Electroencephalography and clinical neurophysiology
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Electroencephalogr Clin Neurophysiol · May 1988
The cyclic alternating pattern sequences in the dynamic organization of sleep.
The cyclic alternating pattern (CAP) is a physiological component of normal NREM sleep, functionally correlated with long-lasting arousal oscillations. This EEG periodic activity, organized in sequences of two or more decasecond cycles, is detectable also in coma and in other neurologic disorders, appearing as a general modality of arousal organization. Within NREM sleep, the fluctuations of CAP alternate with sustained homogeneous EEG patterns, characterized by a greater stability of arousal and called non-CAP (NCAP). ⋯ Moreover, almost 50% of all NREM stage changes were accompanied by CAP sequences. The EEG and dynamic features of CAP sequences show morphological and behavioural analogies with some phasic phenomena (i.e., phase d'activation transitoire or micro-arousals) and EEG patterns reported in the literature (e.g., tracé alternant; phase transitionnelles; tracé intermittent). Our data suggest a functional correlation between the control mechanisms of CAP and the organization of sleep.