Human cerebral potentials associated with REM sleep rapid eye movements: links to PGO waves and waking potentials.

Eye movement triggered averaging and topographic display techniques indicate the presence of parieto-occipital potentials that precede the rapid eye movements of human REM sleep. Since these potentials have strong similarities with PGO waves in animals, including lateralization according to eye movement (EM) direction, and with waking EM-antecedent potentials in man, this suggests that PGO-like activity both exists in man, and may be functionally related to EM-antecedent potentials in waking. The ability to detect such central potentials opens the possibility of studying REM sleep central physiological structure in a variety of normal and pathological conditions in humans.