About Kai Schreiber Expertise Mostly questions specific to vision science and eye movements, with some expertise in general neuroscience and cognitive science. Strongest background in mathematical theory, modelling and the theory of perception, but I will try to answer anything that comes my way.
Experience Postdoc in Vision/Oculomotor research.
Organizations UC Berkeley
Publications Journal of Vision, Nature, IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Enginerring
Education/Credentials Dipl Phys (Universtität Tübingen), PhD (Physiology, Univeristy of Toronto), Graduate Program in Neuroscience (University of Toronto)
Expert: Kai Schreiber Date: 12/10/2007 Subject: PGO waves/ REM eye movements
Question Hi- Something i've always remembered and wondered about from my physiological psyc class (hope i've remembered correctly...):
When discussing the different brain waves (ie alpha, beta) you get to the PGO waves which are present in REM sleep, as I understand. PGOs go from pons to ..lateral geniculate nucleuss?.. to occipital lobe
(working hard to remember names)
the part that intrigues me is that they travel at the same frequency as your eye movements when dreaming. what does this mean?? (mean,as in signify) and is there any new info on dreaming in general? (ie pattern to the electricity in brain during dreams, correlation of elec impulses during dream to thinking of same images as in dream when awake?)
not sure that made much sense, and the dream part may be a bit tangential, but i'd be happy for info on any of the above
Answer Hi Leslie,
sorry for the delay. Happy holidays, and a happy new year, though :)
We do not yet understand sleep in general, or REM sleep very well, but it seems clear that the waves that travel through the brainstem are either directly causing the eye movements that lend their name to REM sleep, or they are a side effect of the process causing them. As to the meaning of it all, as far as I know it's not even clear what function the eye movements serve, or whether they are just a side effect. One possibility seems to be that while most other muscles need shutting down at night, so memory recall and dreaming doesn't make thge sleeper twitch or run, this might be less critical for eye movements, and so the evolutionary process that formed sleep didn't bother to shut them down. If my anthropomorphizing evolution can be forgiven.
But I should add that I am no expert on sleep. Take what I say with a grain of salt.
