Biomedical subjects

E F Pace-Schott

Publications and source records attributed to E F Pace-Schott.

5 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed1998

The neuropsychology of REM sleep dreaming.

Recent PET imaging and brain lesion studies in humans are integrated with new basic research findings at the cellular level in animals to explain how the formal cognitive features of dreaming may be the combined product of a shift in neuromodulatory balance of the brain and a related redistribution of regional blood flow. The human PET data indicate a preferential activation in REM of the pontine brain stem and of limbic and paralimbic cortical structures involved in mediating emotion and a corresponding deactivation of dorsolateral prefrontal cortical structures involved in the executive and mnemonic aspects of cognition. The pontine brainstem mechanisms controlling the neuromodulatory balance of the brain in rats and cats include noradrenergic and serotonergic influences which enhance waking and impede REM via anticholinergic mechanisms and cholinergic mechanisms which are essential to REM sleep and only come into full play when the serotonergic and noradrenergic systems are inhibited. In REM, the brain thus becomes activated but processes its internally generated data in a manner quite different from that of waking.

Animals↗

PubMed1998

To dream or not to dream? Relevant data from new neuroimaging and electrophysiological studies.

The study of sleep and dreams has enjoyed a major breakthrough with recent findings from brain imaging studies in humans. Several independent groups have shown global deactivation of the brain during non rapid eye movement sleep and a regionally selective reactivation during rapid eye movement sleep. These results are complemented by new brain lesion and electrophysiological recording data to give a detailed picture of the brain dynamics of changes in conscious state.

Brain Mapping↗

PubMed1997

Consciousness in waking and dreaming: the roles of neuronal oscillation and neuromodulation in determining similarities and differences.

State-dependent aspects of consciousness are explored with particular attention to waking and dreaming. First, those phenomenological differences between waking and dreaming that have been established through subjective reports are reviewed. These differences are robustly expressed in most aspects of consciousness including perception, attention, memory, emotion, orientation, and thought. Next, the roles of high frequency neuronal oscillation and neuromodulation are explored in waking and rapid eye movement sleep, the stage of sleep with which the most intense dreaming is associated. The high frequency neuronal oscillations serve similar functions in the wake and rapid eye movement states sleep but neuromodulation is very different in the two states. The collective high frequency oscillatory activity gives coherence to spatially separate neurons but, because of the different neuromodulation, the binding of sensory input in the wake state is very different from the binding of internally perceived input during rapid eye movement sleep. An explanatory model is presented which states that neuromodulation, as well as input source and brain activation level differentiate states of the brain, while the self-organized collective neuronal oscillations unify consciousness via long range correlations.

Consciousness↗

PubMed1994

Nightcap measurement of sleep quality in self-described good and poor sleepers.

The Nightcap is a home-based sleep monitoring device that reliably differentiates rapid eye movement sleep, nonrapid eye movement sleep and wake states using eyelid and body movement measurements. This study documents its capacity to measure differences in sleep latency and sleep efficiency between self-described good and poor sleepers drawn from a normal population. Ten self-described "good" sleepers and 11 self-described "poor" sleepers were selected from a pool of college students. These groups differed significantly on selection parameters and on subjective estimates of sleep quality obtained each morning during the study. Each subject wore the Nightcap at home for 12-17 nights. Statistically significant differences in Nightcap-measured sleep latency and sleep efficiency were obtained between groups using individual subject means. In individual subjects, Nightcap measurements of sleep latency were correlated with subjective estimates of sleep latency. Poor sleepers were less accurate in estimating their sleep onset latency than were good sleepers. The demonstrated sensitivity of the Nightcap to good and poor sleep in these normal subjects augurs well for its application in a clinical setting.

Adult↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Sleep and vestibular adaptation: implications for function in microgravity.

Optimal human performance depends upon integrated sensorimotor and cognitive functions, both of which are known to be exquisitely sensitive to loss of sleep. Under the microgravity conditions of space flight, adaptation of both sensorimotor (especially vestibular) and cognitive functions (especially orientation) must occur quickly--and be maintained--despite any concurrent disruptions of sleep that may be caused by microgravity itself, or by the uncomfortable sleeping conditions of the spacecraft. It is the three-way interaction between sleep quality, general work efficiency, and sensorimotor integration that is the subject of this paper and the focus of new work in our laboratory. To record sleep under field conditions including microgravity, we utilize a novel system called the Nightcap that we have developed and extensively tested on normal and sleep-disordered subjects. To perturb the vestibular system in ground-based studies, we utilize a variety of experimental conditions including optokinetic stimulation and both minifying and reversing goggle paradigms that have been extensively studied in relation to plasticity of the vestibulo-ocular reflex. Using these techniques we will test the hypothesis that vestibular adaptation both provokes and is enhanced by REM sleep under both ground-based and space conditions. In this paper we describe preliminary results of some of our studies.

Adaptation, Physiological↗