Evidence of P3a During Sleep, a Process Associated With Intrusions Into Consciousness in the Waking State.
Frontiers in Neuroscience January 1, 2018 Paniz Tavakoli, Allyson Dale, Addo Boafo et al.
During sleep, the brain continues to process certain sounds that would normally trigger conscious awareness during wakefulness, as measured by the P3a event-related potential. A multi-feature paradigm presented standard and six types of deviant auditory stimuli during wakefulness, NREM, and REM sleep. Novel environmental sounds and white noise bursts elicited a P3a during wakefulness, replicating earlier findings, while other deviants (pitch, intensity, duration changes) did not. During N2 and REM sleep, the deviants that had elicited a P3a while awake continued to do so, though the sleeper did not awaken. This suggests processes leading to consciousness may remain active during sleep, potentially allowing detection of critical input without full arousal.