Onset of cerebral electrical activity associated with behavioral sleep and attention in the developing chick

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Abstract
Bipolar electrical recordings from the cerebral lobes of chick embryos and of freely moving chicks after hatching indicate that spontaneous electrical activity begins about the eleventh to thirteenth day of incubation, but electroencephalographic patterns characteristic of behavioral sleep or attention appear within six hours after hatching. High amplitude, slow waves, are characteristic of behavioral sleep; low amplitude, fast waves are characteristic of behavioral attention. During sleeping postures the electroencephalographic record shows brief cyclic episodes of lower voltage fast waves (paradoxical sleep) and these cycles appear more definitely as the chick grows older. When the act of waking from sleep is associated with the opening of only one eye, the lower voltage, fast waves may appear only in the contralateral lobe, while the ipsilateral lobe shows the high amplitude slow waves. In the less mature chicks, the electrical waves are slower, less regular, and of smaller amplitude, especially during sleep, furthermore the cyclic episodes of activated sleep are less distinct and the span of attention is more brief. Although chick embryos may move following tactile stimulation, the response is probably due to reflex arcs involving lower nervous centers since the cerebral lobes do not show the transition to lower voltage faster waves characteristic of attention. After hatching electroencephalographic patterns associated with sleeping postures show more conspicuous developmental changes than those associated with attention.

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