Converging evidence from animal and human studies suggest that rapid eye movement (REM) sleep modulates emotional processing. The aim of the present study was to explore the effects of selective REM sleep deprivation (REM-D) on emotional responses to threatening visual stimuli and their brain correlates using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Twenty healthy subjects were randomly as...

Evidence in humans suggests that limbic cortices are more active during rapid eye movement (REM or paradoxical) sleep than during waking, a phenomenon fitting with the presence of vivid dreaming during this state. In that context, it seemed essential to determine which populations of cortical neurons are activated during REM sleep. Our aim in the present study is to fill this gap by combining g...

We hypothesize that rapid eye movement or REM sleep evolved, in part, to mediate sexual/reproductive behaviors and strategies. Because development of sexual and mating strategies depends crucially on early attachment experiences, we further hypothesize that REM functions to mediate attachment processes early in life. Evidence for these hypotheses comes from (1) the correlation of REM variables ...

Even though it is known that sleep benefits declarative memory consolidation, the role of sleep in the storage of temporal sequences has rarely been examined. Thus we explored the influence of sleep on temporal order in an episodic memory task followed by sleep or sleep deprivation. Thirty-four healthy subjects (17 men) aged between 19 and 28 years participated in the randomized, counterbalance...

A variable number tandem repeat polymorphism in the coding region of the circadian clock PERIOD3 (PER3) gene has been shown to affect sleep. Because circadian rhythms and sleep are known to modulate sympathovagal balance, we investigated whether homozygosity for this PER3 polymorphism is associated with changes in autonomic nervous system (ANS) activity during sleep and wakefulness at baseline ...

Clomipramine (CLI), a REM sleep suppressant, alleviates symptoms of depression in adults but produces depressive behaviors if applied neonatally. Both effects of CLI as applied to adults and to neonates have been interpreted as consequences of its involvement in REM sleep deprivation. However, the paradox of these conflicting effects remains to be understood. The current study attempts to find ...

STUDY OBJECTIVES We have previously reported that older (24 mo.) Fischer rats manifest a diminished post-sleep deprivation increase in NREM and REM sleep. In order to examine whether this decline reflects an age-related change in pineal function, we are now reporting on baseline and recovery sleep parameters in pinealectomized 3-, 12-, and 24-month old rats following 24 hours of sleep deprivati...

As a test of the hypothesis that REM sleep deprivation reduces fear, the freezing behavior of 60 rats was measured under the conditions of the Bolles-Collier (1976) paradigm. These animals were first exposed to one of three treatments for 4 day s: a dry-environment control, a wetenvironment control, or a 4-day REM deprivation period. Next, the animals were fear conditioned in a square-box and t...