Review
Nature Reviews Neuroscience 3, 679-693 (September 2002) | doi:10.1038/nrn915
The cognitive neuroscience of sleep: neuronal systems, consciousness and learning
J. Allan Hobson1 & Edward F. Pace-Schott1 About the authors
Abstract
Sleep can be addressed across the entire hierarchy of biological organization. We discuss neuronal-network and regional forebrain activity during sleep, and its consequences for consciousness and cognition. Complex interactions in thalamocortical circuits maintain the electroencephalographic oscillations of non-rapid eye movement (NREM) sleep. Functional neuroimaging affords views of the human brain in both NREM and REM sleep, and has informed new concepts of the neural basis of dreaming during REM sleep — a state that is characterized by illogic, hallucinosis and emotionality compared with waking. Replay of waking neuronal activity during sleep in the rodent hippocampus and in functional images of human brains indicates possible roles for sleep in neuroplasticity. Different forms and stages of learning and memory might benefit from different stages of sleep and be subserved by different forebrain regions.
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Author affiliations
- Laboratory of Neurophysiology, Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School, Massachusetts Mental Health Center, 74 Fenwood Road, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, USA.
Correspondence to: Edward F. Pace-Schott1 Email: edward_schott@hms.harvard.edu
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