title: Marked suppression of cortical auditory evoked response shortly before the onset of REM sleep.
abstract: In 10 of 12 subjects examined, the amplitude of N300, a component of the cortical auditory evoked potential, was evidently smaller in rapid eye movement (REM) sleep than in non-REM sleep. The start of the reduction associated with the onset of the first episode of REM sleep was examined in these 10 subjects. In five of these, a marked reduction of N300 amplitude occurred 0.5-2.5 min before the appearance of muscle atonia of REM sleep. In two subjects, a similarly marked reduction of the N300 amplitude occurred 0.5-1.0 min before the disappearance of sleep spindles or K-complexes. This suggests that a suppression of the synchronizing mechanism in the cerebrum sometimes occurs briefly prior to the occurrence of other physiological phenomena associated with REM sleep.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neuropsychiatry, College of Allied Medical Science, Akita University, Akita-city, Japan.
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Niiyama
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Sekine
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Fushimi
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Hishikawa
mesh_terms: D000161:Acoustic Stimulation; D000328:Adult; D001303:Auditory Cortex / Q000502:physiology*; D004569:Electroencephalography; D004594:Electrophysiology; D005072:Evoked Potentials, Auditory / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D018482:Muscle, Skeletal / Q000502:physiology; D012895:Sleep, REM / Q000502:physiology*