Sleeping with Half a Brain (2016)

Author: walterbell

Score: 29

Comments: 12

Date: 2020-11-06 07:04:19

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_Microft wrote at 2020-11-06 09:56:42:

This is interesting.

_"When the deviant tone is played to the left ear, its output is predominantly relayed to the right cortical hemisphere, which shows the characteristic vigilance response."_

_"During the first night, the left hemisphere had a more pronounced vigilance response to these deviant tones as compared with the right hemisphere."_

I wonder if there is something to find out with regard to sleeping position. Do we sleep on our right side to cover the right ear for less disturbed sleep? Or rather on the left, to not cover the right ear if we feel the environment is not safe?

Is the preference for the right ear maybe related to the preference for right-handedness in humans? Lying on the left side would leave both the right ('more vigilant') ear and the stronger arm and hand unconstrained, the latter maybe needed for sudden defense?

Just a few thoughts, pick them apart.

meowface wrote at 2020-11-06 11:23:21:

Interesting ideas. This also makes me wonder if the study considered potential differences in left-handed and right-handed participants. (Can't currently find a free copy of the paper.) Maybe there's a chance that the left hemisphere could be the more vigilant one for right-handed people and the right hemisphere could be the more vigilant one for left-handed people.

_Microft wrote at 2020-11-06 13:22:35:

There is a link to the paper "Night Watch in One Brain Hemisphere during Sleep Associated with the First-Night Effect in Humans" below the article.

[PDF]

https://www.cell.com/current-biology/pdfExtended/S0960-9822(...

-- DOI:10.1016/j.cub.2016.02.063

wombatmobile wrote at 2020-11-06 13:11:49:

This 2007 study, whilst not specifically investigating FNE, found handedness in rats is reflected in specific, regional EEG asymmetry during sleep.

Handedness leads to interhemispheric EEG asymmetry during sleep in the rat

V V Vyazovskiy, I Tobler

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/18077659/

wombatmobile wrote at 2020-11-06 12:56:27:

The researchers call the vigilant mode First Night Effect (FNE) because it is transient, diminishing after the subject gains familiarity with the new environment.

I wonder how FNE varies according to the risk nature of the environment. For example, a fine hotel in Aspen compared with homelessness on the streets of San Francisco.

It is an obvious conjecture that the vigilance ought to persist in the higher risk environment. If so, I wonder (a) how the effect might vary over time in the high risk environment, and (b) what health consequences ensue from chronic FNE?

brna wrote at 2020-11-06 09:59:02:

I was thinking a lot on this topic in the last few months,

Jumping out from sleep to check on my kid between 3 and 10 times a night, I noticed that I can awake fully, or not, depending on a conscious decision.

It would be great to track that scientifically.

fjfaase wrote at 2020-11-06 12:17:54:

I guess when you decide to stay only somewhat awake it is because if causes you to immediately fall asleep again.

naringas wrote at 2020-11-06 12:56:35:

"Animals are not the only creatures who can be literally half asleep. Research shows we experience this, too"

but we are animals too!

why does everybody love to forget this??

wombatmobile wrote at 2020-11-06 13:15:15:

This fiction makes it simpler for humans to appropriate land and labor from non-humans.

whynotminot wrote at 2020-11-06 14:38:24:

Going down this road, the non-human animal kingdom is a fantastically cruel place. If humans are also just other animals, Why do you expect us to be any different?

rhn_mk1 wrote at 2020-11-06 15:22:32:

"Expect"? No. "Demand"? Because humans already did many other unprecedented things.

UI_at_80x24 wrote at 2020-11-06 15:19:52:

And those humans that are 'Other'.