Thalamic and cortical activities are assumed to be time-locked throughout all vigilance states. Using simultaneous intracortical and intrathalamic recordings, we demonstrate here that the thalamic deactivation occurring at sleep onset most often precedes that of the cortex by several minutes, whereas reactivation of both structures during awakening is synchronized. Delays between thalamus and...
This review summarises the results of event-related potentials studies exploring the extent to which the human brain can extract semantic information from external stimuli during sleep. The persistence of a differential response to the subject's own name, relative to any other proper name, during stage 2 (S2) and paradoxical (REM) sleep (PS) suggests that the brain remains able to discriminate...