Conditioned motor responses at different stages of normal nocturnal sleep in man and their electrographic correlates.

Abstract

1. In stages 2 and 3 and the REM stage of sleep a motor conditioned response formed during wakefulness can be performed. 2. In the paradoxical phase of sleep a motor conditioned response arises more often than in slow-wave sleep, it has a minimal latent period, but is most reduced. 3. Elevation of the level of the functional state of the cortex before the action of the conditioned stimulus is an essential condition for appearance of a conditioned motor response during sleep. 4. In stages 2 and 3 and the REM stage of sleep, performance of a completed motor response is recorded in consciousness. 5. Amnesia of perception of the conditioned stimulus and the motor response is weaker in the paradoxical phase of sleep than in slow-wave sleep.