2-Minute Neuroscience: Sleepwalking
HTML-код
- Опубликовано: 3 ноя 2023
- Sleepwalking, or somnambulism, involves walking and other behaviors that are performed during incomplete arousal from sleep. In this video, I discuss some hypotheses about what happens in the brain to cause sleepwalking.
TRANSCRIPT:
Sleepwalking, or somnambulism, involves walking and other behaviors that are performed during incomplete arousal from sleep. Sleepwalking episodes can last for anywhere from a few seconds to longer than 30 minutes, and sleepwalking behaviors can vary in their complexity from basic behaviors such as pointing or walking around a room, to complicated procedures like getting dressed, cooking, or driving a car. Sleepwalkers may be difficult to arouse during a sleepwalking episode and confused when they awake from one, and they may have complete or partial amnesia for the episode. Sleepwalking occurs more frequently in children than in adults, but childhood sleepwalking is typically benign, while adult sleepwalking is more likely to result in injury to the sleepwalker or others.
During sleep, the brain transitions through several stages characterized by unique patterns of brain activity. Sleepwalking typically occurs during stage 3 non-rem sleep, also known as slow-wave sleep. The neuroscience underlying sleepwalking is not completely understood, but current evidence suggests that it may emerge from a coexistence of wake and sleep-like activity occurring in different parts of the brain at the same time. For example, some studies of sleepwalkers during sleepwalking episodes have found brain activity suggestive of wakefulness in areas like the motor cortex, which is involved with movement, but activity suggestive of slow wave sleep in areas involved in complex cognition and conscious awareness, such as the prefrontal cortex. This type of incongruity might explain why sleepwalkers move around with limited awareness of their actions.
Wake-like activity during sleep in other areas of the brain-such as those involved in emotional reactions-could explain other aspects of sleepwalking, such as the fact that many sleepwalkers report experiencing strong emotions associated with their episodes. On the other hand, persistence of sleep states in areas like the hippocampus, which is involved in memory consolidation, could explain why sleepwalkers sometimes do not remember the sleepwalking incident or certain aspects of it.
REFERENCES:
Arnulf I. Sleepwalking. Curr Biol. 2018 Nov 19;28(22):R1288-R1289. doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2018.09.062. Epub 2018 Nov 19. PMID: 30458142.
Zadra A, Desautels A, Petit D, Montplaisir J. Somnambulism: clinical aspects and pathophysiological hypotheses. Lancet Neurol. 2013 Mar;12(3):285-94. doi: 10.1016/S1474-4422(12)70322-8. PMID: 23415568.
Credit to cottonbro studios for photo of sleepwalker. 
Наука
I have sleepwalked for several years and it will increase during exam season because of stress or when I have gone to sleep hungry or haven't eaten properly in the day. it can last a couple of minutes-10 mins max. But, I will literally find things that I have lost or thought about in passing during the day or eat snacks or junk food that I was consciously restraining myself from eating. I will sleepwalk and talk- so I end up having full on conversations with my family members that I won't remember having, I'll start speaking different languages based off from foreign programs or documentaries I might have watched in the day or recently. Because of the sleepwalking and talking, I have to keep my phone switched off and put away when going to bed as I have answered calls and had full on conversations with random people in the past.😅
Lucid dreaming is also fascinating to understand neuroscientifically. Perhaps a potential video idea?
I have actually studied for some of my exams in my lucid dreams.
Good, concise overview and explanation.
I fucking love this channel
It would be really interesting if you make a video about differences between somnambulism and REM sleep behavior disorder.
I've considered doing one on REM sleep behavior disorder; I may do that at some point.
I sleep walk all the time, it started when I was 5 and I'm now over 50 and still sleep walk several times a week, I've been found cooking, standing in the middle of our back garden and even ironing 😂
That's so interesting. I hope you've never been injured in the process!
@@NeuroscientificallychallengedI've broken a few toes over the years and cut my eyebrow open walking in to a door 😂
Well I hope you continue to get away with nothing more serious!
Wasn’t there a case study of someone who lost their vision yet could still navigate themselves around spatially? Suggesting that there is this concious and unconcious vision processing?
And wouldn’t this unconcious vision processing then be a prerequisite for one to navigate themselves spatially during sleep walking?
Now I wonder if those who sleep walk have their eyes open or closed.
There is a phenomenon called blindsight where people have damage to the visual cortex and cannot "see" but still respond to visual stimuli, and there have been some cases where people with blindsight displayed some ability to navigate their environment.
Current perspectives on sleepwalking suggest that some areas of the brain are in a state more similar to wakefulness while other areas are in a state more similar to sleep, so it could be that this combination enables for some processing of visual information---enough to navigate the environment, even if it's in an uncoordinated manner. Sleepwalkers can sleepwalk with eyes closed or open.
Why I thought about this before going to bed and now I’m watching a video about it 😂
Would have thought intuitively that it would relate to the globus pallidus not suppressing the thalamus. Be hard to get someone to sleepwalk in an MRI, which is probably why we can only peice it together on from measurements on exterior brain structures. The emotional parts could be a spacial phenomenon, indicating a relationship with the Substantia Nigra.
Out of curiosity, are you doing research on this area ATM?
Yes, it is very difficult to capture brain activity during a sleepwalking episode. Most of the studies have used EEG, but there is one study where they used SPECT, which involves injecting a radioactively labeled substance and then measuring the gamma rays produced by the substance to track cerebral blood flow. They observed a sleepwalking participant, injected the radionuclide 24 seconds after the sleepwalking episode started, and found sleep-like activity in the frontal and parietal cortices and increased activity in the posterior cingulate and cerebellum. They also found no deactivation of the thalamus (as you suggested).
No, I'm not doing research in this area; I just find it interesting :)
@@Neuroscientificallychallenged I had a look at it. TBH, looks like the injection woke him up a bit 😂. The 2000 paper, right? I don't know about you, but I think we are long overdue on mapping the neurocorrelates of behaviour. Need a compulsory anonymized universal database for neuro-imaging studies to provide their data to.
0:58 if I hear or read "not completely understood" "still debated" etc one more time...... I'm still gonna be a huge nerd for psychopharmacology so it's fine.
Maybe a video on nsaids and they're effect on behavior (look into it)
It's difficult for me to make these videos without using phrases like that. The truth is we still don't understand much of what's going on when it comes to behavioral neuroscience, and I'd rather add the caveats than give anyone the impression I'm making definitive statements. Otherwise, I wouldn't feel like I were being true to the science and there's too much of that out there (on RUclips and elsewhere) already.