Being awake while sleeping, being asleep while awake: consequences on cognition and consciousness
Saturday, November 20, 2021
02:00 UTC
Dr Thomas Andrillon
Paris Brain Institute
Recording
Open recording
Hosted by Consciousness Club Tokyo70 minutes
Abstract
Sleep is classically presented as an all-or-nothing phenomenon. Yet, there is increasing evidence showing that sleep and wakefulness can actually intermingle and that wake-like and sleep-like activity can be observed concomitantly in different brain regions. I will here explore the implications of this conception of sleep as a local phenomenon for cognition and consciousness. In the first part of my presentation, I will show how local modulations of sleep depth during sleep could support the processing of sensory information by sleepers. I will also how, under certain circumstances, sleepers can learn while sleeping but also how they can forget. In the second part, I will show how the reverse phenomenon, sleep intrusions during waking, can explain modulations of attention. I will focus in particular on modulations of subjective experience and how the local sleep framework can inform our understanding of everyday phenomena such as mind wandering and mind blanking. Through this presentation and the exploration of both sleep and wakefulness, I will seek to connect changes in neurophysiology with changes in behaviour and subjective experience.
Topics
Related Seminars
SeminarSeminarSeminar
Finding Meaning in Memories
Daphna Shohamy and Ashok Litwin-Kumar bridge experimental and computational neuroscience to explain how the brain assigns significance to memories, how dopamine shapes memory-guided decisions, and…
Upcoming · Sep 16, 2026
Columbia University Zuckerman Institute
Deciphering the Dynamics of the Unconscious Brain under General Anesthesia
Stanford Neurosciences Seminar Series talk by Emery Brown (Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Neuroscience Statistics Research Lab) on deciphering the dynamics of the unconscious brain under…
Upcoming · Sep 17, 2026
Wu Tsai Neurosciences Institute, Stanford University
The Connectome in Use: From anatomical wiring to functional organization in the behaving C. elegans brain
Rani Borbara presents brain-wide recordings from more than 150 freely moving C. elegans to examine how anatomical connectivity becomes functional organization during behavior. Cross-animal models…
Upcoming · Sep 18, 2026
MIT Simons Center for the Social Brain
Related Job Opportunities
JobJobJob
Research Associate (Fixed Term)
We seek a highly motivated Postdoctoral Research Associate to join the laboratory of Professor Kathy Niakan. We are based in the Loke Centre for Trophoblast Research (LCTR), in the Department of…
Posted Aug 11, 2026
Postdoctoral Scientist - Sarvestani Lab
The Sarvestani Lab at Cornell University is recruiting a postdoctoral scientist in systems neuroscience to study how visual and motor systems across the brain and body support perception and…
Posted Aug 12, 2026
Ithaca, New York, United States
PhD Studentship: Mitochondrial Metabolism and Novel Therapeutic Strategies for Metabolic Dysfunction-Associated Steatotic Liver Disease (MASLD) (Fixed Term)
Supervisors: Professor Andrew Murray, Department of Physiology, Development and Neuroscience, University of Cambridge Dr Ross Lindsay, Novo Nordisk Funding: Fully funded PhD studentship (Home/UK…
Posted Aug 10, 2026