Comparisons of behavioral, motoric and electrical criteria for assessment of sleep-wake states in the rabbit.
Each of the sleep and wake states of animals are characterized by specific patterns of behavioral, motoric, and electrophysiological activity. The purpose of this study was to determine the amount of agreement among these three patterns. Sleep-wake behavior of two adult rabbits was observed for 4 continuous hours by an experienced judge. At the same time, a single-channel analog recording of motility and an analog recording of the electrical activity of the hippocampus were obtained. Each recording was scored by assigning a state category to each 10-second epoch. The three descriptions were then compared for agreement using the 10-second epoch as the unit of statistical analysis. There was a mean agreement of 85.12% between the techniques of direct observation and judgment of motility recordings. A mean agreement of 95.64% was obtained when comparing the hippocampal recordings and those of direct observation; the hippocampal and motility recordings had a mean agreement of 85.38%. The high correlations among the three different procedures support the hypothesis that state is a construct representing a set of underlying neurophysiological properties of the organism which express themselves in a similar and invariant manner via behavior, motility, and electrical brain activity.
D000818:Animals; D001522:Behavior, Animal / Q000502:physiology*; D004594:Electrophysiology; D005260:Female; D006624:Hippocampus / Q000502:physiology; D008991:Monitoring, Physiologic; D009043:Motor Activity / Q000502:physiology*; D011817:Rabbits / Q000502:physiology*; D012894:Sleep Stages / Q000502:physiology*; D014851:Wakefulness / Q000502:physiology*