Sleep and Brain Activity

In the last few decades, scientists have discovered that far from being a time of neural silence, sleep is characterized by complex patterns of electrical, neurochemical, and metabolic activity in the brain. Sleep and the Brain presents some of the more dramatic developments in our understanding of brain activity in sleep. The book discusses what parts of the brain are active in sleep and how, and presents research on the function of sleep in memory, learning, and further brain development. Coverage encompasses the network and membrane mechanisms responsible for waking and sleeping brain activity, the roles of glial cells in the sleeping brain, the molecular basis of sleep EEG rhythms, and research on songbirds, rodents, and humans indicating the function of sleep.

• Collates material dispersed across a wide gamut of primary literature into one place
• Focuses on the most interesting and prolific research results on brain activity as it relates to sleep
• Practical real data discussion includes functional brain imaging and EEG research

Preface

Chapter 1: Igor Timofeev

"Neuronal Oscillations in Thalamocortical System During Sleeping and Waking States:

Chapter 2: Vincenzo Crunelli and Stuart Hughes

"Corticothalamic Rhythms During States of Reduced Vigilance"

Chapter 3: Marcos G. Frank

"Glial Modulation of Sleep and Electroencephalographic Rhythms"

Chapter 4: Paul Franken

"Genetic Mechanisms Underlying Rhythmic EEG Activity During Sleep"

Chapter 5: David Rector

" Evoked Electrophysiological and Vascular Responses Across Sleep"

Chapter 6: Daniel Margoliash and Timothy P. Brawn

"Sleep and Learning in Birds: Rats! There's More to Sleep"

Chapter 7: Subimal Datta

"Phasic Pontine-wave (P-wave)" Generation: Cellular-Molecular-Network Mechanism and Functional Significance"

Chapter 8: Christelle Meyer, Vincenzo Muto, Mathieu Jaspar, Caroline Kussé, Ariane Foret, Laura Mascetti, Pierre Maquet

"Neural Correlates of Human Sleep and Sleep-Dependent Memory Processing"

Chapter 9: Gordon B. Feld and Jan Born

"Sleep EEG Rhythms and System Consolidation of Memory"

Chapter 10: Salomé Kurth and Reto Huber

"Sleep Slow Oscillations and Cortical Maturation"

Marcos Frank's research investigates the mystery of sleep function to understand one of the most persistent and perplexing questions of all time - why animals sleep, or put another way, why the brain needs sleep. Building on his research that the brain during sleep is fundamentally different from the brain during wakefulness, he has found that cellular changes in the sleeping brain may promote the formation of memories. He received a doctoral degree at Stanford University in 1997, and did his post-doctoral research in the Department of Physiology at the University of California at San Francisco.