BACKGROUND Rapid eye movement (REM) sleep is greatest in the developing brain, is driven by acetylcholine, and may represent a protected time for neuroplasticity. Recently published data from our lab observed that children with autism spent significantly less time in this state during a single night recording than did typically developing children and those with developmental delay without auti...

Considerable evidence suggests that the neurotransmitter gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA)-ergic system and pedunculopontine tegmentum (PPT) in the brain stem are critically involved in the regulation of rapid-eye-movement (REM) sleep. GABA and its various receptors are normally present in the PPT cholinergic cell compartment. The aim of this study was to identify the role of GABA and its receptor...

Rapid eye movement (REM) sleep enhances hippocampus-dependent associative memory, but REM deprivation has little impact on striatum-dependent procedural learning. Antidepressant medications are known to inhibit REM sleep, but it is not well understood if antidepressant treatments impact learning and memory. We explored antidepressant REM suppression effects on learning by training animals daily...

The placebo effect is a neurobiological and psychophysiological process known to influence perceived pain relief. Optimization of placebo analgesia may contribute to the clinical efficacy and effectiveness of medication for acute and chronic pain management. We know that the placebo effect operates through two main mechanisms, expectations and learning, which is also influenced by sleep. Moreov...

Correspondence: María Corsi-Cabrera, Sleep Laboratory, Facultad de Psicología, Posgrado, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Av. Universidad 3004, México, D.F. 04510, México. Phone: (52-55)6-22-22-51; Fax: (52-55)6-22-23-10. [email protected] Abstract. Gamma EEG and MEG activity was studied immediately after REM sleep eye movement onset as an index of cortical activation. Two strateg...

When dreaming during rapid eye movement (REM) sleep, we can perform complex motor behaviors while remaining motionless. How the motor cortex behaves during this state remains unknown. Here, using intracerebral electrodes sampling the human motor cortex in pharmacoresistant epileptic patients, we report a pattern of electroencephalographic activation during REM sleep similar to that observed dur...

We are at least as dream deprived as we are sleep deprived. Many of the health concerns attributed to sleep loss result from a silent epidemic of REM sleep deprivation. REM/dream loss is an unrecognized public health hazard that silently wreaks havoc with our lives, contributing to illness, depression, and an erosion of consciousness. This paper compiles data about the causes and extent of REM/...

Sleep in depression is characterized by the occurrence of episodes of rapid eye movement (REM) sleep at sleep onset. The empirical foundations of three hypotheses about the origin of this phenomenon are examined: A circadian rhythm hypothesis stating that sleep onset REM episodes (SOREMs) are the result of an abnormal phase-position of the REM sleep production cycle. A REM sleep-slow wave sleep...

S leep and dream psychophysiology has been dominated for many years and, under certain aspects still today, by strong bias which considered the dreamlike mental activity as a peculiar aspect of REM sleep. The discovery of the REM phase (1), which determined a change in sleep research, raised great expectations. Going by the results of the first experiments on REM sleep, Dement and Kleitmann (2)...

Work in heterologous systems has revealed that members of the Rad, Rem, Rem2, Gem/Kir (RGK) family of small GTP-binding proteins profoundly inhibit L-type Ca(2+) channels via three mechanisms: 1), reduction of membrane expression; 2), immobilization of the voltage-sensors; and 3), reduction of Po without impaired voltage-sensor movement. However, the question of which mode is the critical one f...