Cortical activity of REM sleep often occurs earlier than other physiological phenomena.
N300 appearing in response to sound stimulus was used as an index to determine the occurrence of cortical activity characterizing REM sleep. In 5/10 subjects, marked reduction of N300 amplitude occurred even in the period of 0.5-2.5 min immediately preceding the appearance of muscle atonia characterizing REM sleep. Neither muscle atonia nor rapid eye movements appeared prior to the marked reduction of N300 amplitude in any subject. This suggests that the cortical activity characterizing REM sleep sometimes occurs a few minutes (or less) earlier than other physiological phenomena.
Niiyama
Y
Y
Department of Neuropsychiatry, College of Allied Medical Science, Akita University, Akita-city, Japan.
Sekine
A
A
Fushimi
M
M
Hishikawa
Y
Y
D000328:Adult; D002540:Cerebral Cortex / Q000502:physiology*; D004569:Electroencephalography; D005072:Evoked Potentials, Auditory / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D012016:Reference Values; D012894:Sleep Stages / Q000502:physiology; D012895:Sleep, REM / Q000502:physiology*