Sleep loss maintenance

Armodafinil was initially evaluated in healthy volunteers undergoing acute sleep loss using the maintenance of wakefulness test (MWT) and psychomoter vigilance testing (PVT).25 In this single-dose, double-blind, parallel group trial,... 

Maintenance of these frequencies relies on the degree of depolarisation of the thalamic neurons (Jahnsen and Elinas 1985) and this, in turn, depends on the nature and intensity of their afferent inputs. The NspRTN and other thalamic nuclei receive reciprocal inputs from the cortex and it is possible that it is the ensuing oscillations in neuronal activity in this circuit between the cortex and thalamus that give rise to the sleep spindle waves in stages 2-4. In fact, it has been suggested that the stronger and clearer these oscillations become, the more likely it is that there will be loss of consciousness. 

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