(ORDO NEWS) — According to a new study by scientists from the University of California at Los Angeles and Tel Aviv University, some areas of the brain responsible for the perception of sound continue to perceive the signal.
We hear, but the higher centers of the brain do not respond to sound. In contrast to the state of wakefulness, alpha-beta rhythms subside in sleep.
Our hearing remains active even during sleep. But our brain does not “understand” what we hear.
Neuroscientists from the University of California at Los Angeles and Tel Aviv University conducted a study of the activity of the cerebral cortex of patients with epilepsy.
In these patients, an implant is placed on the cerebral cortex to localize the site of seizure activity for subsequent surgical intervention. In the meantime, patients are connected to a computer through an implant, neuroscientists love them very much.
With the consent of the patients, the scientists played the words and music when the person was awake and when they were fast asleep.
One of the pieces of music selected for the study was Mozart’s “Little Night Serenade” played from bedside speakers.
The study lasted 7 years and showed that during sleep the auditory cortex clearly responds to sound, and its reaction is almost the same as during wakefulness. But there is an important difference: alpha-beta rhythms subside during sleep.
The damping of these waves is what distinguishes sleep from wakefulness. The higher centers of the brain are disabled and cannot understand speech or predict an event.
What do we hear when we hear nothing
Dr. Itzhak Fried, co-author of the study and director of the UCLA Epilepsy Surgery Program, says : “Neurons never stop listening to environmental sounds, even when a person is in deep sleep.
Neurons are like musicians playing Mozart, each with great precision and just the right volume. But in their dreams they lack a conductor.”
Dr. Freed notes that the results of the study help to understand how information is processed by people in an unconscious state – patients in a coma or under anesthesia.
Understanding how the brain works during sleep can suggest ways to improve memory through auditory stimulation during sleep, when the brain is consolidating recently received information.
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