Alertness fluctuations and cognitive processing comprise overlapping brain circuits that include frontoparietal, thalamocortical, and sensory pathways. It is unclear how these brain circuits can simultaneously support such disparate but foundational human processes. To develop an integrated framework of consciousness and cognition, it is important to understand how fluctuations in alertness and...
SUMMARY: Substantial changes in behavior, physiology, and brain function occur when alertness decreases 1– 5 . These changes in brain function involve increased synchronization between cortical areas 6,7 as well as alterations in sensory processing pathways and networks connecting the thalamus and cortex 5,8–11 . Cognitive tasks engage overlapping functional networks with sensory pathways...
The waking brain efficiently detects emotional signals to promote survival. However, emotion detection during sleep is poorly understood and may be influenced by individual sleep characteristics or neural reactivity. Notably, dream recall frequency has been associated with stimulus reactivity during sleep, with enhanced stimulus-driven responses in high vs. low recallers. Using...