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Nature 430, 27-28 (1 July 2004) | doi:10.1038/430027a

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Neurobiology:  Sleep on it

Ilana S. Hairston1 & Robert T Knight2

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Is the function of sleep to replenish energy resources or to modify neural connections in the brain? Recordings of the brain's 'reverberating circuits' evident during sleep shed light on the question.

"With regard to sleep and waking, we must consider what they are: whether they are peculiar to soul or to body, or common to both; and if common, to what part of soul or body they appertain." This question was posed by Aristotle1 in 350 BC.

  1. Ilana S. Hairston is in the Department of Radiology, University of California at San Francisco, San Francisco, California 94143, USA.
    e-mail: Email: hairston@radiology.ucsf.edu
  2. Robert T. Knight is in the Department of Psychology and the Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute, University of California at Berkeley, Berkeley, California 94720, USA.
    e-mail: Email: rtknight@socrates.berkeley.edu

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