness: a within-state study during non-rapid eye movement sleep

Cerebral Cortex Male 0301 basic medicine Multidisciplinary Neuronal Plasticity Consciousness Sleep, REM Electroencephalography ta3112 Synaptic Transmission Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation Article Dreams 03 medical and health sciences Non-REM sleep Cerebral Cortex/physiology; Consciousness; Dreams/physiology; Electroencephalography; Female; Humans; Male; Neuronal Plasticity; Sleep/physiology; Sleep, REM/physiology; Synaptic Transmission; Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation; Wakefulness/physiology Humans Female Wakefulness Sleep
DOI: 10.1038/srep30932 Publication Date: 2016-08-05T10:57:19Z
ABSTRACT
Abstract When subjects become unconscious, there is a characteristic change in the way cerebral cortex responds to perturbations, as can be assessed using transcranial magnetic stimulation and electroencephalography (TMS–EEG). For instance, compared wakefulness, during non-rapid eye movement (NREM) sleep TMS elicits larger positive–negative wave, fewer phase-locked oscillations an overall simpler response. However, many physiological variables also when go from wake sleep, anesthesia, or coma. To avoid these confounding factors, we focused on NREM only measured TMS-evoked EEG responses before awakening asking them if they had been conscious (dreaming) not. As shown here, reported no experience upon awakening, evoked negative deflection shorter response dream. Moreover, amplitude of deflection—a hallmark neuronal bistability according intracranial studies—was inversely correlated with length dream report (i.e., total word count). These findings suggest that variations level consciousness within same state are associated changes underlying cortical circuits.
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