Characteristics of integrative brain activity during various stages of sleep and in transitional states

Electropolygraphic study of natural night sleep was performed in 16 adult subjects using correlation, coherent, cluster, and factor analyses. New evidence testifies to the active nature of sleep, which is especially manifest during falling asleep and transition from one stage of sleep to another. Falling asleep and deepening the sleep proved to be accompanied by intense reorganization of the cortico-subcortical relationships, which is reflected in the dynamics of cross-correlative and coherent interrelationships of the brain’s bioelectric potentials. Transition from wakefulness to sleep is a heterogeneous process, which is expressed in significant changes in the weights of factors I, II and III of the vector image of multichannel EEG at stage I (B) of sleep, which might reflect changes in the contribution of the main integrative brain system in the reorganization of the brain’s integrated activity. A considerable increase in the weight of factor I (this reflects generalized the modulating effect of the brainstem on the cortex) and a decrease in the weights of factors II and III (which are related to fronto-occipital and interhemispheric interactions) testify to the special synchronizing role of the brainstem in the development of this initial stage of sleep. Deeper sleep is accompanied by a decrease in interhemispheric EEG relationships of the anterior and inferior frontal areas of the cortex, which suggests that coordinated inactivation of the cortex in both hemispheres leads to reorganization of the activity in the frontal areas. Analysis of the average variance of cross-correlative (CC) EEG relationships demonstrates that stability of the spatial structure of interrelationships between various areas of the brain cortex increases with falling asleep at stage I (A); however, during transition to stage I (B), the CC EEG values become unstable and, with deepening sleep, the variance of these values decreases in the frontal brain cortex. With the onset of the paradoxical phase of sleep, the variance of the levels of interregional interactions increases to the maximum, especially with respect to the EEG relations of the posteriotemporal and inferiofrontal areas of both hemispheres.