Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Comment
. 2005 Mar;14(1):91-8.
doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2869.2004.00430_1.x.

The ontogeny of mammalian sleep: a response to Frank and Heller (2003)

Mark S Blumberg  1 , Karl A E Karlsson, Adele M H Seelke, Ethan J Mohns
Affiliations
Comment

The ontogeny of mammalian sleep: a response to Frank and Heller (2003)

Mark S Blumberg et al. J Sleep Res. 2005 Mar.

Abstract

In a recent review, Frank and Heller (2003) provided support for their 'presleep theory' of sleep development. According to this theory, rapid eye movement (REM) and non-rapid eye movement (Non-REM) sleep in rats emerge from a common 'dissociated' state only when the neocortical EEG differentiates at 12 days of age (P12). Among the assumptions and inferences associated with this theory is that sleep before EEG differentiation is only 'sleep-like' and can only be characterized using behavioral measures; that the neural mechanisms governing presleep are distinct from those governing REM and Non-REM sleep; and that the presleep theory is the only theory that can account for developmental periods when REM and Non-REM sleep components appear to overlap. Evidence from our laboratory and others, however, refutes or casts doubt on these and other assertions. For example, infant sleep in rats is not 'sleep-like' in that it satisfies nearly every criterion used to characterize sleep across species. In addition, beginning as early as P2 in rats, myoclonic twitching occurs only against a background of muscle atonia, indicating that infant sleep is not dissociated and that electrographic measures are available for sleep characterization. Finally, improved techniques are leading to new insights concerning the neural substrates of sleep during early infancy. Thus, while many important developmental questions remain, the presleep theory, at least in its present form, does not accurately reflect the phenomenology of infant sleep.

PubMed Disclaimer

Comment on

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. Adrien J. Le sommeil du nouveau-ne. La Recherche. 1976;63:74–76.
    1. Arrigoni E, Rainnie DG, McCarley RW, Greene RW. Adenosine-mediated presynaptic modulation of glutamatergic transmission in the laterodorsal tegmentum. J Neurosci. 2001;21:1076–1085. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Ben-Ari Y. Excitatory actions of GABA during development: The nature of the nurture. Nature Reviews Neuroscience. 2002;3:728–739. - PubMed
    1. Blumberg MS, Lucas DE. Dual mechanisms of twitching during sleep in neonatal rats. Behav Neurosci. 1994;108:1196–1202. - PubMed
    1. Blumberg MS, Lucas DE. A developmental and component analysis of active sleep. Dev Psychobiol. 1996;29:1–22. - PubMed

Publication types