NEUR 001 Lecture Notes - Lecture 23: Very High Frequency, Sleep Spindle, Alpha Wave
Document Summary
We can study sleep, consciousness and epilepsy with a surface eeg. Beta waves (or rhythm) alert: high frequency (15-30 hz), low amplitude, occur when awake, alert, actively thinking, desynchrony across brain areas when actively thinking. This is because we use different brain areas to solve different problems. Gamma waves (or rhythm) shifting attention: very high frequency (30-90 hz), low amplitude, occur when highly attentive or not, we see these when someone is shifting their attention. It"s easy to wake up in the first few seconds of sleep. If you are consciously unaware that you are asleep, and if you wake up seconds later, it can be very dangerous, especially if you"re driving. Stages 1: 15-20 minutes: eeg pattern irregular, theta waves (lower frequency, 4-7 hz), higher amplitude, easily awoken. Stage 2: there are irregularities that are seen, sleep spindles - spikey and fast wave form.
