Abstract
Overnight polygraphic recordings were performed on 6 subjects who had normal diurnal waking and sleep EEGs and no significant findings on neurological examination. These individuals displayed prominent physiologic “positive occipital sharp transients of sleep” (POSTS) which were visually counted and related to the nocturnal sleep cycle. POSTS were numerous during all stages of NREM sleep and occurred more frequently during stages 2 and 3 than 1 and 4. On the contrary, they were absent or very rare during REM sleep. Striking similarities existed between these potentials and the lambda waves (LWs) occurring in waking subjects intent at visually exploring an illuminated patterned field. The hypothesis is proposed that POSTS of human subjects might indicate that some form of “playback” of information takes place during NREM sleep in cortical areas related to vision. The purpose of this postulated playback might be to re-examine vast amounts of visual material collected during the day, perhaps with the intent of sorting, analyzing further and compressing novel, relevant data for long-term memory storage while simultaneously rejecting redundant and/or irrelevant information.
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