Abstract
Five Wistar rats were surgically implanted with cortical and parietal electrodes for conventional polysomnography to test for sleep-related EEG asymmetries during 48 hours of continuous recording. When the animals were grouped not according to right–left dominance (which would represent a population bias) but instead according to preferred vs non-preferred hemisphere, significant light/dark circadian changes in side dominance were found in delta power during NREM; in theta and beta power during REM; and in alpha 1, alpha 2, and theta power during wakefulness. The changes have been interpreted as a response to temporal variations in the capability to respond to environmental challenges.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
L. Gené performed the reported experiments under the direction of M. C. Nicolau and R. V. Rial. S. Esteban, J. González, Mourad Akâarir, and A. Gamundí collaborated in writing the report as well as in the analysis and discussion of the results. None of the signing authors have financial conflict of interest in relation with the results of the report. This work was performed thanks to a grant from the Ministerio de Ciencia y Tecnologia of the Spanish Government number BFI2002-04583-C02-02.