Semantic analysis of auditory input during sleep: studies with event related potentials

Abstract

This review summarises the results of event-related potentials studies exploring the extent to which the human brain can extract semantic information from external stimuli during sleep. The persistence of a differential response to the subject's own name, relative to any other proper name, during stage 2 (S2) and paradoxical (REM) sleep (PS) suggests that the brain remains able to discriminate an intrinsically relevant word during these sleep stages. The similarities and the differences between these sleep cognitive responses and the waking P300 are stressed, and the functional significance of this component discussed especially in relation with consciousness and memory of the stimulus. Recent studies of the ‘N400’ potential evoked by semantically incongruous words, have shown that this component may be also elicited during S2 and PS, indicating preserved detection of semantic discordance during these sleep stages. However, linguistic incongruity appears to be processed in a different manner during PS than during waking, since words devoid of meaning (pseudo-words), which are detected as anomalous and evoke N400 during waking, yielded responses similar to those of congruous words in PS. All these data support the view that some semantic analysis of auditory stimuli remains possible in the human sleeping brain, and warrant further studies to elucidate the extent and limits of these capabilities.