{"doi":"10.1098/rsos.160201","title":"Global field synchronization reveals rapid eye movement sleep as most synchronized brain state in the human EEG","abstract":"<jats:p>Sleep is characterized by a loss of consciousness, which has been attributed to a breakdown of functional connectivity between brain regions. Global field synchronization (GFS) can estimate functional connectivity of brain processes. GFS is a frequency-dependent measure of global synchronicity of multi-channel EEG data. Our aim was to explore and extend the hypothesis of disconnection during sleep by comparing GFS spectra of different vigilance states. The analysis was performed on eight healthy adult male subjects. EEG was recorded during a baseline night, a recovery night after 40 h of sustained wakefulness and at 3 h intervals during the 40 h of wakefulness. Compared to non-rapid eye movement (NREM) sleep, REM sleep showed larger GFS values in all frequencies except in the spindle and theta bands, where NREM sleep showed a peak in GFS. Sleep deprivation did not affect GFS spectra in REM and NREM sleep. Waking GFS values were lower compared with REM and NREM sleep except for the alpha band. Waking alpha GFS decreased following sleep deprivation in the eyes closed condition only. Our surprising finding of higher synchrony during REM sleep challenges the view of REM sleep as a desynchronized brain state and may provide insight into the function of REM sleep.</jats:p>","journal":"Royal Society Open 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König","orcid":null,"position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":198601,"name":"Leila Tarokh","orcid":"0000-0003-4014-428X","position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":198597,"name":"Peter Achermann","orcid":"0000-0002-0208-3511","position":0,"is_corresponding":false}],"reference_count":0,"raw_metadata":{"has_enrichment":true,"base_score":3.4339872044851463,"endowment":3.4339872044851463,"datacite_reuse_total":8,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"views":0,"has_version_chain":false,"is_dataset":false,"is_oa":false,"pmid":"27853537","pmcid":"PMC5098962","openalex_id":"https://openalex.org/W2530382596","authors":[],"funders":[{"funder_name":"Swiss National Science Foundation","grant_id":"32003B_146643","title":null},{"funder_name":"Swiss National Science Foundation","grant_id":"CRSII3_136249","title":null},{"funder_name":"Swiss National Science Foundation","grant_id":"146643","title":"Sleep onset and other state transitions: insights from quantitative EEG analysis"},{"funder_name":"Swiss 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disease"}],"total_grants":4,"fwci":2.354,"citation_percentile":0.88222509,"influential_citations":2,"citation_trend":[{"year":2017,"count":3},{"year":2018,"count":8},{"year":2019,"count":3},{"year":2020,"count":1},{"year":2021,"count":2},{"year":2022,"count":2},{"year":2023,"count":3},{"year":2024,"count":6},{"year":2025,"count":1},{"year":2026,"count":1}],"oa_status":"gold","license":"cc-by","oa_locations":[{"url":"https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.160201","host_type":"journal"},{"url":"https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.160201","host_type":"GOLD"},{"url":"https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.160201","host_type":"publisher"},{"url":"https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/pdf/10.1098/rsos.160201","host_type":"publisher"},{"url":"https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/full-xml/10.1098/rsos.160201","host_type":"publisher"},{"url":"https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27853537","host_type":"repository"},{"url":"https://boris.unibe.ch/89462/","host_type":"repository"},{"url":"https://doaj.org/article/9b5bf32ed36a49da8a65db0cfb520f7f","host_type":"repository"},{"url":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/5098962","host_type":"repository"},{"url":"http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11850/124190","host_type":"repository"},{"url":"https://doi.org/10.3929/ethz-b-000124190","host_type":"repository"},{"url":"https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC5098962","host_type":"Europe_PMC"},{"url":"https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC5098962?pdf=render","host_type":"Europe_PMC"},{"url":"https://dx.doi.org/10.3929/ethz-b-000124190","host_type":""},{"url":"https://dx.doi.org/10.5167/uzh-127091","host_type":""},{"url":"https://dx.doi.org/10.7892/boris.89462","host_type":""},{"url":"http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsos.160201","host_type":""},{"url":"https://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsos.160201","host_type":""},{"url":"https://sonar.ch/global/documents/268328","host_type":""},{"url":"https://doi.org/10.5167/uzh-127091","host_type":""},{"url":"https://www.zora.uzh.ch/id/eprint/127091/","host_type":""}],"fields_of_study":["EEG and Brain-Computer Interfaces","Neural dynamics and brain function","Functional Brain Connectivity Studies","Medicine","03 medical and health sciences","0302 clinical medicine"],"mesh_terms":[],"keywords":["Non-rapid eye movement sleep","Sleep spindle","Delta wave","Sleep deprivation","Electroencephalography","Wakefulness","K-complex","Sleep (system call)","Psychology","Neuroscience","Rapid eye movement sleep","Eye movement","Slow-wave sleep","Neuroscience of sleep","Audiology","Medicine","Circadian rhythm","Computer science","EEG","Sleep","Global Field Synchrony","1000 Multidisciplinary","Science","Q","10050 Institute of Pharmacology and Toxicology","610 Medicine & health","Psychology and Cognitive Neuroscience","570 Life sciences; biology","610 Medicine &amp; health","Sleep; EEG; Global field synchrony; Rapid eye movement sleep"],"sdg_mappings":[],"linked_datasets":[{"doi":"10.6084/m9.figshare.c.3491553.v1","title":"Supplementary material from \"Global field synchronization reveals 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