In the last few decades, scientists have discovered that far from being a time of neural silence, sleep is characterized by complex patterns of electrical, neurochemical, and metabolic activity in the brain. Sleep and the Brain presents some of the more dramatic developments in our understanding of brain activity in sleep. The book discusses what parts of the brain are active in sleep and how, and presents research on the function of sleep in memory, learning, and further brain development. Coverage encompasses the network and membrane mechanisms responsible for waking and sleeping brain activity, the roles of glial cells in the sleeping brain, the molecular basis of sleep EEG rhythms, and research on songbirds, rodents, and humans indicating the function of sleep.
