Theta waves and behavioral manifestations of alertness and dre4aming activity in the rat

Electro-oscillographic recordings show that when up, behavioral manifestations such as head dorsal extension and snout and eye movements (which occur in this sequence) occasionally followed by brief ear areas 3 and 17 and in the hippocampus. Heart rate increases when the animal passes from synchronized sleep to relaxed wakefulness to exploratory behavior. During desynchronized sleep theta waves, similar to those found during alertness, usually precede and are simultaneous with rostrum and eye movements and brief ear and limb twitches. Heart rate also increases during dreaming activity. A high degree of coherence (near 1.0) was found among theta bursts in different hippocampal areas in both highly attentive alertness and dreaming. It is suggested that theta waves are related to attention as part of some kinds of behavior and of the process of dream shaping and expression, both characterized by consciousness

Electrical activity of the posterior thalamic nucleus and the hippocampus during wakefulness and desynchronized sleep in the rat: a spectral analysis

The electrical activity of the posterior thalamic nuclear complex was studied in rats and related to the simultaneous hippocampal electro-oscillogram. Electrocorticographic tracings and spectral analysis showed that during attentive wakefulness the electro-oscillogram peaked at 8 Hz and in desynchronized sleep it oscillated at regular frequencies between 8 and 9 Hz. In quiet wakefulness, frequency was lower (around 5 Hz) and during synchronized sleep rhytmicity disppeared. The electrophysiological patterns during wakefulness and desynchronized sleep are proposed to be linked to the retrieeval and combination of information for the generation of attention and dream content

Rostrum movements in desynchronized sleep as a prevalent manifestation of dreaming activity in wistar rats

Considering that eye movements express visual dreams in humans and are prominent during desynchronized sleep in cats, monkeys and birds, rostrum movements were investigated in a macrosmatic species, the rat, to the hypothesis that, expressisng olfactory and tactile (involving the vibrissae) dreams, they would prevail over eye movements. Desynchronized sleep episodes lasted 148.8 ñ 12.4 s, rostrum movements lasted 80.7 ñ 6.9 s and eye movements occurred during 40.4 ñ 3.9 s, all in accordance with the original hypothesis