A complementary relationship between wake and REM sleep in the auditory system: a pre-sleep increase of middle-ear muscle activity (MEMA) causes a decrease of MEMA during sleep |
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Authors: | L De Gennaro M Ferrara L Urbani M Bertini Sezione di Neuroscienze |
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Institution: | (1) Sezione di Neuroscienze, Dipartimento di Psicologia, Università degli Studi di Roma “La Sapienza” Via dei Marsi 78; I-00185 Roma, Italy, e-mail: degennaro@axrma.uniroma1.it, Tel.: +39-6-49917647, Fax: +39-6--4451667, IT;(2) Reparto Medicina Aeronautica e Spaziale, D.A.S.R.S., Aeroporto di Pratica di mare, Roma, Italy, IT |
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Abstract: | Since some evidence has supported a complementary relationship between waking and REM-sleep eye movement (variations in frequency,
amplitude, or direction of waking saccades have been found to inversely affect the corresponding parameters of rapid eye movements),
the present study assessed whether this relationship can also be shown for other phasic components of REM sleep, such as middle-ear
muscle activity (MEMA), as a consequence of an increase of middle-ear reflex frequency during pre-sleep wake. Ten subjects
were studied in three consecutive nights (one adaptation, one baseline, one experimental). In the experimental night, subjects
underwent a 2-h pure-tone (1000 Hz, 90 dB SPL) auditory stimulation and MEMA was monitored every 15 min; noise exposure during
daytime was also controlled. Results show that MEMA frequency during REM sleep significantly decreased during the experimental
nights compared with baseline nights, while each sleep variable as well as mean daily auditory input did not present any significant
difference between baseline and experimental nights. Results suggest that the complementary relationship between wake and
REM sleep is not bounded to oculomotor activity, but it may also be extended at least to middle-ear muscle phasic activity.
Received: 30 April 1999 / Accepted: 14 September 1999 |
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Keywords: | Middle-ear muscle activity (MEMA) Phasic activity REM sleep |
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