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Ontogenetic variations in auditory arousal threshold during sleep
KEITH A. BUSBY,
LISE MERCIER, R. T. PIVIK,
KEITH A. BUSBY
Department of Psychiatry and School of Psychology, University of Ottawa and Ottawa General Hospital, and Institute of Mental Health Research, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
Search for more papers by this authorCorresponding Author
R. T. PIVIK
Department of Psychiatry and School of Psychology, University of Ottawa and Ottawa General Hospital, and Institute of Mental Health Research, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
Department of Physiology, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
Address reprint requests to: Dr. R. T. Pivik and C. Lussier, Department of Psychiatry, Ottawa General Hospital, 501 Smyth Road, Ottawa, Ontario KIH 8L6, Canada.Search for more papers by this authorKEITH A. BUSBY,
LISE MERCIER, R. T. PIVIK,
KEITH A. BUSBY
Department of Psychiatry and School of Psychology, University of Ottawa and Ottawa General Hospital, and Institute of Mental Health Research, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
Search for more papers by this authorCorresponding Author
R. T. PIVIK
Department of Psychiatry and School of Psychology, University of Ottawa and Ottawa General Hospital, and Institute of Mental Health Research, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
Department of Physiology, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
Address reprint requests to: Dr. R. T. Pivik and C. Lussier, Department of Psychiatry, Ottawa General Hospital, 501 Smyth Road, Ottawa, Ontario KIH 8L6, Canada.Search for more papers by this authorThis research was supported by grants from the Medical Research Council of Canada and the Ontario Mental Health Research Foundation to R.T.P. We thank R. Nevins and C. Lussier for technical assistance.
Abstract
Developmental variations in auditory arousal thresholds during sleep were investigated in four groups of normal male subjects - children, preadolescents, adolescents, and young adults. Arousal thresholds were determined during NREM and REM sleep for tones presented via earphone insert on a single night following two adaptation nights of undisturbed sleep. Age-related relationships were observed for both awakening frequency and stimulus intensity required to effect awakening, with awakenings occurring more frequently in response to lower stimulus intensities with increasing age. Although stimulus intensities required for awakening were high and statistically equivalent across sleep stages in nonadults, higher intensity stimuli were required in Stage 4 relative to Stage 2 and REM sleep in adults. These results confirm previous observations of marked resistance to awakening during sleep in preadolescent children and suggest that processes underlying awakening from sleep undergo systematic modification during ontogenetic development.
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