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The organization of sleep and wakefulness after maternal separation in young rats
Author(s) -
Hofer Myron A.
Publication year - 1976
Publication title -
developmental psychobiology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.055
H-Index - 93
eISSN - 1098-2302
pISSN - 0012-1630
DOI - 10.1002/dev.420090212
Subject(s) - wakefulness , psychology , sleep (system call) , slow wave sleep , developmental psychology , period (music) , circadian rhythm , audiology , neuroscience , endocrinology , electroencephalography , medicine , physics , acoustics , operating system , computer science
Two‐week‐old infant rats were studied before and after 24 hr of maternal absence. This experience produced an increase in time spent awake, a reduction in time spent in paradoxical sleep (PS), and an increased frequency of state transitions with more frequent and shorter periods of both slow‐wave sleep (SWS) and PS. Body movements were increased and nonnutritive sucking decreased during PS after separation. Other aspects of sleep organization were relatively stable: the pattern of probability of direction of state transitions, the integration of the physiological and behavioral determinants of state, the pattern and amount of nonnutritive sucking, and the underlying PS cycle period. These findings, and the results of 2 control experiments, suggest that some aspects of the prolonged absence of the mother produce a shift in the infant'apos;s central neutral state regulation through processes yet to be understood.