Experimental results. Issue 3

T3.2 Sleep (IFADO, UMI, STA): We will explore if lucid dreaming, which is a unique consciousness model in which primary consciousness – normally present during sleep – is transferred to the secondary mode of consciousness, is associated with specific FC alterations beyond regional prefrontal changes as demonstrated recently (Voss2014). We will systematically modulate connectivity to explore if these physiological processes are causally related to lucidity and to which degree specific FC patterns (frequency bands, synchrony) contribute. Oscillatory activity and connectivity will be studied with the advanced EEG models developed in WP1, and interventional stimulation will be performed. We will monitor sleep-dependent alterations of oscillatory activity with specific relation to FC alterations depending on relaxed wakefulness, drowsiness, light sleep, deep slow wave sleep, and REM-sleep in healthy subjects. The results will provide the basis for testing causality via tCS. We will explore consciousness modulation in healthy subjects as well as in patients suffering from sleep disturbance syndromes, i.e., psychophysiological insomnia states, and narcolepsy. The results of this study will elucidate how states of consciousness can be modulated by NIBS, and whether/how pathological alterations of state changes can be counteracted [IFADO]. PCI-based experiments will be conducted on healthy sleeping subjects in order to find the optimal stimulation parameters that are effective in reducing the magnitude and the rate of occurrence of spontaneously occurring and evoked (NIBS, somatosensory, visual, auditory) cortical downstates. It will also allow testing whether tCS, by reducing bistability, may affect the level of consciousness by promoting a sleep stage transition (e.g., from sleep stage N1 to wakefulness, from dreaming to lucid dreaming). [UMI]