title: Auditory event-related potentials during stage 2 NREM sleep in humans.
abstract: Event-related potential (ERP) recordings were used to investigate the nature of auditory stimulus evaluation during stage 2 sleep. Frequent and rare stimuli, differing in intensity and frequency, were presented to six adult subjects while awake and asleep. The latency and voltage distribution of one of the long-latency components evoked during sleep resembled the P3 component evoked while awake. However, it was attenuated in voltage and superimposed on N3, a large late negative component, most probably the slow potential of the K complex. The identification of a P3-like potential during sleep suggests that the P3 potential is not solely a marker of active cognitive processes, but contains a small component which reflects automatic, pre-attentive evaluation of deviant stimuli.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, State University of New York at Stony Brook, USA.
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Salisbury
authors.initials: NK
authors.lastname: Squires
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Ibel
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Maloney