Cervantes y Shakespeare, dos neurólogos renacentistas / No disponible

No disponible

Descartes and His Peculiar Sleep Pattern.

Rene Descartes (1596-1650) was a mathematician, philosopher, and scholar, whose work set a foundation for modern science. Among other interests, he focused on locating the "core and the seat of the soul" and concluded that the pineal gland was such a structure. Recent scientific findings validate Descartes' deep interest in pineal gland, appreciating its role as part of the circadian rhythm system. On the other hand, the biographical information suggests that Descartes had an aberration of the circadian rhythm (delayed sleep phase). Coincidentally, this meant that one of the most important things in his private life and one of the most significant areas of his research intersected in an overlooked way.

Johann Christian August Heinroth on sleep deprivation as a therapeutic option for depressive disorders.

Partial or total therapeutic sleep deprivation leads to an immediate and far-reaching release of depressive symptoms in about 60% of patients with depressive disturbances. It is for that reason that this therapeutic option is offered and studied in many psychiatric clinics. Several papers have acclaimed the German psychiatrist Johann Christian August Heinroth (1773-1843) - the first university professor of psychiatry--as a pioneer of this therapeutic approach. However, no reference has been made specifying where in his comprehensive oeuvre he promoted this notion, nor has any analysis of the texts or passages in question been delivered. This study demonstrates that Heinroth indeed understood the existence of numerous close bidirectional relationships between mental disorders and sleep, above all, disorders of the latter. Consequently, he explicitly recommended sleep deprivation as a therapy for "melancholia," the contemporary name for depressive disorders. This finding is of apparent relevance to the history of psychiatry and sleep medicine. One should nonetheless bear in mind that the passages summarized below are scattered throughout Heinroth's famous Textbook of Psychiatry of 1818 and other works, and that Heinroth never elaborated on this issue systematically. Moreover, his statements promote the impression that they were the result of vague impressions and thoughts, and that Heinroth did not benefit from extensive experience. Yet what is important to note is that he regarded sleep deprivation as a feasible treatment option only for patients whose depression had recently been diagnosed.

Sleepless vigilance: "Stonewall" Jackson and the duty hours controversy.

Confederate general "Stonewall" Jackson has been called "one of the greatest military geniuses the world ever saw." However, on critical review of his command decisions during the course of 12 of the 20 battles he fought during the American Civil War, historians have rated his performance as poor. In this investigation, the authors examined the effect of sleep deprivation on Jackson's battle decisions in light of experimental data driving current calls for limiting the duty hours of physicians.

León Cintra's contribution to the field of protein malnutrition effects on sleep and the brain.

On June 19 2009, everyone who knew Leon Cintra was shocked by the terrible news of the automobile accident that took his life. The feeling within the scientific community was that his passing was not only a great loss for Mexican science but also the loss of a beloved friend. He will be missed and forever remembered for his brilliant mind and noble heart. His scientific career was focused, since the beginning, on the study of protein malnutrition effects on brain morphometry, somato-sensory transmission, sleep, circadian rhythms and behavior. His findings showed that malnutrition has long lasting adverse effects on morphometry of systems involved in sleep regulation such as locus coeruleus, nucleus raphe dorsalis and susprachiasmatic nucleus, and on hippocampal circuit implicated in theta activity generation. His results on spectral analysis of electrical field potential at every 4 sec from 24-h baseline recording and 72-h of recovery sleep after total sleep deprivation or selective REM sleep deprivation demonstrated that protein malnutrition induced alterations on homeostatic as well as on circadian sleep regulation; brain oscillations and theta coherent activity between left and right hemisphere and between hippocampus and cerebral cortex are also affected by malnutrition.

Sleep deprivation in the rat: X. Integration and discussion of the findings. 1989.

The results of a series of studies on total and selective sleep deprivation in the rat are integrated and discussed. These studies showed that total sleep deprivation, paradoxical sleep deprivation, and disruption and/or deprivation of non-rapid eye movement (NREM) sleep produced a reliable syndrome that included death, debilitated appearance, skin lesions, increased food intake, weight loss, increased energy expenditure, decreased body temperature during the late stages of deprivation, increased plasma norepinephrine, and decreased plasma thyroxine. The significance of this syndrome for the function of sleep is not entirely clear, but several changes suggested that sleep may be necessary for effective thermoregulation.