Localized and lateralized cerebral glucose metabolism associated with eye movements during REM sleep and wakefulness: a positron emission tomography (PET) study

In order to study the neural substrate for eye movements during rapid eye movement (REM) sleep, we analyzed the positron emission tomography (18Fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography) scan data obtained from normal subjects. Eye movement data were available on nine subjects studied during nighttime REM sleep and six control subjects studied during waking as they periodically moved their eyes. The number of eye movements during REM sleep was positively correlated with glucose metabolic rate in the areas corresponding to (a) the saccadic eye movement system (frontal eye field and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, statistically significant only on the right side), (b) the midline attentional system (cingulate and medial frontal cortex, precuneus) and (c) the parietal visual spatial attentional system (bilateral superior parietal lobules, right inferior parietal lobule); and negatively correlated with relative metabolic rate in the left inferior parietal lobule. Positive correlations between waking eye movements and metabolic rate were observed in the same areas except inferior parietal lobule. Our results show that the same cortical areas are involved in eye movements in both REM sleep and wakefulness and suggest that REM sleep eye movements are saccadic scans of targets in the dream scene. Our data also suggest right hemispheric specialization in saccadic eye movement control and reciprocal inhibition in the contralateral homologous area during higher cortical functioning.