In the developing visual system before eye opening, spontaneous retinal waves trigger bursts of neural activity in downstream structures, including visual cortex. At the same ages when retinal waves provide the predominant input to the visual system, sleep is the predominant behavioral state. However, the interactions between behavioral state and retinal wave-driven activity have never been exp...

Increasing evidence suggests that cortical dynamics during wake exhibits long-range temporal correlations suitable to integrate inputs over extended periods of time to increase the signal-to-noise ratio in decision making and working memory tasks. Accordingly, sleep has been suggested as a state characterized by a breakdown of long-range correlations. However, detailed measurements of neuronal ...

A planar model of a lifting surface descending into its own wake is constructed with the aim of demonstrating some underlying mechanisms of the ‘vortex ring’ state that may be entered by a rotary wing aircraft during a vertical descent. The model uses line vortices that are periodically released from a point in space and then allowed to evolve in a constrained manner. For low descent velocities...

Difficulties initiating sleep are common in several disorders, including insomnia and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. These disorders are prevalent, bearing significant societal and financial costs which require the consideration of new treatment strategies and a better understanding of the physiological and cognitive processes surrounding the time of preparing for sleep or falling as...

Age-related changes in brain function include those affecting learning, memory, and sleep-wakefulness. Sleep-wakefulness is an essential behavior that results from the interaction of multiple brain regions, peptides, and neurotransmitters. The biological function(s) of sleep, however, remains unknown due to a paucity of information available at the cellular level. Aged rats exhibit alterations ...

Electroencephalographic (EEG) activity is a key indicator of a vigilance state, and quantitative analyses of the EEG have revealed profound differences both between and within vigilance states in humans. We summarize recent studies that investigated how the spectral composition of the EEG during the three vigilance states, that is, wakefulness, rapid eye movement (REM) and non-REM sleep, is mod...

Wakefulness and sleep-wake-regulation are complex states, a lot of different components and regulatory mechanisms contribute to these functions. One of the factors involved in sleep wake regulation is the immune system, itself being highly complex, consisting of humoral and cellular components. Molecules that transport the information are, beside others, the “immunotransmitters”, the cytokines....

We propose a novel method for mitigating erroneous wake-ups that are commonly associated with ultra-low power wake-up receivers. Recent research in low-power protocols has demonstrated significant improvements in energy-efficiency by employing ultralow power wake-up receivers. However, due to the low-complexity receiver structures adopted, wake-up receivers are susceptible to external interfere...

One of the most significant problems facing older individuals is difficulty staying asleep at night and awake during the day. Understanding the mechanisms by which the regulation of sleep/wake goes awry with age is a critical step in identifying novel therapeutic strategies to improve quality of life for the elderly. We measured wake, non-rapid eye movement (NREM) and rapid-eye movement (REM) s...

During the sleep onset period (SOP), there is a state-specific relative advantage of the right hemisphere (RH). This superiority could either be due to the ability of the RH when operating at levels of reduced arousal, as suggested by its superiority in sustaining vigilance, or it could depend on a more pronounced homeostatic deactivation of the left hemisphere (LH). To evaluate whether variati...