title: Interaction between theory and experiment in the study of sleep physiology: a historical survey of early sleep research.
abstract: The interaction between theory and experiment in sleep research was considered on the grounds of a selective historical survey of early sleep studies up to the first half of the twentieth century. The dialectic pair of experimental reductionism and theoretical holism was the motor of progress in sleep research as soon as it was supported by the electroencephalographic technique, a by-product of applied physics. The identification of sleep stages was a turning point in the development of the experimental methodology of sleep research. Also, other scientific disciplines, particularly anatomy and chemistry, provided technical support increasingly suitable for the experimental study of the physiology and pathology of sleep. In general, cognitive advances depended on a research methodology (theoretical and experimental) free from the influence of cultural prejudices and supposedly indisputable scientific paradigms.
authors.affiliation: Department of Human and General Physiology, University of Bologna, Piazza Porta San Donato, Bologna, Italy. pier.parmeggiani@unibo.it
authors.forename: P L
authors.initials: PL
authors.lastname: Parmeggiani
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D004569:Electroencephalography; D049673:History, 20th Century; D006801:Humans; D009462:Neurology / Q000266:history*; D012106:Research / Q000266:history*; D012890:Sleep / Q000502:physiology*; D012894:Sleep Stages / Q000502:physiology