Portions of the brain fall asleep and wake back up all the time
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Portions of the brain fall asleep and wake back up all the time
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Re: Portions of the brain fall asleep and wake back up all the time
#2Here's some amazing relevant research with so many consequences that I keep coming back to:
Partial sleep in the context of augmentation of brain function
Abstract:
Inability to solve complex problems or errors in decision making is often attributed to poor brain processing, and raises the issue of brain augmentation. Investigation of neuronal activity in the cerebral cortex in the sleep-wake cycle offers insights into the mechanisms underlying the reduction in mental abilities for complex problem solving. Some cortical areas may transit into a sleep state while an organism is still awake. Such local sleep would reduce behavioral ability in the tasks for which the sleeping areas are crucial. The studies of this phenomenon have indicated that local sleep develops in high order cortical areas. This is why complex problem solving is mostly affected by local sleep, and prevention of local sleep might be a potential way of augmentation of brain function. For this approach to brain augmentation not to entail negative consequences for the organism, it is necessary to understand the functional role of sleep. Our studies have given an unexpected answer to this question. It was shown that cortical areas that process signals from extero- and proprioreceptors during wakefulness, switch to the processing of interoceptive information during sleep. It became clear that during sleep all “computational power” of the brain is directed to the restoration of the vital functions of internal organs. These results explain the logic behind the initiation of total and local sleep. Indeed, a mismatch between the current parameters of any visceral system and the genetically determined normal range would provide the feeling of tiredness, or sleep pressure. If an environmental situation allows falling asleep, the organism would transit to a normal total sleep in all cortical areas. However, if it is impossible to go to sleep immediately, partial sleep may develop in some cortical areas in the still behaviorally awake organism. This local sleep may reduce both the “intellectual power” and the restorative function of sleep for visceral organs.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4013465/
Fascinating stuff, imo. I've definitely felt the difference between partial sleep restedness and total sleep restedness, and the idea of sleep pressure seems to line up with my experience and with my idea of explorable, falsifiable models of phenomena. The idea that we dream while processing internal organ information is beautiful to me on multiple levels- maybe memory consolidation has a whole lot to do with pre-existing organ health! Maybe instead of the idea that we dream with only our heads, we dream with all of our organs- just imagine how differently Jung would interpret Pauli's dreams if he knew about this!
Re: Portions of the brain fall asleep and wake back up all the time
#3I seem to recall similar research in rats or mice that found that "sleep" states occurred randomly when awake, and slowly synchronized into moving waves of "sleep" when asleep. If I am indeed remembering correctly, then it would seem more likely that this localized sleep mechanism is shared by all mammals, including humans. I'm sure many of us have experienced cycles of awareness while supposedly fully awake as well.
I wonder if it extends to reptiles, fish, etc.
Re: Portions of the brain fall asleep and wake back up all the time
#4You know how every generation conceives of the brain as a machine that's analogous to the latest technology of that generation? Like in the 19th century, the brain was a steam engine, and then in the 20th it was a computer? Well, apparently now the brain is a smartphone.
Re: Portions of the brain fall asleep and wake back up all the time
#5Seems like the article misses an interesting analog in power gating:
Re: Portions of the brain fall asleep and wake back up all the time
#6I seem to recall similar research in rats or mice that found that "sleep" states occurred randomly when awake, and slowly synchronized into moving waves of "sleep" when asleep. If I am indeed remembering correctly, then it would seem more likely that this localized sleep mechanism is shared by all mammals, including humans. I'm sure many of us have experienced cycles of awareness while supposedly fully awake as well.…
Evidence that birds sleep in mid-flight
Re: Portions of the brain fall asleep and wake back up all the time
#7You know how every generation conceives of the brain as a machine that's analogous to the latest technology of that generation? Like in the 19th century, the brain was a steam engine, and then in the 20th it was a computer? Well, apparently now the brain is a smartphone.
I'm not sure how this relates to the article?
Re: Portions of the brain fall asleep and wake back up all the time
#8You know how every generation conceives of the brain as a machine that's analogous to the latest technology of that generation? Like in the 19th century, the brain was a steam engine, and then in the 20th it was a computer? Well, apparently now the brain is a smartphone.
I'm not sure how this relates to the article?
I believe the comment is referring to how the newer ARM CPUs in smartphones utilize small battery efficient cores for basic stuff and can ramp up to more power hungry cores for the heavy stuff:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ARM_big.LITTLE
Re: Portions of the brain fall asleep and wake back up all the time
#9You know how every generation conceives of the brain as a machine that's analogous to the latest technology of that generation? Like in the 19th century, the brain was a steam engine, and then in the 20th it was a computer? Well, apparently now the brain is a smartphone.
I'm not sure how this relates to the article?
It's offering the smartphone as an analogy for the behavior described in the article.
Re: Portions of the brain fall asleep and wake back up all the time
#10half of america is asleep all the time. I spoke to a lady on the street who told me vaccines cause autism. I told her it was true, because my puppies have autism. See, they have puppy autism I explained. Ever since they got their vaccines, they stopped talking. She nodded. And I continued on my way.