PubMed Health⌕ Search

Biomedical subjects

R Fosse

Publications and source records attributed to R Fosse.

9 recordsLinked to original sources

The mind in REM sleep: reports of emotional experience.

STUDY OBJECTIVES: No consensus has been reached on the characteristics of emotional experience during rapid eye movement sleep (REM). Thus, the relationship between the emotional brain activation and mental activity in REM remains unclear. Our objective is to characterize emotional experience in REM in order to facilitate understanding of brain-mind correlations in this state. DESIGN: We combined instrumental awakenings from REM with the subjects' own ratings of the occurrence and intensity of discrete emotion types for each line in their REM mentation reports. SETTING: The study was performed in the subjects' own homes over three consecutive nights using ambulatory polysomnography. PARTICIPANTS: Nine normal healthy subjects, age 31-60 (mean=43.0). INTERVENTIONS: Awakenings 5-15 minutes into REM periods across the night. MEASUREMENTS AND RESULTS: Emotions were found in 74% of 88 mentation reports, with a balanced proportion of positive and negative emotions. Among the reports scored for emotions, 14% contained one emotion and 86% contained two or more different emotion types. Joy/elation was the most frequent emotion, found in 36% of the reports, followed by surprise (24%), anger (17%), anxiety/fear (11%), and sadness (10%). Anxiety/fear was significantly less intense than joy/elation, anger, and surprise. Except for surprise, no specific emotion type changed from the first to the second half of the night. Negative emotions and surprise but not positive emotions varied significantly across subjects. CONCLUSIONS: The analysis of subject reports of emotions following instrumental awakenings demonstrate a balanced and widespread occurrence of both positive and negative emotions in REM sleep dreams. Emotions in REM are likely to be powerfully modulated by the neurobiological processes which differentiate REM from waking.

Adult↗

Sleep, learning, and dreams: off-line memory reprocessing.

Converging evidence and new research methodologies from across the neurosciences permit the neuroscientific study of the role of sleep in off-line memory reprocessing, as well as the nature and function of dreaming. Evidence supports a role for sleep in the consolidation of an array of learning and memory tasks. In addition, new methodologies allow the experimental manipulation of dream content at sleep onset, permitting an objective and scientific study of this dream formation and a renewed search for the possible functions of dreaming and the biological processes subserving it.

Animals↗

Brain-mind states: I. Longitudinal field study of sleep/wake factors influencing mentation report length.

STUDY OBJECTIVES: To collect and analyze reports of mental activity across sleep/wake states. DESIGN: Mentation reports were collected in a longitudinal design by combining our Nightcap sleep monitor with daytime experience sampling techniques. Reports were collected over 14 days and nights from active and quiet wake, after instrumental awakenings at sleep onset, and after both spontaneous and instrumental awakenings from REM and NREM sleep. SETTING: All reports were collected in the normal home, work and school environments of the subjects. PARTICIPANTS: Subjects included 8 male and 8 female undergraduate students (19-26 years of age). INTERVENTIONS: N/A. MEASUREMENTS AND RESULTS: A total of 1,748 reports, averaging 109 per subject, were collected from active wake across the day (n=894), from quiet wake in the pre-sleep onset period (n=58), from sleep onset (n=280), and from later REM (n=269) and nonREM (n=247) awakenings. Median report lengths varied more than 2-fold, in the order REM > active wake > quiet wake > NREM = sleep onset. The extended protocol allowed many novel comparisons between conditions. In addition, while spontaneous REM reports were longer than those from forced awakenings, the difference was explained by the time within the REM period at which the awakenings occurred. Finally, intersubject differences in REM report lengths were correlated with similar differences in waking report lengths. CONCLUSIONS: The use of the Nightcap sleep monitoring system along with waking experience sampling permits a more complete sampling and analysis of mental activity across the sleep/wake cycle than has been previously possible.

Adult↗

Brain-mind states: reciprocal variation in thoughts and hallucinations.

The exclusion of thinking from recent studies of sleep mentation has hindered a full appreciation of how cognitive activity differs across the states of waking and sleep. To overcome this limitation, this study investigated thoughts and hallucinations using experience sampling, home-based sleep-wake monitoring, and formal analyses of the psychological data. The prevalence of thoughts decreased gradually from waking through sleep onset and non-REM sleep, to reach its nadir in REM sleep, whereas hallucinations increased sharply across these states. Furthermore, multiple occurrences of hallucinations but not of thoughts increased significantly from sleep onset through non-REM sleep, to a peak in REM sleep. This reciprocity in thoughts and hallucinations might reflect a progressive shift from high to low aminergic-to-cholinergic neuromodulatory ratios across wake-sleep states, accompanied by an array of changes in the regional activation patterns of the brain.

Adolescent↗

REM mentation in narcoleptics and normals: an empirical test of two neurocognitive theories.

This study tested the two main neurocognitive models of dreaming by using cognitive data elicited from REM sleep in normals and narcoleptics. The two models were the "activation-only" view which holds that, in the context of sleep, overall activation of the brain is sufficient for consciousness to proceed in the manner of dreaming (e.g., Antrobus, 1991; Foulkes, 1993; Vogel, 1978); and the Activation, Input source, Modulation (AIM model), which predicts that not only brain activation level but also neurochemical modulatory systems exert widespread effects upon dreaming (Hobson & McCarley, 1977; Hobson, Pace-Schott, & Stickgold, 2000). Mental activity was studied in nocturnal REM in 15 narcoleptics and 9 normal healthy persons and in REM at the onset of daytime naps and nighttime sleep (SOREM) in narcoleptics. The study was performed in the subjects' homes, using instrumental awakenings and ambulatory polysomnographic techniques, and focused upon visual vividness, mentation report length, improbable and discontinuous bizarre features, and reflective consciousness. Within each subject group, most cognitive variables tended to fluctuate in line with expected variations in circadian activation level. When comparing the cognitive variables between the two groups, reflective consciousness was clearly highest in narcoleptics, whereas improbabilities and discontinuities were lower, with mentation report length and visual vividness differing less between the groups. These findings are consistent with the AIM model of sleep mentation, but not with the activation-only model.

Adolescent↗

A mouse model for latent tuberculosis.

The aim of the study was to establish a reproducible murine model for latent tuberculosis. We propose an operational definition of latent murine tuberculosis as a stable Mycobacterium-tuberculosis count in lungs and spleens without clinical signs or obvious histopathological changes in the lungs over a long period of time and without spontaneous reactivation of disease. B6D2F1Bom mice were inoculated with a wide range of Mycobacterium tuberculosis doses intraperitoneally or intravenously and followed for a long period to determine suitable conditions to produce latent infection. No anti-tuberculosis drug treatment was used. Microbiological and histopathological studies were carried out. Corticosterone challenge was used to reactivate the latent infection. Mice infected with 4 x 10(4) and 4 x 10(5) bacilli i.p. were followed up to 107 weeks without spontaneous reactivation. The present model is discussed in comparison with previous latent tuberculosis mouse models as well as the possible mechanisms of shift to stationary phase from multiplying bacilli.

Animals↗

Midazolam-fentanyl-isoflurane anaesthesia is suitable for haemodynamic and fluid balance studies in pigs.

The domestic pig is a useful model in certain areas of biomedical research. Effective use of this species is often encumbered by lack of reference values in conscious as well as anaesthetized animals. Anaesthesia itself influences physiological and biological variables; the anaesthetic technique often affects experimental results. The relationship between anaesthesia and haemodynamics is well characterized in man, but less established in pigs. We studied the effect of midazolam-fentanyl-isoflurane anaesthesia in six immature, male, domestic pigs (Norwegian landrace). Haemodynamic variables (heart rate, arterial systolic, mean, diastolic pressures, pulmonary systolic, mean, diastolic pressures, pulmonary capillary wedge pressure), tissue perfusion, lymph flow (thoracic duct) were recorded for 3 h in animals with open chest through midline sternotomy. Variables relevant to fluid balance, e.g. interstitial hydrostatic pressure (Pi), serum-colloid osmotic pressure (s-COP) and serum-albumin (s-albumin) and -protein (s-protein) concentrations were measured. With the chosen anaesthetic technique haemodynamic variables, including lymph flow, and laboratory variables remained constant during the study period. Most variables were similar to conditions in humans. In contrast to adult humans exposed to the same anaesthetic technique, these pigs had lower haemoglobin-, s-albumin- and s-protein concentrations. A finding which may reflect immaturity. Liver and lung perfusion decreased significantly during the study period whereas perfusion of the other organs studied remained constant. Lack of responses to defined noxious stimuli during the study period suggest adequate analgesia. We conclude that midazolam, fentanyl and isoflurane provide cardiovascular stability including normal microvascular fluid exchange, which are essential elements for securing the quality of results obtained during cardiovascular research in anaesthetized pigs.

Anesthesia↗

Effects of the tumor promoter 12-O-tetradecanoylphorbol 13-acetate on peroxisomal activities and enzyme activities involved in lipid metabolism in rat liver.

The effects of 12-O-tetradecanoylphorbol 13-acetate (TPA) on hepatic lipids and key enzymes involved in esterification, hydrolysis and oxidation of long-chain fatty acids at increasing doses were investigated in rats. TPA administration tended to decrease the mitochondrial activities of palmitoyl-CoA synthetase and carnitine palmitoyltransferase. The microsomal palmitoyl-CoA synthetase activity was increased. TPA administration was also associated with a dose-dependent increase of glycerophosphate acyltransferase activity both in the mitochondrial and microsomal fractions in particular. The data are consistent with a decreased catabolism of long-chain fatty acids at the mitochondrial level, and an increased capacity for esterification of fatty acids in the microsomal fraction. Peroxisomal beta-oxidation was increased about 2-fold in the peroxisome-enriched fraction of TPA-treated rats while the catalase and urate oxidase activities were only marginally affected. TPA administration revealed elevated capacity for hydrolysis of palmitoyl-CoA and palmitoyl-L-carnitine in the microsomal fraction. Neither increased cytosolic palmitoyl-CoA hydrolase activity nor increased hydroxylation of lauric acid nor changes of the hepatic content of cytochrome P-450 isoenzymic forms were observed in the TPA-treated animals. There was no induction of the protein content of the bifunctional enoyl-CoA hydratase. Thus, TPA behaves more like choline-deficient diet and ethionine treatment than well-known peroxisome proliferators. It seems possible that TPA selectively stimulated the peroxisomal activities, i.e., peroxisomal beta-oxidation rather than evoking a peroxisome proliferation capacity.

Animals↗