Sleep is triggered by the cortex

The cortex (folded area at the outer regions) is responsible for sleep triggering (Courtesy of photocase.com

Computer modelling reveals intensive interaction between two brain regions. The Thalamus is a part of the brainstem and a filter between incoming environmental stimuli and the cortex, the cognitive part of the human brain.

Now researchers (physicists, medical doctors and biologists) from the universities in Kiel and Luebeck, Germany, developed a computer model which simulates the specific thalamic waves which occur during sleep and their direct connection to the cortex. Such brain activity is usually measured via EEGs (electro encephalographie).

 

Clinical studies showed that at the beginning of a sleeping period the thalamus is sending specific signals, called sleeping spindles, with 13 Hertz and of 1 second of length. They are obviously not initiated by the thalamus but are evoked by the cortex which seems to be triggering these thalamic waves during sleep. This connection within the thalomo-cortic system generates and conducts thus the dormance periods in humans.

With the new model of this thalamo-cortical system, which mainly has been programmed by Joerg Mayer, Institute of theoretical and astro physics in Kiel, the researcher connected real cortex activity to the computer and received similar results as in a real brain.

Now it might be possible to simulate and manipulate directly brain activity involved in the control of sleep and other with these mechanisms correlated neural disorders.

Source: Physical review letters, Volume 99 (10. August 2007)

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