Introduction to the neurophysiological study of sleep: central regulation of skeletal and ocular activities.

Abstract

This paper investigates the historical evolution of the major experimental results in the field of the central mechanisms underlying the skeletal motor activities and the eye movements during sleep. First, the neurophysiological background of paradoxical sleep atonia and paradoxical sleep without atonia was examined. Then, the analysis was directed to the eye movements in humans and animals, their central command processes and their correlative electrophysiological activities: ponto-geniculo-occipital waves and eye movement potentials.