[A correlation between k-complex and auditory evoked potential (ARP) during the slow wave sleep (stage 3) in man...

For this study, sleep EEG of eleven healthy adult subjects ranged from 25 to 30 years of age were observed during stage 3 and evoked K-complex and AEP were both concordantly recorded to investigate the correlation between latencies of s-components in the K-complexes and N4-components in the AEPs during stage 3. The results obtained were as follow: (1) Three distinct components of K-complex such as sharp wave, slow wave (s-component) and burst wave of 12-14 c/sec were found almost constantly during stage 3. (2) It can be concluded that the evoked K-complexes (s-components) in the EEG were almost equivalent to the AEPs (N4-components) if both were concordantly recorded time-locked to click stimuli which were presented every 10 sec with 15 decibels during stage 3. (3) S-component of K-complex such as slow wave was attributed to the impulse bombardment of the nucleus reticularis thalami which is a frequency gate following the hypothesis of Scheibel, M.E. and Scheibel, A.B..